Global Perspectives on Probing Narratives in Healthcare

Teresa Casal is Assistant Professor in English at the School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon, and a researcher at the University of Lisbon Centre for Lisbon Studies (ULICES). She currently coordinates the interdisciplinary project in Medical Humanities, based at ULICES. Her main areas of research are narrative fiction and non-fiction, Irish Studies, and Medical Humanities. Her research focuses on how contemporary narrative fiction and creative non-fiction represent experiences of dislocation, loss, and illness. She is equally interested in the co-constructed nature of narratives and in the role of readers and listeners. She has published articles and book chapters in her areas of expertise and co-edited the literary anthology Contar (com) a Medicina [Counting on Medicine] (2015; ext. and revised eds. 2016 and 2018), Beyond Diagnosis: Relating Person to Patient, Patient to Person (2014), and Revisitar o Mito / Myths Revisited (2015). She has given various workshops and coordinated reading and writing groups for healthcare professionals. Maria Cabral is a Professor of French Literature and an integrated researcher at the Center for Humanist Studies (CEHUM), Group 2i (Identities and Intermedialities) at the University of Minho in Braga, Portugal. She is also involved in teaching collaboration with the Medical School at the same university. Her research interests mainly revolve around Symbolist drama in the 19th century, comparative contexts, and the relationship between theatre and reading. Additionally, she co-founded the Literary Reading network LEA ! Reading in Europe Today and holds the honorary presidency of the APEF-Portuguese Association for French Studies. Her recent research aims to develop interdisciplinary theory and methods of reading, specifically in applying literary studies in medical training and practice, with an emphasis on ethical issues. Over the past years, she has created and taught numerous courses inspired by Narrative Medicine, both in Portugal and abroad (namely in Brazil and France). Presently, she serves as a member of the Ethics Committee for Research in Life and Health Sciences at the University of Minho.