Since receiving her PhD in comparative literature from Princeton University Marilyn Chandler McEntyre has included in her roster of literature courses many that connect humanities and sciences. In the course of 30 years of college teaching she has developed courses in literature and medicine that prepare premed students to enter medical school with a repertoire of questions about how medical practice is informed by cultural values and myths and shaped by the art of storymaking and the poetic devices we all use to make sense of the world. Over that time she received several teaching awards and grants from ACLS, NEH, and the Cummings Foundation. She currently teaches as Adjunct Professor of Medical Humanities at the UCB-UCSF Joint Medical Program as well as offering courses in the Health and Society program at UCB. She also offers occasional CME workshops for medical professionals and volunteers with Hospice of the East Bay. Her recent book Patient Poets: Illness from Inside Out (UC Medical Humanities Press) reflects on how and why people with chronic or terminal illness write poetry and what caregivers can learn from it.
last updated: February 21st, 2015