In the fall of 2023, Doris Sommer launched “Rx: Arts for Global Mental Health” for the Harvard Medical School’s Media and Medicine. The course featured Forum Theater sessions, readings of aesthetic judgment, and cases of the arts that support global health.
Speakers included Jeremey Nobel, Alice Flaherty, and Nisha Sajnani who led seminar discussions on how global health can benefit from an aesthetic approach to technical and social challenges.
Inspired by the Global Health Education and Learning Incubator at Harvard University, the course explored the interplay between health conditions, contributing factors, and medical and non-medical responses to them. As a valuable resource for non-medical solutions, it emphasized the impact of cultural interventions in both traditional and contemporary arts.
