Visiting Lecture in Medical Humanities
Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026
Join us for the 17th Annual S. Amjad Hussain, M.D. Visiting Lecture in Medical Humanities.
5 p.m. Refreshments
5:30 p.m. Lecture
Health Education Building, Room 110
Health Science Campus
RSVP here by Oct. 15 Add to Calendar
“Tools Across the Humanities for When Categories Make Bodies: Cases from Thailand”
Scott Stonington, M.D., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He practices both primary care and hospital medicine. His scholarship has spanned the medical humanities and social sciences broadly.
He is author of "The Spirit Ambulance: Choreographing the End of Life in Thailand," which explores changes in the experience of the end of life resulting from the globalization of biomedical ethics. He is also a core editor of the New England Journal of Medicine’s Case Studies in Social Medicine, and the Lancet Global Social Medicine Case Series, the only two series in major medical journals devoted to social theory.
He is currently finishing book manuscripts on pain management in Thailand and improvisation and time pressure in U.S. medicine. His current project addresses the development of hospitalist medicine in Peru.
About the lecture
The lecture was created in honor of Dr. Hussain, an award-winning writer and photographer, an internationally known explorer, a teacher-researcher and a distinguished thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon. Dr. Hussain holds emeritus professorships in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, as well as humanities at The University of Toledo.
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Parking Information
For the lecture, please park in Area 43 in the yellow lined space highlighted on the map. Parking is allocated in those spots from 4 to 7 p.m.
Parking in other areas requires permit or payment via the ParkMobile App.
2025 Lecture
Nina F. Schor, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Pediatrics, Neurology, and Neurobiology and Chair Emerita of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester, presented "The Humanities as a Pathfinder through Burnout and Difficult Conversations" as part of 16th Annual S. Amjad Hussain, M.D. Visiting Lecture in Medical Humanities on Oct. 23, 2025. From January 2018 through September 2025, she served at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), first as Deputy Director at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), and, from August 2022 to September 2025, as the NIH Deputy Director for Intramural Research. Read her Interview in UToledo News.
Watch the Lecture
The Humanities as a Pathfinder through Burnout and Difficult Conversations on Knowledge Stream
2024 Lecture
Dr. Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, Robert Harding Inaugural Chair in Global Child Health and Policy at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, and the Co-Director of the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health, presented “An intrepid journey through the past, present and future of global child health” as part of 15th Annual S. Amjad Hussain, M.D. Visiting Lecture in Medical Humanities on Oct. 26, 2023. Read his interview with UToledo News.
Watch the Lecture
An Intrepid Journey through the Past, Present and Future of Global Child Health on Knowledge Stream
2023 Lecture
Dr. Rita Charon, general internist and literary scholar and one of the founders of the field of narrative medicine, presented "Narrative Power in Health: Inquiry, Equity, and Care" as part of 14th Annual S. Amjad Hussain, M.D. Visiting Lecture in Medical Humanities on Oct. 26, 2023.
Watch the Lecture
Narrative Powers toward Medicine’s Ideals on Knowledge Stream
2022 Lecture
Dr. Mohammed A. Fadlalla, Academic Internal Medicine Hospitalist at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, presented "A Doctor's Humanitarian Journey" as part of 13th Annual S. Amjad Hussain, M.D. Visiting Lecture in Medical Humanities. The lecture was held Monday, Dec. 12, 2022.
Watch the Lecture
Past Hussain Lectures
- 2009 Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D. Surgery of the Heart
- 2010 Joel Howell, M.D. Medicine and the Arts: Exploring How the Arts Can Help Us Understand Health and Illness
- 2011 S. Amjad Hussain, M.D. A Journey from M*A*S*H to the Black Swamp: Life and Works of John Howard, M.D.
- 2012 Maurice Manning, Ph.D., D.Sc. A Confluence of Science, Journalism and Civic Leadership: The Rich Legacy of Paul Block Jr.
- 2013 Wendy Moore. The Knife Man: Life and Times of John Hunter (1728-93): Anatomist, Surgeon, Researcher and Patron of Body Snatchers
- 2014 Peter W. Kaplan, M.D. Electricity and the Brain — From Mary Shelley’s Dr. Frankenstein to Now
- 2015 Robert Bartlett, M.D. Romance, Science and the White Plague
- 2016 Powel Kazanjian, M.D., Ph.D. The Origins of Bacteriology in America: Life and Works of Frederick Novy
- 2017 Azra Raza, M.D. History of Cancer Research: Why Patients are Still Dying for a Cure
- 2018 Ann Berger, M.D., M.S.N. The Importance of Psychosocial Spiritual Healing in Healthcare
- 2019 Syed Taasnim Raza, M.D. Hippocrates to Heart Surgery: Renaissance and the Transformation of Medicine
- 2020 Canceled due to COVID-19
- 2021 Paul Haidet, M.D., M.P.H. The Challenges of Interprofessional Practice: Lessons Learned from the World of Jazz
- 2022 Mohammed A. Fadlalla, M.D. A Doctor’s Humanitarian Journey
- 2023 Rita Charon, M.D., Ph.D. Narrative Power in Health: Inquiry, Equity and Care
- 2024 Zulfiqar A. Bhutta FRS, Ph.D., M.B.B.S. An intrepid journey through the past, present and future of global child health
- 2025 Nina F. Schor, M.D., Ph.D. The Humanities as a Pathfinder through Burnout and Difficult Conversations
- 2026 Scott Stonington, M.D., Ph.D. Tools Across the Humanities for When Categories Make Bodies: Cases from Thailand