(re)centering: The Eighth Annual Northwestern Bioethics and Medical Humanities Conference
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
Save the Date
The Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities and the Medical Humanities & Bioethics Graduate Program are excited to announce this one-day conference dedicated to engaging the Northwestern and Chicagoland community in the rich, multidisciplinary research and scholarship of our field.
Call for Proposals
We are seeking proposals for short, in-person presentations, and invite submissions from health care providers, fellows, faculty, medical students, and graduate students or alumni who have ties to Northwestern University or other medical centers and academic institutions throughout Illinois.
We welcome broad and even unexpected interpretations of the theme. We also welcome proposals that focus on other topics related to bioethics or medical humanities that are not directly tied to the theme. Adherence to the theme and relationship to the Center may be considered in the selection process.
Conference Theme: (Re)CenteringIncreasingly individuals, clinicians, professionals, institutions, and professional fields are pulled in multiple directions, with demands on time mounting and boundaries between our commitments blurring. New technologies and innovations shift medical possibilities; domestic policies and world events change patient populations; and politics and legislation affect medical practices. How do we find and hold equilibrium? How do we know where to focus? How and what do we center? Centering can be a personal process, drawing thoughts inward to foster mindfulness, calming ourselves, and focusing our attention. Centering might be an act for others, when we choose to prioritize others’ experiences or needs. Centering can also be an act of framing, or agenda-setting that directs our attention to specific issues or priorities. A Center itself could be an origin, a core, a concept, or a destination. 2025 marks the 10th anniversary of the Northwestern Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities. As we reflect on the past decade as well as future directions, we invite you to share what centering—or recentering—means in your professional life, your practice, medicine, and healthcare. How might we align or reframe priorities? What does is mean to center or recenter patients or communities in an ever-evolving healthcare environment? How can bioethics and medical humanities (re)center thought and engagement in medicine, healthcare, and public health? |
The submission deadline is Friday, January 31, 2025.
Venue
Baldwin Auditorium in the Lurie Research Building (not to be confused with the nearby Lurie Children’s Hospital). 303 E Superior St, Chicago, IL