Delaware Valley University is welcoming award-winning author, filmmaker and academic Raj Patel as a speaker for its spring 2023 One Health Seminar Series. The seminar, “Food System Meet Health System,” will take place Wednesday, March 29, at 6 p.m. in the Life Sciences Building auditorium on campus, 700 E. Butler Ave. in Doylestown. Patel will discuss his latest book, co-authored with Rupa Marya, Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice. The presentation is open to the public at no cost.
“We invited Raj Patel to present at DelVal because of his ability to transcend traditional academic boundaries and apply a holistic approach with a true ethics of care to global issues and problems such as food insecurity, climate change and, in his most recent co-authored book, to health — an approach that resonates with our One Health initiative,” said DelVal’s dean for the School of Business and Humanities, Dr. Tanya Casas.
The book reveals the links between health and structural injustices, and offers a new deep medicine that can heal human bodies and the world. The book takes readers on a medical tour through the human body, including the digestive, endocrine, circulatory, respiratory, reproductive, immune and nervous systems. Unlike a traditional anatomy book, it illuminates the hidden relationships between human biological systems and the profound injustices of political and economic systems.
Patel’s presentation at DelVal is funded by the Connections Planning grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which was awarded to the English Department at the university in the spring of 2022. As part of the NEH grant, DelVal is in the process of creating a minor in One Health Communications.
“One of the most prominent initiatives at DelVal today is One Health, which offers programming designed to infuse a multi-disciplinary approach to attain optimal wellbeing for the environment, animals and society. The NEH Connections Planning grant, entitled ‘Science and Rhetoric,’ is allowing us to elevate the role of the humanities, particularly English and rhetorical studies, within the One Health initiative through the development of an interdisciplinary minor that explores issues related to writing, communications and rhetoric within the science and the health fields,” said Dr. Brian Lutz, chair of English.
Following Patel’s presentation, there will be a book signing at the university’s bookstore. All are welcome and Patel’s books will be available for purchase.
