Research from Humanities Council long-term visitor Joseph Fins (Weill Cornell Medical College) was featured in The New York Times on December 4, 2023. The article, titled “Brain Implants Helped 5 People Toward Recovery After Traumatic Injuries,” featured a new study on deep brain stimulation that was co-authored by Fins. The founding Chair of the Ethics Committee of New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center, Fins is an attending physician and the director of medical ethics.
Fins, who is the Old Dominion Visiting Fellow in the Humanities Council and Department of Classics, recently gave a Council-sponsored public lecture titled “Severe Brain Injury, Neuroethics & Disability Rights: Why the Sciences & Humanities must be in Conversation.” In his lecture, he addressed advances in the diagnosis and treatment of disorders of consciousness and the important role that the humanities play in communicating medical advances in research and practice.
At Princeton, Fins is co-teaching an undergraduate course with Brooke Holmes (Classics) entitled, “Bio/Ethics: Ancient and Modern.” The interdisciplinary humanistic studies course, supported by a Team Teaching Grant from the Humanities Council, explores the field of bioethics, and students examine ancient Greek texts in context to explore modern ethical challenges in medicine. Fins is also conducting research in Princeton University Library’s archives for a biography of the physician-humanist, Dr. Lewis Thomas ’33.
