Brief
Dharushana Muthulingam, MD is a physician, author, researcher, and educator, committed to building science, medicine, and technology for post-empire. She has trained/taught in philosophy, public health, medicine, infectious diseases, critical medical humanities, and clinical research, at UC Berkeley, UCSF, Kaiser Oakland, Yale, Washington University, and in experimental educational spaces including the Berkeley Free Clinic and School of the Alternative. Her work is published in academic journals, Vogue online, Ms. magazine, Logic(s), The Drift, and others. Her research has been funded by NIH, CDC, and others, and writing by Anaphora Arts.
LOOSE
I am Eelam Thamil, raised in the Mojave desert, here for that Renaissance life. I studied philosophy, neuroscience, public health and medicine, mostly at Berkeley and UCSF, then infectious disease at Yale. I will be joining UCLA Division of Infectious Disease in summer 2026. 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. Additional academic work focus has been on public health communication, clinical education, and critical medical humanities.
Themes in my work have included broad ecologies of infectious disease, healthcare labor, care work, sexual health, displacement, pragmatics of non-hierarchical infrastructure, and a serious investigation into living as if we are already free. Methodologies of my work are clinical medicine, epidemiology, implementation science, public science communication, literary nonfiction, speculative fiction, health journalism, cultural criticism, epistemology, mutimedia and performing arts, dialogics, and pedagogy.
My writing and interviews have appeared in Vogue online, Ms. magazine, NY Times, Washington Post, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and others. I am working on a book about building the infrastructure of science, medicine, and innovation for post-empire. Follow on socials/email list if you would like to hear about upcoming work.
I have a background in performance art (theater, dance) and sometimes engage in multimedia art. I speak and teach broadly: academic coursework, scientific presentations, grand rounds, keynotes, seminars, workshops. Sometimes I consult.
My interests are multidisciplinary and expansive, but organize around a framework of care work as the primary work, scientific curiosity, liberation, sovereignty of body, community, and land. I strongly believe in rest, jokes, meaningful work, pleasure, community, collaboration, and valuing labor.
Feel free to reach out if you would like to work together