Tavis Apramian

As a candidate in the MD/PhD program at the University of Western Ontario, I have chosen a research project that focuses on surgical education. In surgery, as in all medicine, it is essential to wed our hard-won medical knowledge to an awareness of the limits of that knowledge. But to convey this strange admixture of the known and the unknown, of achievement and aspiration, we need effective means of communication. I came to the English program at Carleton University simply knowing that I was interested in stories.

The double major in English and Biology that I earned at Carleton played a key role in my intellectual development. My biology courses showed me the power of our knowledge of the human body and the vast potential of the scientific method. Yet, in English, I could not escape being taught that, despite the complexity of our civilization, we are bound to ancient but powerful means of communicating. Our experience of the world runs through stories. Our civilization is built on them and our science works through them. My double major has taught me that art and science form no dichotomy, but a robust dialectic: that is, they come together to make something necessary and new.

Creative nonfiction: The Poydras Review, Journal of the Canadian Medical Association

Research: Academic Medicine, Medical Education, Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, Medical Teacher, American Journal of Surgery, Annals of Surgery, Clinical & Investigative Medicine, Qualitative Research, Journal of Surgical Education

How has your Carleton English degree informed your professional and/or creative path?

Studying literature brought me to places, times, and people that I otherwise would never have met. In books and in classes I met scholars who taught me about the craft of writing. I met authors that brought new colours and flavours to my life. And I met ideas that enriched the person I became and the career I pursued. I have yet to encounter a tool as good as the novel for exploring the mind of another person, and the skills I built studying novel are skills I use in clinic and in research every day.

Why Carleton? What specific experiences or opportunities did you benefit from while studying English at Carleton?

Carleton English department’s strong teaching in literary theory and criticism helped me to rethink the idea of truth. I learned that, at the most progressive edges of study in both the arts and the sciences, we return to the idea that bias is inescapable. Our perception of gender, race, ownership, history, scientific findings, and all that informs our beliefs and values comes filtered through the lens of our previous experience. Studying English at Carleton taught me to question authority and claims to truth in a productive way. Those lessons have carried with me through my career in both the arts and medicine.