Professor of 沟通 阿什利·达根 has been awarded a senior-level Fulbright Fellowship in Medicine, and will serve as a senior scholar with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
The fellowship will enable Duggan, a faculty member at 电子游戏软件 since 2004, to build on her distinctive interdisciplinary research as a social scientist who explores the intersections among interpersonal communication processes, 健康, 和人际关系. During her Fulbright year, which begins in 2023, she will work with the Centre for Positive Psychology and Health, which she notes is the only such research center in the world housed uniquely within 健康 sciences.
阿什利·达根 (Caitlin Cunningham)
“The Fulbright Fellowship in Medicine is the culmination of more than two decades of international, interdisciplinary research and leadership that links relationship science and human communication studies to lifestyle medicine,达根说, citing two recent endeavors of particular relevance: the partnership she created between the International 沟通 Association and ICCH: European Association for 沟通 in Healthcare, and her current fellowship with the Association of Departments of Family Medicine and the North American Primary Care 电子游戏正规平台 Group.
“The partnership and fellowship both serve to connect the scientific study of relationships and human communication research to 健康 care research. 现在, I will have the opportunity to connect what I’ve been doing at BC with a focus on behavior 和人际关系 for human flourishing with lifestyle medicine, formally bringing together social science and 健康 care. 给n what we’ve all seen and experienced in the past few years with COVID, the importance of combining these disciplinary perspectives is obvious.”
The essence of her research, 达根解释, is this: Humans tend to see illness and other 健康 issues as abnormal, even antithetical to our existence. But the way in which humans respond to illness and 健康 issues, and especially how we communicate with one another about them, is fundamental to understanding what makes us human.
“What interests me is that place where the biomedical meets the lived experiences of people,达根说, whose appointment in family medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine enables her research on human communication processes to be integrated into the teaching and practice of clinical work in primary 健康 care. “Who we are as relational beings is tied to how we understand 健康 and illness. It’s vital to facilitating a long-term dialogue between 健康 care communication and 健康 care-related decision making.”
电子游戏软件 is a perfect fit for such scholarship because of its curricular and formational emphasis on the human condition—not to mention its proximity to Boston, a “mecca of 健康 care,达根说, who teaches in the University’s medical humanities minor and recently received an inaugural grant from the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, where she has offered classes on subjects such as promoting trust in 健康 care and the positive and negative aspects of telemedicine. Her students include not only communication majors but pre-med program participants and those with an interest in public 健康.
“At the core of this area of inquiry is the idea of recognizing people like they have value, no matter who they are,”她说。. “How do we get at the stories in 健康 care, and whose stories get told? 病人? 护理人员? 病人’s family? All those perspectives are important and should be treated as such.”
Duggan noted that the Fulbright required a minimum of 15 years of demonstrated leadership in medicine, and past recipients of the fellowship include David Sklar, who founded the journal Academic Medicine, 马克·埃贝尔, an international leader in evidence-based medicine research.
“I’m gratified to have been selected for this honor, on a personal as well as professional level,”她说。. “Being at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland is a very exciting prospect, and I feel it will lead to some very fruitful and fulfilling collaborations that build on rich relationships between 电子游戏软件 and Ireland.”
Sean Smith | University 沟通s | April 2022