Danielle Spencer is a faculty member in the Columbia University Narrative Medicine Graduate Program. Author of Metagnosis: Revelatory Narratives of Health and Identity (Oxford University Press, 2021) and co-author of Perkins-Prize-winning The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine (OUP, 2017), her scholarly and creative work appears in diverse outlets, from The Lancet to Ploughshares. She is the Editor of the Anthem Studies in Narrative and Health Humanities book series and is an Associate Editor of Literature and Medicine. Formerly artist/musician David Byrne’s Art Director, Spencer holds a B.A. from Yale University, an M.S. in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, and has been awarded fellowships at MacDowell and Yaddo.
“I think that [Metagnosis] is an extraordinary book. […] It's really rare in the broad general field that encompasses us both to encounter something that is genuinely original. And this book is full of insights that I had never had before. Indeed, it describes an entire category of experience—diagnostic in large part—and how it's played out in our society. And I think like, for example, Susan Sontag's Illnesses as Metaphor, it really changes the way that we think about things that we thought we knew all about. And so I don't have enough words of praise for what has been accomplished here, and accomplished, it should be added, in thrilling and readable prose, so that it remains deeply, deeply engaging. I mentioned Susan Sontag; it also has some of the kind of riveting charm of an Oliver Sacks book. It really captures the experiences of individual people and then draws profound conclusions from them."
— Andrew Solomon, winner of the National Book Award; author of National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Far from the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity
Recent:
Visit The METAGNOSIS Project website
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Intellect Books: In Conversation: ​​Whose Story is it Anyway?
With James Campbell, Rupal Shah, Jens Foell, and guests Arthur Frank and Danielle Spencer, February 2025
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“Everyone is a Tomato: Metagnostic Narratives of Genetic Revelation.”
Danielle Spencer. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part C: Seminars in Medical Genetics, 2024, e32118. PDF.
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Danielle Spencer: "Scientific Forestry and Healthcare: Fighting for the Soul" [from 1:32:42–1:55:30]
Fighting for the Soul of General Practice event with Jens Foell, Rupal Shah, John Launer, Arthur Frank + Danielle Spencer
Association of Narrative Practitioners of Health, London, England, 24 May 2024
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“Narrative Medicine: The Book at the Gates of Biomedicine.”
Danielle Spencer. The Use and Abuse of Stories: New Directions in Narrative Hermeneutics,
edited by Hanna Meretoja and Mark Freeman, Oxford University Press, 2023, 305–339. PDF
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“Illness Narratives: From Analysis to Answerability.” Danielle Spencer and Arthur Frank. Handbook on the Sociology of Health and Medicine, edited by Alan Petersen, Edward Elgar, 2023, 124–137. PDF
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Philosophy Casting Call S3 E2: Metagnosis and Narrative Medicine with Danielle Spencer,
hosted by Élaina Gauthier-Mamaril, 12 January 2023
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Shaddow // Yaddo S2 E14: State of Mind, with Andrew Solomon, 8 September 2022
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“Wizards, Masks, and Metagnosis: Is the Pandemic Truly Changing Us?”
Danielle Spencer. Literature and Medicine, vol. 39, no. 2, Fall 2021, 198–211. PDF