UI Libraries Digital Scholarship & Publishing Studio announces launch of Health Story Hub, NEH-awarded digital project collaboration

Kristine Muñoz, Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Iowa, and Daena Goldsmith, Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Professor of Rhetoric and Media Studies at Lewis & Clark College, received a $150,000 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Humanities Initiatives grant for their collaborative project titled, “Salud, to your Health! Resources for Teaching Health Narratives in English and Spanish.” The grant also supports developing a literary journal for undergraduate students to publish health narratives written in Spanish.

“Our proposal for the project drew on years of research that shows how powerful stories are for patients, providers, caregivers, and family members whenever they’re dealing with health issues, whether those are physical or mental health,” Muñoz says. “If you have ever broken a bone, you probably told the story of how it happened 100 times. That story becomes a big part of understanding how it happened and why it happened, and how important breaking that bone was in your life,” she said. “Storytelling is how we make sense of what happens to us, and part of healing is finding that human connection to others who also broke a bone, had cancer, or went through the grief of losing a loved one.”

The three-year project, which began in 2022, is a multi-institutional collaboration to create a digital database of course materials, workshops, and other resources for developing and teaching courses in narrative medicine and health humanities in English and Spanish. By supporting those who teach courses and workshops, the project encourages students and participants to learn from reading others’ stories or to write their own. DSPS worked in cooperation with the co-PIs to design, plan, and implement the Health Story Hub site and journal platform.

Goldsmith said the idea for the site grew out of collaborating with Muñoz as they each taught courses on health stories.  “We thought, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to take the things that we’ve learned from teaching in university and community settings and make those resources available to anybody who’s looking for readings, writing prompts, or assignments,” she said.  “We’ve had a very positive response to a site that’s been curated. The stories on our site have some complexity that can prompt discussion.  People have also been excited about having a place where those of us doing this work in lots of different communities or institutions can connect and share resources with one another.” 

The Health Story Hub and Salud, to your Health! Resources for Teaching Health Narratives in English and Spanish project has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Humanities Initiatives. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this article and on the Health Story Hub page, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.