Denbo Center for Humanities and the Arts

Medical Humanities

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Medical Humanities at the Denbo Center

Digital Humanities
Energy Humanities
Environmental Humanities
Medical Humanities

Medical Humanities at the Denbo Center is led by the idea that health is inseparable from the human experience. Our faculty and graduate students collaborate with professionals a the UT Medical Center, UT One Health Initiative, UT School of Nursing, Knoxville’s Black Maternal Health groups, and beyond to foster an interdisciplinary understanding of the inseparable links between physical, emotional, personal, and community wellbeing.

Scholars Collective on Mortality

Scholars Collectives are active research groups of scholars whose work coalesces around particular humanistic and artistic themes of inquiry.

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A white woman dressed in black with short, spiky pink hair and sunglasses holds and contemplates a human skull

The Scholars Collective on Mortality is a multidisciplinary pilot program of the DCHA, comprised of scholars interested in human life and death, especially as related to environmental concerns, issues in medicine and health-care policy, caregiving, the arts, the provision of services related to mental health, and the ethics and politics surrounding human remains in many contexts, among other topics.

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Some Examples of Medical Humanities at the DCHA

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A square image has white panels at top and bottom with a purple-patterned-and-teal center image. The top section reads "One Health + Humanities Days" and has a yellow and teal butterfly in the upper right corner. At the bottom are the logos of the UT Humanities Center and the UT One Health Initiative.A square image has white panels at top and bottom with a purple-patterned-and-teal center image. The top section reads "One Health + Humanities Days" and has a yellow and teal butterfly in the upper right corner. At the bottom are the logos of the UT Humanities Center and the UT One Health Initiative.

One Health + Humanities Days (2023)
One Health + Humanities Days was a three-day series of events on October 25-27, 2023, showcasing the critical role that arts and humanities play in understanding and exploring sustainability and global wellbeing, including human, animal, plant, and environmental health.

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Across the top in purple is the Distinguished Lecture Series Header. Below that on the left, two glowing blue heads in profile are against a black background covered in floating purple letters. In one head is a colorful butterfly; in the other the eye is highlighted in orange and red.

Rita Charon: Clinical Arts & Literary Sciences (2023)

Rita Charon is a general internist and literary scholar who originated the field of narrative medicine. She is the Bernard Schoenberg Professor of Social Medicine, the founding chair of the Department of Medical Humanities and Ethics, and Professor of Medicine at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons. Charon visited campus in 2023, during which time she spoke during a special luncheon reception and gave a public talk as part of the DCHA’s Distinguished Lecture Series.


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A blue sphere composed of interconnected circles with some smaller red and blue dots around it is in the upper right of a square image. The upper left corner has a small red podcast graphic, and the bottom has green and blue text reading "Pandemic Resiliencies: Creating Communities in the Time of Covid"

Pandemic Resiliences Podcast (2022)

“Pandemic Resiliencies: Creating Communities in the Time of Covid,” looks at three stories of people, families, and communities that found ways to thrive in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. We interview London Hardin and Martha Morrisson, co-owners of a local salon in Jacksonville, FL and discuss with them ways that their small business built empathy and community in a scary time. Next, Katie Hodges-Kluck recounts her journey to motherhood, which she shared with Ty Roberts, a doula and reproductive rights activist in Knoxville, TN. Finally, we hear the story of Shauntae Brown White’s family of cousins, originally from the Midwest, but currently spread across the United States and spanning three generations, who reconnected virtually during the pandemic.


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This podcast was recorded as part of the National Humanities Center’s 2022 Podcasting the Humanities: Creating Digital Stories for the Public virtual podcasting institute.

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