May 14, 2018
In partnership with the Humanities Center and involving three courses from different departments, Hippocrates Café visited Carleton for a performance that examined questions of public health through performing arts. By using performing arts as its chosen medium, Hippocrates Café seeks to engage audiences of all backgrounds in a discussion focused on healthcare.
For the Carleton performance, students in Biology 370: “Selected Topics in Virology” (Herman and Gertrude Mosier Stark Professor of Biology and the Natural Sciences Debby Walser-Kuntz), History 262: “Public Health: History, Policy, and Practice” (Associate Professor of History Amna Khalid), and Religion 224: “Religion, Science, and Modern Imagination” (Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion Mara Block) researched the ethics of healthcare and the impact of inequality of health. This was then given to the performers, who incorporated the research into their performance.
During the performance, Hippocrates Café shared harrowing personal accounts written about leprosy, the Black Death, AIDS, and how these epidemics touched personal lives and impacted society. The performance guided the audience through multiple periods of public health crises through spoken word and music, helping make large-scale issues easier to process.
