ABOUT
Writer, physician, bon vivant.
I am a Sri Lankan-Californian, raised in the desert, here for that Renaissance life. I studied philosophy and neuroscience, then public health and medicine, at Berkeley and UCSF. I trained in infectious disease and research at Yale and served as faculty at Washington University. I focus in the role of art and humanities in patient care, advocacy and medical education. My clinical research has been in the intersection of infectious disease, health disparities, substance use and incarceration. This work has been funded by NIH, CDC, and others.
I write essays, health journalism, science communication, cultural criticism, speculative fiction, screenplays. My writing and interviews have appeared in Vogue, Ms. magazine, NY Times, Washington Post, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and others. I am thrilled to be attending 2023 Kenyon Review Writer's Workshop and teaching about narrative at the 2023 session of the School of the Alternative.
The etymology of "doctor" is the Latin docere - to teach. Teaching is my organizing priniciple, specifically the critical pedagogy of Frantz Fanon and Paolo Freire:
"Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.”
It is a process.
My interests are broad and expansive but organize around a framework of care work as the primary work, scientific curiosity, justice, liberation and healing in the broadest sense. I strongly believe in rest, meaningful work, pleasure, community and valuing labor. Please reach out if you are interested in working together!