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Post-Graduate Fellows in Narrative Medicine
The Narrative Medicine Fellowship supports projects that fortify the field of narrative medicine. Candidates for the fellowship must be graduates of Columbia University Master's of Science in Narrative Medicine who are interested in promoting narrative understanding in patient care, professional education, and curriculum development, or in forging new pathways in research important to the growth of the field of narrative medicine. Proposals are due Thursday, July 31, 2025 for funding during the 2025-2026 academic year.
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SAVE THE DATE: August 15, 2026 | VIRTUAL EVENT
Open to all NMED MS and NMED Certificate alums!
Columbia Narrative Medicine will be virtually hosting the 6th annual Narrative Medicine ExCHANGE, an interactive virtual opportunity for graduates from both the MS and CPA programs to unite our growing NMED community, nurture new collaborations, and combine forces within our networks to further the mission of Narrative Medicine, expand the visibility of our work, and support applicable career pathways.
With this year’s theme: KNOWING, SHOWING, PROVING, we hope to focus on sessions that speak to what we know are the best strategies for teaching our methods and practices in medical education, to share efforts towards creating evidence of the impact of our work both in clinical and non-clinical settings, and that highlight successful examples of how to expand the visibility of our work in academic and healthcare settings either through public presentations and dissemination activities or interdepartmental and cross-institutional collaborations. We are seeking submissions for two session categories designed to feature alumnx achievements and foster development of new NMED methods— the Alumni Showcase and the Narrative Medicine Test Lab, with additional details on these sessions delivered directly to your inbox. All proposal submissions are due by Monday, June 1, 2026. UPDATE YOUR INFORMATION to make sure your information is up-to-date so we always know the best way to reach you.
Columbia Narrative Medicine In the NEWS
Are you excited about recent news that you want to share with us? We would be thrilled to celebrate your fantastic news with our Narrative Medicine community! If you would like to share news you are celebrating (a publication, presentation, award, art/media, etc, or other items that are not events seeking attendance, as above) with our narrative medicine faculty, alumnx, and students, please take a moment to fill out our “In the NEWS” Google Form linked here. If you have several news items to share, please complete a separate submission for each item to ensure we have the needed supporting information and for our archive records.
Volvox: Our Alumni Speaker Series
The Volvox is the first unicellular organism to have figured out, sometime about 200 million years ago in the Triassic Period, that living in multicellular colonies was more powerful, more economical, more helpful toward survival, and maybe more fun than existing as separate isolated cells. Narrative Medicine has adopted the volvox as an icon of teamwork, transdisciplinary scholarship, the many working as one." - Rita Charon
It is in the spirit of the volvox, a monthly networking group was formed in NYC to present and discuss the varied pathways Narrative Medicine can be applied not only in clinical settings, but through education, publication, and everyday life. Contact Rudy Malcom ('25SPS, Narrative Medicine) to nominate a speaker.
Register to attend our next session: (all events occur at 6:00pm Eastern Time Zone via Zoom)
- September 16 | Narrative Echoes, LLC: Restoring Humanity in Healthcare with Lodovia Bo ('25SPS, Narrative Medicine) and Beth Cavenaugh, RN, CHPN, ('25SPS, Narrative Medicine)
Share Your Event: Division of Narrative Medicine Event Sharing Process/Policy
As our wonderful community continues to grow and expand the amazing events they participate in and wish to share with the community for attendance and to keep us all connected, we're creating a policy and guidelines for submitting events via this submission form.
This update is to streamline the process for the sake of staff bandwidth and to be able to continue to support and share these events with our alumnx, students, and faculty.
If you have an upcoming event or opportunity for the community to participate inthat you would like to share please review the following guidelines and submit per the fields in the form. Rather than promoting events with individual emails, we will collect them and include them in a bi-weekly mailing to alert folks in the community.
To that end, submissions should be completed at least two weeks before the event date to ensure it is featured in an announcement with enough time for interested persons to participate.
All events should directly feature NM students faculty or alumnx of the MS and CPA programs, or be directly related to specific narrative medicine work or initiatives in the broader field.
