Rita Charon, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Clinical Medicine and Director of the Program in Narrative Medicine at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. A general internist with a primary care practice in Presbyterian Hospital, Dr. Charon completed her Ph.D. in English when she realized how central storytelling and listening to stories are to the work of doctors and patients. She directs the Humanities and Medicine curriculum for P&S and teaches literature, narrative ethics, and medical interviewing. She is the former editor-in-chief of the journal
Literature and Medicine, and Principal Investigator on research projects that study patient-physician communication and the outcomes of narrative training for medical students and health professionals. Her work in narrative medicine has been recognized by the Association of American Medical Colleges, the American College of Physicians, the Society for Health and Human Values, and the Society of General Internal Medicine. For more about Dr. Charon's work, see
here.
Dr. Charon’s visit to the University of Texas is co-sponsored by the UT Humanities Institute, which has appointed her the 2016 C.L. and Henriette Cline Centennial Visiting Professor in the Humanities