VOLVOX: Making Narrative Medicine Happen Alumni Speaker Series

Listening Both Ways: Joining Narrative & Structural Competence for Health Justice with Brianna Cusanno CPA '20

Narrative medicine is deeply committed to listening to stories of injustice and forming bonds of affiliation to create social change. Yet, narrative medicine does not always incorporate analysis of social location and structure. This workshop presents a novel curriculum that integrates structural competency—a movement that analyzes the root causes of health inequities and equips practitioners to act for structural change— with narrative medicine. By joining narrative medicine and structural competency, learners become skilled in listening closely to individual stories while maintaining awareness of how personal stories fit within macro landscapes of structural in/justice. This workshop will cover the design of a curriculum for pre-health undergraduate students, course evaluation strategies, and results of preliminary evaluations. We also look forward to hearing and discussing your perspectives, challenges, and approaches to teaching and learning about health in/justice through narrative medicine.