Practicing Care in Crisis: Applied Scholarship in Syndemic Times

“Practicing Care in Crisis: Applied Scholarship in Syndemic Times” is the theme of the upcoming National Conference for Physician-Scholars in the Social Sciences and Humanities, which will be held in a hybrid virtual/in-person format at the University of California, Los Angeles from April 30-May 1, 2022. We are excited to be joined by our keynote speakers Mindy Fullilove, Ippolytos Kalofonos, and Luke Messac. 


The National Conference for Physician-Scholars in the Social Sciences and Humanities was founded in 2005 by a group of MD-PhD trainees in medical anthropology. These students imagined the biennial conference as an opportunity to revisit and reinvigorate our mission: to explore how the fields of anthropology, economics, epidemiology, ethics, health policy, history, sociology, and literature can advance the practice and public understanding of medicine.


Over the last year and a half, the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has raised myriad novel challenges superimposed on already deepening health disparities. In the midst of a global crisis playing out on scales large and small, scholars and clinicians have been both witness to and active participants in efforts to mitigate harms and deliver relief. The upcoming conference carves out a space for dually-trained academics and clinicians to reflect on and critique the state of healthcare delivery and strategize approaches to its transformation. What lessons might applied scholarship in health-related disciplines teach us about the past, present, and future at a time when the trajectory of the worlds we inhabit––socially, personally, politically, academically, and clinically––are in flux?


The National Physician-Scholars Conference welcomes abstract submissions from all who are practicing and/or researching at the intersection of clinical medicine and scholarship in the social sciences and humanities on health and health care. The conference hopes to host students, trainees, clinicians, and academics across the spectrum of training from undergraduates and health professions students to professors and career clinicians. We are especially hoping that undergraduate students interested in pursuing dual training will attend and consider submitting abstracts.


Visit shssmconference.org