Lester Davids, Shose Kessi,
Berni Searle

The Medical Humanities lecture series grew out of Medicine and the Arts – a postgraduate course jointly offered by Associate Professor of Anthropology Susan Levine and Professor Steve Reid of the Primary Health Care Directorate.

The lecture series comprising five collaborative events between medical and arts practitioners, was appropriately held at the Anatomy Lecture Theatre, part of the Old Medical School Building, at UCT’s Hiddingh Arts Campus. Speakers comprised medical practitioners, scientists, theatre-makers, artists, and poets whose lectures and presentations engaged with the growing interdisciplinary field of medical humanities, in pursuit of intellectual synergies and their application to medical pedagogy and practice.

In one presentation, molecular cell biologist Lester Davids, psychology lecturer Shose Kessi, and artist Berni Searle come together to discuss Skin Lightening and the Politics of Beauty – an investigation into skin lightening formulations, a discussion of black UCT students’ experiences of being in a predominantly white patriarchal and heteronormative space, and a reflection on creative interventions into historical stereotyping.

This lecture follows.