Scheduling Information:

 817-731-5337 (phone/fax) Email: DrRhetoric@aol.com

* Indicates open to the general public. Please contact me for additional details.

Schedule

2008 schedule:

• June 6-30, Nantucket.

• Oct. 23rd, "Richard Selzer in the Twenty-first Century" at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, Cleveland, OH.

2007 schedule: May 21-June 21 (NYC, New Haven, CT., Nantucket). October 12-Nov. 1 (Washington D.C., New Haven, CT, NYC, Nantucket).

2006 schedule: March 2-4, CCTE "Taking students out of their comfort zone: teaching medical issues in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," Corpus Christi, TX; June 1-4, New Haven, CT (meet with Dick Selzer); June 16-18, National Coalition of Independent Scholars Board Meeting and the Princeton Research Forum conference, Princeton, N.J.; June 19-30, Nantucket Island, MA. (research/writing).  

2005 schedule: January 10-14 (*"Interdisciplinary Teaching: The Humanities in Science Classrooms." International Arts and Humanities Conference in Hawaii); March 23-27 (*"The Art of Biography III: Richard Selzer, M.D." for PCA in San Diego); April 7-9 (New Orleans);  May 20-25 (meet with Selzer at The Elizabethan Club in New Haven, CT.); June 15-29 (research/writing in Nantucket); October 7-11, National Coalition of Independent Scholars Board Meeting and The Northwest Independent Scholars Association conference (Portland, Oregon), on "Selling Your Scholarship: Writing Marketable Non-Fiction"; *October 28-9, Halloween weekend commentary on Frankenstein movies (1931 Whale's Frankenstein, 1994 Branagh's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and 1974 Brook's Young Frankenstein), with follow-up lecture, "Monster?," on Wednesday, November 2nd, in the Great Hall of the Atheneum, Nantucket, MA.; November 22-6, New York City.  

TOPICS for the general public and specialized audiences:

• For the general public, discussions of how specific mental and physical illnesses derive from culture as well as from disease are of current interest. Diagnoses, treatments, and perceptions vary from culture to culture over time. The talk features such works as Kesey's popular One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Walker 's provocative Possessing the Secret of Joy.
• For the general and specialized audience, how far should we go to perfect human beings? When cloning and genetic enhancement reduce or eliminate birth defects through embryo selection and/or abortion, how will this affect the human race? Think about Huxley's Brave New World.
• For the general public, cutting-edge bioethics ripped from the daily headlines appeals to all. Biotechnology shapes the human condition, so we need to be informed citizens who can decide where we want science and technology to take us as a human race. "Knowing thyself" becomes more complicated as technologies alter who we are.
• For the general and specialized audience, a talk on how stories reveal changing human behaviors. In particular, reading literature help us empathize with third-world foreigners with whom we would otherwise have no connection? Clearly, Alice Walker’s Possessing the Secret of Joy serves a moral purpose by engaging us in another’s life to evoke a moral understanding, linking health and human rights.
• For medical professionals and their patients, 1) discussing science and humanism (as shown in Shelley's Viktor Frankenstein and Selzer's "the bath lady") shows how improving communication in the doctor-patient relationship establishes the foundation of trust and leads to better healing; 2)describing patient autonomy, empathy, and medical mistakes, including a discussion on listening, touching, and "the doorknob phenomenon," reveals modern approaches to medicine; and 3) revealing how rivalry and hubris drives science (as shown in topics including Frankenscience, eugenics, utopias) adds an entertaining, up-to-date view of scientific achievement.
• Life-writing (the art of biography), including Richard Selzer's poetic insights into medical education and practice.
• Contagions/Isolations: topics include infectious diseases/plagues, clinical studies, and civil and human rights. Featured: Camus's The Plague and Feldshuh's Miss Evers’ Boys
• Public health issues including bioterrorism and communicable diseases such as syphilis and AIDS; obesity and bariatric surgery; healthcare education and media symbiosis; heart disease and lifestyle, cancer diseases and prognoses. 
• Physician-assisted suicide; right-to-life and right-to-die movements; euthanasia. Includes a discussion on showing care, concern, and comfort to the dying person. What is the right thing to do in such a circumstance; what adds insult to injury?
• Brain death/coma and organ transplantation; end-of-life issues including palliative care, hope and spirituality,  dying and death.

