To conclude our second season, we had a wonderful conversation with Dr. Sayantani DasGupta (physican-scholar and children’s author, Columbia University). We spoke with Sayantani about her work in health humanities/narrative medicine, particularly her work at the intersection of narrative, health and social justice. We also talked about the importance of pedagogy in her scholarly work, and the impact of her identity as a children’s and YA author to her scholarship, and vice versa.

Here are some of our key takeaway messages from the conversation and some good reasons why you should listen to the podcast to find out more about Sayantani’s inspiring work.

Scholars are students at heart

Sayantani introduced herself to us as a “perpetual student”, whose important contributions to health and medical humanities build on the work of others. There is something radical about putting the idea of “being a student” at the heart of scholarship – and doing so serves as an inspiration for fruitful interdisciplinary interaction and exchange.

Through our conversations, we hope to create a space that stimulates meaningful dialogue between people working across arts & humanities and healthcare & medicine. Quite a few of our conversations have dealt with the nervousness that people may feel as they move into this space – and how easy it is to feel like an imposter. These feelings of uneasiness are intensified because scholarly practice is so often conceived and valued along the lines of competition.

We might therefore be tempted to see the “good scholar” as a researcher who outcompetes others at knowledge production and value generation. Meeting people across disciplines and professions is certainly cause for nervousness in this framework – because you will no doubt meet people who know more than you (about things you may not even have heard about before). However, Sayantani reminded us that the openness to learn from others is not just a quality we should value in our students, but also in ourselves as scholars. If we approach interdisciplinary interaction and exchange from this perspective, we no longer need to feel nervous about what we don’t know.

The value of theory to practice

Students in arts & humanities typically receive an education where critical theory takes a central role. The value of critical theory to practice, including medical practice, may not always be evident to everyone. Sayantani offered the example of treating diabetes as reminder that practice without theory may prevent truly meaningful action. In the case of diabetes treatments, without the framework of structural competence theory, we risk overlooking the impact of structural determinants like where people live and the cost of insulin.

As our conversation unfolded, Sayantani introduced several theoretical concepts from her research that demonstrate the power to shape action by clarifying thought. We talked about how adopting an attitude of “narrative humility” in patient-clinician encounters is crucial to truly listen to someone’s story.  We also learned more about the coining of the phrase “abolition medicine”, which sheds light on the issue of inadequate race-based diagnostic tools and treatment guidelines.

Perhaps the greatest joy in our conversation was the chance we got to experience how central ideas from Sayantani’ s scholarly practice also animate her practice as a children’s and YA author. Sayantani read to us from her book, The Force of Fire – a fantasy tale set in world based on Bengali folklore. This led us to discussing how fantasy and sci-fi can serve as tools to interrogate issues such as colonialism and injustice and our own reality. Of course, there’s no way our summary can capture the vividness of Sayantani’s reading and the richness of her reflections.

All the more reason to tune into to the podcast!

Dieter and Ian