Why Arts And The Humanities

I graduated in 2025 and am now a first-year medical student at Georgetown University Medical School. I was in the College and I majored in Anthropology and minored in STIA with a concentration in Biotechnology and Global Health. I was most interested in medical anthropology, and I ended up writing my thesis looking at the integration of palliative care and neurology regarding patients diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis as an ethnography centered around MedStar Georgetown’s Neurology Department. I also went to Madagascar for a study abroad and worked with an ethnobotanist looking at the dynamics and relationship between traditional medicine and hospital medicine in the region. 

Medical Humanities is one of my true passions that exemplifies how medicine is both an art and a science. The stories we are privileged and honored to know from patients and the knowledge that is passed down through clinician mentoring are firmly rooted in the humanities. I truly believe it is not possible to be a competent physician without engaging with the arts and the humanities alongside science. 

I am extremely excited to continue forward in medical school and work on more clinical ethnographies at Georgetown. My next project involves neurophenomenology as a mechanism to prepare patients with chronic and acute neurological conditions to adapt to new life circumstances after diagnosis.