Credentials

• Doctor of Philosophy, Texas Christian University , Ft. Worth , TX (1997)
• Speaker (1998-2005): Yale Medical School, Texas Wesleyan University, The University of Texas at Galveston, The University of Central Arkansas, Tarrant County College, Western Social Science Association, American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, Stanford University, Popular Culture Association, Texas A & M. See "About Dr. Stripling" for complete listing.
• Author: Bioethics and Medical Issues in Literature ( Greenwood P, 2005); Medical Humanities Review, The Journal of Medical Humanities,  Readerly/Writerly Texts, and Studies in Psychoanalytic Theory.  See publications link for more information.
• Educator: developed and taught medical humanities curriculum for Tarrant County College (1998 to 2002).

Audience Reviews    

• "A brilliant and entertaining presentation that created dialogue."
• "Your valuable perspectives broadened the audience’s experience."
• "I especially enjoyed your integration of lecture with audio and group discussion."
• "Our participation in the short play added an extended, soul-searching experience for each of us."
• "Thank you for the extraordinary workshop--one that we will long remember."
• PowerPoint, audio- and video-enhanced lectures available, tailored to specific audience.
• Education: Ph.D. (1997), Literature and Medicine, Texas Christian University . Concentration: Rhetoric and American Literature

Employment

• Independent Scholar (1991-Present)
• Medical Humanities Lecturer (1998-2007):
• "Richard Selzer: Poet of the Body," Yale Medical School , Medical Humanities Lecture Series. ( April 30, 1998 )
• "Richard Selzer: The Pen and the Scalpel," The University of Texas Medical Branch-The Institute for Medical Humanities, Galveston . ( Nov. 21, 1998 )
• "The Doctor-Patient Relationship." Texas Wesleyan University (lecture; and organized and moderated ethics panel of hospital bioethicist , Communication’s professor, and business-law attorney). ( Oct. 26, 1998 )
• "The Doctor Stories: Medicine, Rhetoric, and Social Taboo," The University of Central Arkansas (High Table Honor’s College). ( April 7, 1999 )
• "An Introduction to Richard Selzer and Medical Humanities Curricula." Tarrant County College —Teacher’s Workshop. ( March 18,1999 )
• "The White Coat Ceremony: Selzer’s ‘A Parable.’" Texas Wesleyan University , Humanic’s Preprofessional Panel ( November 20, 2000 ).
• "Richard Selzer: The Doctor as Writer." Stanford University Interdisciplinary Medical Humanities Conference (Commentator-February 26, 2001).
• Medical Humanities Curriculum Development for Tarrant County College-South. Literature and Medicine (World Lit II-B). (1998 to 2002)

Medical Humanities Publications

Journals

• Praxis Press
• The Journal of Medical Humanities
• Medical Humanities Review
• Composition Studies
• Studies in Psychoanalysis
• Readerly/Writerly Texts
• Caxton’s Modern Arts Press
• Bulletin of Bibliography

See "publications" link for full descriptions.

Professional Associations     

• American Society for Bioethics and Humanities
• National Coalition of Independent Scholars
• North Texas Bioethics Network

Honors           

• Board Member, National Coalition of Independent Scholars (2005);
• Who’s Who of America’s Teachers (2000);
• Consultant to Richard Selzer Archive, UT-Medical Branch, Galveston
• Dictionary of International Biography (1999 & 2000);
• Directory of American Scholars (1999); and
• 2000 Outstanding Women of the Twenty-First Century (2000).

Personal Philosophy  

I intend, through lecturing, writing, and teaching, to explore the interdisciplinary attributes of literature and medicine that uncover the art of healing. In practical terms, as a medical humanist I show those in or entering medical professions that "Where there is love of man, there is also love of the art of medicine" (Hippocrates). Clearly, in the burgeoning technology of our times and with managed care’s time limitations, it is more important than ever for medical practitioners to learn communication skills, professional ethics, and how to develop a caring attitude in delivering patient care; that is, they will need to learn a healing art.