Medical humanities is a growing interdisciplinary field that uses humanist and social science methods to approach questions about the experience and significance of health, illness, and healthcare. Dr. Keisha Ray’s work in the medical humanities and bioethics focuses on the effects of institutional racism on Black people's health, highlighting Black people's own stories, and the sociopolitical implications of biomedical enhancement. Her work uniquely prioritizes linguistic justice as a matter of access and commitment to public scholarship.

Professor Keisha Ray received her Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Utah. She is currently a tenured Associate Professor and holds the John P. McGovern, MD Professorship of Oslerian Medicine at the McGovern Center for Humanities & Ethics at UT Health Houston, where she also serves as the Director of the Medical Humanities Scholarly Concentration. Dr. Ray serves as an associate editor for the American Journal of Bioethics and itsonline site, "Bioethics Today" as well as Senior Associate Editor for the Journal of Medical Humanities. Dr. Ray has also been elected as a Hastings Center Fellow. She has contributed to top clinical, bioethics, and medical humanities journals. And based on her expertise, Dr. Ray is frequently called upon as a bioethics expert for popular news sources. Lastly, Dr. Ray is the author of the book “Black Health: The Social, Political, and Cultural Determinants of Black People’s Health” with Oxford University Press.

Co-sponsored by UIS Department of English, UIS Institute for Race, Gender, Sexuality, & Social Justice, SIU School of Medicine’s Humanities Department, & Memorial Health