St Mary's Hosts Seminar Exploring Poetry in Teaching Medicine

On Monday 8th December the School of Arts and Humanities at St Mary’s University, Twickenham will host a research seminar led by Dr Trevor Stammers. The seminar ‘Allusions of Healing? Poetry in Teaching Medicine and Bioethics’ will explore Walt Whitman’s first published and most famous work Leaves of Grass, in particular his parentheses (bracketed text) which frequently punctuate his poems. Dr Stammers aims to illustrate ways in which Whitman’s poems, as well as others, can speak to us about the meaning of compassion. Trevor, Programme Director for Bioethics and Medical Law said, "I was very pleased to be asked to contribute to the Oxford University "Compassion in Healthcare" knowledge exchange recently at a meeting in the Radcliffe Research Centre in the Humanities. I have been interested for many years in the possibilities that poetry offers for education in the caring professions. I took as the central theme in my session the comments in parentheses in Walt Whitman's The Wound Dresser and illustrated how these are not tangential asides but form a window into Whitman's soul which can teach the reader much about the nature and exercising of compassion"