Common Reading
Starting in their first semester, students enroll in three one-credit interprofessional courses that are integrated into their programs of study. Working in interprofessional teams and guided by expert faculty, students learn foundational collaborative skills to enhance safe, quality, and equitable care. The MGH Institute Common Reading Program provides incoming students, and members of the MGH Institute community, an opportunity for shared reflection on important topics impacting the health of individuals and societies.
Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body by Rebekah Taussig is the current pre-assigned book that all matriculating IHP students, regardless of profession, are asked to read prior to their scheduled orientation.
This first-person narrative centers on the experiences of Rebekah Taussig. The author shares her personal journey growing up with lower body paralysis and highlights complex depictions of disability in our culture. Rebekah Taussig “paints a beautiful, nuanced portrait of a body that looks and moves differently that most” (National Endowment for the Arts) and her work as a disability studies scholar allows the reader to reflect on key concepts in disability representation, identity, and community.
The Common Reading serves as a foundation for the interprofessional team-based learning students engage in during their time at the MGH Institute. Each program builds a one-hour session into their program orientation to discuss the book through the lens of interprofessional collaborative practice and justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, thereby introducing new students to important core values of the IHP. These sessions are typically facilitated by interprofessional faculty members.
About a month before orientation, you will receive a direct link through your school e-mail address that will allow you to access an electronic version of Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body. You may also independently purchase a paper copy of the book. If you do not receive an email with the link, please ymendezrainey [at] mghihp.edu (email Yolanda Mendez Rainey).
