Professor Kathryn McKnight Awarded Career Advancement Semester

April 10, 2017

Prof. Kathryn McKnight was awarded a Career Advancement Semester for Fall 2017 in order to co-author with Prof. Jill Kuhnheim of Brown University a textbook titled Literatura, arte y salud y el poder de la lectura. The textbook is for the Introduction to Hispanic Literature course, but is directed primarily at pre-health career students. Prof. McKnight will also research the outcomes of this approach to teaching literature. She is currently piloting the course as a SPAN 307 Introduction to Hispanic Literature course. Students are reading the greats of Hispanic literature, including authors like Garcilaso de la Vega, Juan Rulfo, Alfonsina Storni and Teresa de Cartagena, while they also watch movies with health themes and read community health blogs and medical testimonies. They are studying the cultural representations of the body; medical  knowledge; doctor-patient relationships; barriers to healthcare access; disability; and end-of life decisions.