Common Question

How Do You Define What’s Human?

Common Question + Writing Center Events

Spring 2025

This year, we invite you to join us in the Writing Center (Gilman Hall 230) and elsewhere for a series of events exploring this year’s Common Question. While all events are free and open to the campus community, we recommend registering early to save your spot.

This spring, we’re kicking off our Common Question programming with two events that will explore the intersections of writing and medicine.

Writing for Resilience: Find the Words We Need to Flourish
Thurs., Jan. 30, 2025 | 2:30 – 4:00 p.m. | JHU Writing Center, Gilman Hall 230
Space is Limited: Register Today

This workshop will be led by Dr. Lenny Grant, Assistant Professor of Writing and Rhetoric at Syracuse University and founder of the Resilience Writing Project, which helps healthcare professionals process trauma through expressive writing.

Writing can be powerful medicine, helping us make sense of struggles and transform them into flourishing. In this workshop, we’ll dive into the science behind expressive writing, exploring how putting pen to paper can reduce stress, boost mental clarity, and even improve your overall health. Through guided writing activities and group discussion, you’ll discover how a simple practice can build strength and connection in your daily life. Whether you’re navigating a tough time or just curious about the power of words, this session will help you write your way to resilience.

Register Here
https://forms.office.com/r/cNQc8K1HHH

Registration for this workshop is capped at 40 participants.
In order to secure a seat in the workshop, early registration is strongly encouraged.

To practice medicine is to understand that writing is a key tool in the medical toolkit. Whether through the narrative art of diagnosis, or the therapeutic power of expressive writing, writing frames interactions and shapes how patients and providers see themselves and each other. In a landscape shaped by technological developments such as the integration of AI in electronic health record systems and shifting social and political dynamics, medicine’s scripts continue to evolve. Join us to explore how the written word informs and illuminates the practice of medicine today.

Presenters

Lakshmi Krishnan (MD, PhD) is a physician, cultural historian of medicine, and Founding Director of Medical Humanities at Georgetown University. Her research explores how medical knowledge is constructed and applied across different scales—from diagnosis to pandemic responses—and how cultural practices and professional identities shape these processes. (photo credit: Tina Krohn)

Lenny Grant (PhD) is an Assistant Professor of Writing and Rhetoric at Syracuse University and the founder of the Resilience Writing Project. He works in the rhetorical history of psychiatry, science communication, and the health humanities, connecting embodied experiences of health and wellness to the knowledge work of the medical sciences. (photo credit: Jeremy Brinn)

Jeremy Greene (MD, PhD) is the William H. Welch Professor of Medicine and the History of Medicine, and Director of the Institute of the History of Medicine and the Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine, Johns Hopkins University. His research explores the ways in which medical technologies come to influence our understandings of what it means to be sick or healthy, normal or abnormal, on personal, regional, and global scales.

Register here: https://forms.office.com/r/E0B5Y6Usf5

Seating is limited. Please register today to reserve a seat.

Thurs., Sept. 5, 2 – 4 pm:
Writing Center Opening Reception

Join us for pizza, cake, and other treats as The Writing Center officially opens for the Fall 2024 term. Learn about the resources available in the Writing Center, meet our Director, Associate Directors, tutors, and staff, and help us kick off the academic year in style.

How do you answer the Common Question from an Hispanophone perspective? Does the question translate in a way that makes sense? Answer these questions and more during our celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month with University Writing Program’s Dr. Laura Hartmann-Villalta.

In partnership with JHU’s Center for Social Concern & Hopkins Votes, join us for a conversation about American Democracy and learn how to effectively communicate your concerns to your local, state, and federal representatives. Join us in learning how to make your voice heard.

Thurs., Nov. 7, 2 – 4 pm: Solving Human Problems: A Celebration of STEAM

Join us for pizza and cake and great conversation about how a broad education in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics) leverages innovation, growth, and technological and social progress.

Mon., Nov. 18, 12 – 1 pm: “Sociolinguistic Research for Social and Linguistic Justice.”

Join us for a discussion of sociolinguistics and linguistic justice with Dr. Chrstine Mallinson, Professor of Language, Literacy, & Culture and Affiliate Professor of Gender and Women’s and Sexuality Studies at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.

Thurs., Dec. 5, 2 – 4 pm:
Honoring the Mind and the Body

Let’s face it: it’s been a long semester filled with exciting and sometimes exhausting intellectual and academic challenges. Join us in the Writing Center for a relaxed and informal discussion of the mind-body connection and the relationship between physical/mental/emotional well-being and academic success.

Tues., Dec. 10, 8 – Midnight:
Long Night Against Procrastination

Join us in the Writing Center for the Long Night Against Procrastination. Come get serious studying done in a collaborative, supportive environment, and enjoy quiet study time, pizza, snacks, and engagement with our writing tutors, and participate in some necessary de-stressing activities.