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Keith Haring, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Wolfgang Tillmans, and the AIDS Epidemic: The Use of Visual Art in a Health Humanities Course

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Abstract

Contemporary art can be a powerful pedagogical tool in the health humanities. Students in an undergraduate course in the health humanities explore the subjective experience of illness and develop their empathy by studying three artists in the context of the AIDS epidemic: Keith Haring, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and Wolfgang Tillmans. Using assignments based in narrative pedagogy, students expand their empathic response to pain and suffering. The role of visual art in health humanities pedagogy is discussed.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge my debt to Jared Ledesma, Curatorial Assistant in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at SFMOMA for his input on Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Caitlin Burkhart at the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation for her review of the manuscript and helpful suggestions and edits.

Funding

Elements of the course design for the course discussed in this paper were funded by the Office of Faculty Development, CSU East Bay.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. California State University East Bay, 25800 Carlos Bee Blvd, Hayward, CA, 9452, USA

    Jason A. Smith

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Correspondence to Jason A. Smith.

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Endnotes

1 In this essay, I use the term health humanities as opposed to medical humanities. I use the term health humanities so as to engage with a broader audience and understanding of the field that has been previously known solely as medical humanities. As an instructor in an undergraduate program that focuses on students entering nursing, physical therapy, and laboratory technician programs as well as medical schools, a strong grounding in the humanities is just as critical in the development of empathy and patient-centered or patient-focused healthcare.

2 The go-go boy is a fixture of gay clubs and nightlife. Hired to dance, usually on the bar, he represents the “fantasy and the fantastic” and is an icon of gay nightlife (Perry 2007).

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Smith, J.A. Keith Haring, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Wolfgang Tillmans, and the AIDS Epidemic: The Use of Visual Art in a Health Humanities Course. J Med Humanit 40, 181–198 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-018-9506-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-018-9506-4

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