Unalterable Testimony: Aesthetic Experience in Poetry and Medical Practice

The interplay of art and medicine is centuries long. In contemporary medical education, “arts and humanities” relevant to medical practice are often instrumentalized and justified in curriculum to “improve” training, increasing empathy, for example. The aesthetic pleasure of engaging with art is less considered. In this essay, as a family physician, I reflect on my aesthetic experience of poetry as a gateway to consider the possibility of aesthetic experience in clinical practice. As I tarry with language in a poem, new horizons of understanding are extended. In a similar way, in clinical practice, when I allow my senses to experience a patient aesthetically, be it by seeing, smelling, touching, I can enter a new appreciation of their personhood. Using a combination of poetry and visual art, I draw on an example of an older man, unstably housed, to elucidate how experiencing arts and humanities in medical practice can answer what Gadamer called the first task of medicine, that is to restore a person to their original state

Avoiding the ‘Anthropocene’?: An Assessment of the Extent and Nature of Engagement with Environmental Issues in Peace Research

This article critically examines the extent and nature of engagement with environmental issues within the field of peace research, and specifically with the unfolding ecological crisis (‘the Anthropocene’). A representative sample of journals and book series associated with peace research were analysed in order to a. quantify the extent of engagement with climate change and other environmental issues in peace research, and b. assess the range of discursive positions vis-a-vis the environment represented in the sample. The article finds that, in comparison to other ‘thematic niches’, environmental issues have received limited attention. It also finds that the dominant orientation of publications that do have an environmental focus can be considered ‘reformist’ - largely concerned with or assuming the possibility of significant continuity from the present. More ‘radical’ perspectives are present but in a much lower proportion. Whilst acknowledging the validity of and need for a plurality of perspectives and approaches, it is argued that the scientific evidence of an accelerating and increasingly dangerous ecological crisis does raise challenging questions for peace research. The article concludes with a call for renewed debate on the purpose(s) and assumptions of peace research, informed by a wider range of perspectives on environmental issues. It is a contribution to a tradition of critical reflection within the field but is the first to provide a systematic and grounded analysis of engagement with and perspectives on, the environment within peace research

Physicians’ Experiences of Touch, a Hermeneutic Reflection

Touch is central to clinical practice but can be a “touchy subject” in medical education, simultaneously associated with care, and risk. In the clinical literature, touch is typically categorised as communicative or procedural, with an emphasis on touch as behavioural. Philosophically, touch is also a subject of consideration, yet this literature remains relatively unfamiliar to clinicians. In this essay, I reflect on touch in healthcare and medical education, as explored in my PhD studies, drawing on the work of hermeneutic philosophers, particularly Merleau-Ponty. Interpreting touch, I propose, is inherently hermeneutic, offering many possibilities to deepen our understanding of human interaction and clinical practice. Touch embodies the clinician-patient relationship as a holistic encounter. In high intensity interactions, touch orientates expression of empathy “beyond words". I present the significance of hermeneutics for clinical education, to richly re-imagine, and challenge, the concept of patient-centredness

Cambodian National Education Policy: Global Wants and/or Local Needs?

This thesis is broadly concerned with the impact of globalization on education policy making in Cambodia, a post-conflict, developing country. Cambodia’s education system was almost entirely wiped out by the 1990’s because of various military and social conflicts that had plagued the country. As such, Cambodia provides an excellent case of post-conflict educational reconstruction. The thesis will explore how multinational financial organizations such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank are influencing the direction of national education policy in Cambodia, using a globalization theoretical perspective. The focus will be on a policy analysis of several key policy documents and directives from the multinational organizations and Cambodian government. Through this analysis three themes become apparent. These include the marketization of education, partnerships, and the purpose of education in Cambodia. These themes present a complex picture of an education system in transition under the influence of national and international needs and desires