Within this format, we will no longer be able to share images, flyers, or other media. Submissions should simply be the title, the date and time with time zone, a brief summary of the event, and a link to registration or other media sites with more information.
Participate
Graphic Medicine Club
The Graphic Narratives/Graphic Medicine workshop grew out of an inspiring Comics and Medicine conference in Toronto in 2012. Pat Stanley and Marsha Hurst returned from this Conference determined to create a discussion community based in Narrative Medicine for anyone interested in reading and exploring graphic novels, and particularly graphic illness narratives. The group has met roughly once per month during the academic year since Fall 2012, usually at the Columbia Alumni Center, or at Butler Library. The workshop is now co-coordinated by graphic artist Kriota Willberg, Narrative Medicine alumni Mario de la Cruz, and Narrative Medicine faculty member Marsha Hurst. We are often joined by Karen Green, Graphic Novels Librarian and Curator for Comics and Cartoons at Columbia and director of Comics@Columbia. The workshop is open to anyone who is interested in graphic novels and would like to share this close reading experience with others. To put your name on the email list for meeting announcements, contact Kriota Willberg.
Narrative Medicine Educators
Currently offered through Narrative Medicine Mindworks, a 501(c)3 founded by program alums Lauren Manning, Derek McCracken, Tony Errichetti, and Anu Chatterjee. The monthly NM Educators meetings are coordinated by video conferencing and provide a space to discuss all things related to the integration of Narrative Medicine in higher education curricula. For more information, email info@narrativemindworks.org.
NM International
NM International was formed in 2024 to empower the next phase of international work in Narrative Medicine. This group meets monthly via Zoom to discuss ongoing work, collaborations, and applications of Narrative Medicine practices around the world. For more information, contact Renée Russas.
The Narrative Eye: A Columbia NM Program at the MET Museum
Join fellow members of the Narrative Medicine community on Friday evenings once a month for shared conversation and a close look at a great work of art in the galleries of the Metropolitan Museum. Open to the NMED community of students, alums, administration, and faculty. Led by Rika Burnham Faculty Narrative Medicine, Columbia University, formerly, Head of Education at the Frick Collection, Museum Educator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Links to register as emailed monthly via the Alumni Newsletter. For more information on these events, contact Sal Marx.
Narrative Medicine Research
This group meets monthly to explore and discuss NM research opportunities - past, present and future. Reach out to M. Anne Cunney to learn more.
Narrative Medicine & Theater
Formed in 2022, The Narrative Medicine & Theater special interest group formed in 2022, and continues to attend, discuss, and promote theatre as a third object in narrative medicine practices. The group is open to anyone who has an interest in plays, musicals or dramatic literature past, present and/or future -- reading, attending, performing, critiquing, analyzing, metabolizing...and more. Contact Derek McCracken, for more information.
Social Justice in Narrative Medicine
This group was born out of a desire to create space for students and alumni to explore issues of Social Justice within the Narrative Medicine Program, in Narrative Medicine practice, and in healthcare. Monthly newsletters are produced and weekend video conferences are held to share ideas and stories about how to contribute to manifesting one of the goals of Narrative Medicine: to recognize, absorb, metabolize, interpret, and be moved by the stories of the "Other". For more information contact Stacey Quartaro.
Publish
Created in 2010 by a group of graduate students in the Master of Science program in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University, Intima is a literary journal dedicated to promoting the theory and practice of Narrative Medicine, an interdisciplinary field that enhances healthcare through the effective communication and understanding between caregivers and patients. Our name Intima has a specific resonance in the field: Narrative Medicine defines itself as the intimate interface between two people, one as healer, one as being healed, who both yield and gain from the experience of the clinical encounter. Contact managing Editor and Class of 2014 alum Donna Bulseco for more information or click here for submission guidelines.
Give
Invest in our shared mission to fortify medical professionals, artists, and writers with the skills to improve the quality of care around the world. Simply type in "Narrative Medicine Gift Account" here and give today.
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