For a special section of RHM, we invite shorter, 2000-3500-word essays that discuss responsive and innovative approaches to teaching that draw on and possibly contribute to the rhetoric of health and medicine (broadly defined). The goal of this featured special section within a regular issue is to highlight this topic and begin pedagogical conversations on the importance of merging together our teaching and research interests.
Members of the RHM community have found responsive and inventive ways to reimagine our courses and pedagogies and to facilitate student learning, as evidenced by the recently publicized examples of Jordyn Jack’s History of Writing class in which students wrote primary-source journals about their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic (https://unc.live/35ytexe) or Cynthia Ryan’s Writing and Medicine course in which students grappled with the “complexity of this virus and its potential to affect us divergently” (https://bit.ly/2W9n2ce). What these courses show is RHM’s dexterity to adapt to current events within the context of our courses, while still grounding students in the working knowledge of the field.
While we welcome submissions on any topics that fit this special section’s focus, we are especially interested in pedagogical approaches that illustrate practices and approaches to teaching that focus on racism and interlocking systems of oppression as public health (and/or other health or medical) issues.
Essays can focus on courses, projects or assignments, and/or pedagogical approaches at various levels of college curricula, from first-year writing to M.D. programs. Essays can also focus on teaching approaches in co- or extra-curricular and community contexts. We ask that essays address
- the contextualized exigencies for developing the class,
- challenges and successes of implementing the approaches in the classroom, and
- implications for the field and/or other instructors adapting the approach.
Ideally, essays will discuss how the teaching approach not only draws on RHM questions and conversations but also contributes to RHM knowledge-making. We ask that essays include reflexive discussions about participants’ positionalities and experiences. Essays may include parts of illustrative student work, with permission given, and/or curricular materials to be included as appendices (and do not count in the word count).
Full manuscripts of 2000-3500 words are due by Monday, November 30, 2020 at rhm.journal.editors@gmail.com. Please use the subject line: Teaching practices and approaches
We will select the strongest pieces (3-6) to go through the expedited RHM review process. Accepted peer-reviewed essays would likely appear in the 4.4 issue in 2021.
We’d welcome the opportunity to answer your questions or to talk through your ideas: rhm.journal.editors@gmail.com
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