Why might lovers of literature listen to what a student headed to medical school says about poetry? And how can a student of poetry clarify patient care for medical clinicians? Rebecca Cherian (Class of 2026), a major in Biomedical Sciences and minor in English, might answer in one word: Consilience. Consilience is the strong concurrence of two or more disciplines, or unrelated sources or data sets, on a meaningful insight. It is also the name of the podcast that she produced during an independent study in Fall 2025 with Dr. Mara Scanlon, Professor of English.
The project in Medical Humanities was also Rebecca’s Honors capstone for the UMW Honors Program. Rebecca plans to attend The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences next fall, and her concern for patient care and love of poetry from coursework in English were the driving forces behind her project. Reading deeply in poetry anthologies that collect works by patients and family members about their illnesses and experiences in the biomedical system, and by clinicians as well, she identified three topics that she wished to explore in her podcast episodes: patient/provider interactions; the lived experience of illness; and the humanization of patients in clinical care. Overall, Consilience advocates that encountering the diverse voices, stories, and emotions of human beings through poetry could help providers counter what Rebecca describes as the “decline of clinical empathy and patient humanization, which has, at times, led to decreased quality of care.”
Though new to podcasting, Rebecca learned the system in the HCC recording studio and editing techniques; in addition to providing a new challenge, podcasting seemed like way to make her project more accessible and portable, especially since one of its intended audiences is future and current clinicians. She drafted guest readers for the poems in each episode (Dr. Scanlon and two student members of UMW’s Fine Print Club), and a friend also composed and recorded the podcast’s musical theme.
This project has given me the opportunity to meaningfully combine my scientific and literary interests. By doing so, I’ve learned the value of interdisciplinary study and how people in all fields can benefit from this approach.
Rebecca presented this project to students, faculty, and guests in December 2025 at the Honors Symposium, but Consilience is available on Spotify for any interested listeners.
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