Introduction

Introduction Lynn C Epstein "Experience is a good teacher," it has been said, "but her tuition is very high." Introducing students to liberal education at Brown University, Harriet W. Sheridan, Professor of English and Dean of the College (1979-87), characteristically welcomed undergraduates and invited them to explore the what, when, why, as well as how of their studies. But what odyssey brought Dean Sheridan to a medical school lectureship endowed in her honor? With a doctorate in Medieval English literature from Yale University, Harriet Sheridan's influence as an educator was profound. She played an important role in strenghtening and implementing Brown's "New Curriculum," which gives more responsibility to students for designing their own course of study; developed and supported programs for students needing alternative approaches to learning, e.g. dyslexia, strokes, cerebral palsy; founded the Center for Advancement of College Teaching at Brown dedicated to the furtherance of effective teaching for the current and future professoriate; and made a lasting commitment to explore the and that links Literature to Medicine. A firm believer in broad educational experiences, Professor Sheridan led Brown to meaningfully unify C. P. Snow's "two cultures." For those familiar with Harriet Sheridan's unique combination of traits as humanist, scholar, and innovative teacher, committed to interdisciplinary collaboration and the need to involve students actively in the learning process, it seems entirely appropriate to have an endowed literature-and-medicine lectureship in her honor at the Brown University School of Medicine. Most of us find our sphere of influence confined to our personal and professional contacts, our teachings, presentations, and publications. Harriet Sheridan, as person, professor, and dean, possessed that rare ability to inspire others, thereby exponentially magnifying her influence. It was virtually impossible to say "no" to her requests. An innocent attempt to involve her in the education of our medical students led this physician and Associate Dean of Medicine into a teaching partnership of an English course entitled "The Doctor: Subject and Author." Taught entirely using a problem-based or collaborative Literature and Medicine 13, no. 2 (Fall 1994) 184-186 © 1994 by The Johns Hopkins University Press Lynn C. Epstein 185 learning format, the course included works in different genres about doctors and by doctors and was designed for a mix of college juniors, seniors, and graduate medical students.1 It is fair to say that I learned more "medicine" from my close friend, colleague, and Professor of English than from all my many excellent medical teachers. Similarly, Professor Sheridan was fond of crediting her parallel contacts with medical students and doctors with providing new insights into familiar literary texts from Geoffrey Chaucer, Sir Thomas Browne, Molière, and John Keats to Tennessee Williams, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Carlos Williams, and so on. How did Professor Sheridan unite literature with medicine? On the one hand, she felt that doctors must attend to patients' "stories," with a close reading of their interactive, three-dimensional "texts." On the other hand, as a universal human phenomena, the illness experience and the medical attempts to address it provide a compelling topical theme for the teaching and study of any literary style, form, and message. From the perspective of her own illness, she found it appalling that professionals who had dedicated their lives to medicine could be so distanced from patients' experiences with illness. As a dedicated teacher, she set a path to change this situation by examining "a little corner of two worlds."2 Today, as a result of the endowed lectureship and forum that bears her name, the work for such mutual enlightenment continues. When Professor Sheridan's long fight with cancer claimed her life in 1992 on the day of the college convocation at Brown, it seemed to symbolize the perpetual nature of her work. To replace her is impossible , to abandon the message unthinkable. The course we created continues, and this endowed lectureship and forum preserves and expands what Harriet Sheridan began. With a generous lead gift from the Joukowsky Family Foundation and a growing list of original sponsors, supporters, and friends, an enduring place for this educational opportunity seems assured. The yearly programs each spring are the harvests, approaching literature and...