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The comic arts often push limits and tackle complex topics within a simple narrative with engaging characters and snappy dialog. An emerging literary field–graphic medicine–presents public health information in comics forms and has depicted deeply revealing individual experiences with health issues, including breast cancer, deafness, mental illness and HIV/AIDS. Conveying complex medical topics through comic arts is particularly effective for patient education for health care consumers with limited literacy or who are non-native speakers.
The 2024 Black History Month Lecturer brings a fresh and singular voice to this practical artform.
Shirlene Obuobi, M.D., is a Ghanaian-American physician and cartoonist. She will deliver VCU Libraries’ Black History Month Lecture on Feb. 6 at 7 p.m. at James Branch Cabell Library. Her topic will be “Narrative Medicine and Identity.”
Shirlene Obuobi, M.D., is a third-year general cardiology fellow at The University of Chicago Medical Center, where she also completed medical school and internal medicine residency.
Born in Ghana, Obuobi came with her family to the United States when she was 6 years old. She grew up in Chicago, Hot Springs, Arkansas and The Woodlands, Texas. She attended Washington University in St. Louis. She has always had a passion for creating and is a self-taught artist and writer.
Her comics focus on the challenges of being a Ghanaian-American woman in medicine and the stresses and challenges of medical school. She has gained nearly 38,000 followers on her Instagram account. Her comics have been featured in UChicago Medicine, Proto Magazine and the Medical University of Vienna’s Art, Action, Attitude/Body exhibit. Her comics explore the challenges of medical school and developing a professional identity among other themes.
Bias is a frequent theme in Obuobi’s comics. She’s drawn about sexism, racism, stereotyping and major and microaggressions and physicians’ frustrations with medical insurance.
Previous lectures in this series
For special accommodations, or to register offline, please contact Ryan Pander, event manager, rbpander@vcu.edu or 804-828-0593.