Media and Health

Join us for the “Media and Health” session which features experts from a variety of disciplines as they examine theories regarding the media and its role in health. Presenter Teresa Polowy, Ph.D., will discuss “The Lived Life,” exploring the changing literary depictions of a multi-causational disease in Russian literature: alcoholism. This lecture will demonstrate how the literature on alcoholism is a focal point for growing concerns about issues such as gender roles and the increase in social and domestic violence in contemporary Russian culture. Presenters Jennifer Stevens Aubrey, Ph.D., and Rachel Hahn, MA Student, will ask how the media can frame our body images. They will detail two theories regarding the media’s role in health: a framing and an objectification theory. Lastly, “Sympathetic Pathologies,” presented by Scott Selisker, Ph.D., critiques the ways in which scientific advances shape culture, and specifially how they shape questions raised in literature, popular film, and television. He will examine how mental illness as an extreme state of consciousness is portrayed through the lens of Showtime’s popular television program Homeland (2011). A complete list of participants and topics are included below.
 
Moderator & Respondent: Christopher Cokinos, MFA Associate Professor, Department of English
 
Presenter: Teresa Polowy, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Head, Department of Russian and Slavic Studies
Title: The Lived Life: Russian Women Writing Alcoholism
 
Presenters: Jennifer Stevens Aubrey, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Communication, & Rachel Hahn MA Student, Communication
Title: Health versus Appearance: A Content Analysis Investigating Frames of Health Advice in Women’s Health Magazines
 
Presenter:  Scott Selisker, Ph.D. Visiting Assistant Professor of Literature, Department of English
Title: Bipolar Disorder and PTSD: Sympathetic Pathologies in Showtime's Homeland
 
This panel is part of the broader three-day Humanities, Medicine & Wellness Conference featuring University of Arizona faculty working at the intersections of the humanities, health sciences, and wellness initiatives to address global challenges. The conference will be held February 26-28, 2014 on the UA campus and will integrate research panels and papers from the Colleges of Humanities, Law, Medicine, Public Health, Science, Social and Behavioral Sciences, and others. Sponsored by the College of Humanities, all events are free and open to the public.
 
For more conference session and event information, go to: http://HMW.arizona.edu