Susan Baxter, Simon Fraser University
Continuing Studies
Instructor
Vancouver, British Columbia
sbaxter@sfu.ca
Office:
(604) 737-1452
Bio/Research
Susan Baxter’s background includes a BA in Psychology and brief stints as a substitute teacher, taxi driver and standup comic. Working at CBC’s TV Drama sparked her interest in writing and from there it was only a short jump towards a career in writing – initially creating comedy sketches and dra...
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Bio/Research
Susan Baxter’s background includes a BA in Psychology and brief stints as a substitute teacher, taxi driver and standup comic. Working at CBC’s TV Drama sparked her interest in writing and from there it was only a short jump towards a career in writing – initially creating comedy sketches and dramas for television (she is still a member of the Writer’s Guild of Canada) and, eventually, to her current work in print.
The day-to-day research of a working, professional writer takes her to all manner of strange places, especially since Canadian writers rarely have the luxury of turning down a job. Baxter recalls dragging herself out of bed at 4 a.m. on an icy cold morning to meet a Greenpeace dinghy on the Fraser River at dawn; hanging around at Molly’s Reach talking about literature with “old Relic” (Robert Clothier) and sitting on a teeny bench on a cold Sunday morning belting out Sharon, Lois and Bram songs with a four-year-olds.
But her real interest ended up being health and medicine and throughout the ‘90’s her by-line appeared in various and sundry publications including Family Practice, Medical Post, Health Watch, Chatelaine, You and more. She attended hundreds of medical conferences and CME’s (Continuing Medical Education seminars for physicians) and spent countless hours interviewing patients, doctors and others.
Eventually, as she began to appreciate the complelxity of of physiology and the deep roots so-called scientific medicine has in history, economics, society and culture, her work changed; she wrote a book on the immune system and, eventually, a doctoral thesis (Medicine, Metaphors and Metaphysics), where a single, simple notion, restrictive formularies, was parsed through the interdisciplinary lens of clinical medicine, medical sociology/anthropology, health economics, bioethics, communications and history.
Today, as the sheer amount of medical information threatens to overwhelm even the most knowledgeable of us, her focus continues to be the inner workings of medicine and the interdisciplinary analysis of our understanding of health matters. As a writer, independent scholar, educator and speaker, Baxter spends her time sifting through medical texts and journals in an attempt to demystify the morass of medical advice we are subjected to as individuals.
Susan Baxter continues to offer her trans-disciplinary slant through her writing and teaching. Her next project is an introductory text for the “Foundations of Health Science” she has taught at SFU that will also serve as a guide for her students at the Seniors Program.
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The day-to-day research of a working, professional writer takes her to all manner of strange places, especially since Canadian writers rarely have the luxury of turning down a job. Baxter recalls dragging herself out of bed at 4 a.m. on an icy cold morning to meet a Greenpeace dinghy on the Fraser River at dawn; hanging around at Molly’s Reach talking about literature with “old Relic” (Robert Clothier) and sitting on a teeny bench on a cold Sunday morning belting out Sharon, Lois and Bram songs with a four-year-olds.
But her real interest ended up being health and medicine and throughout the ‘90’s her by-line appeared in various and sundry publications including Family Practice, Medical Post, Health Watch, Chatelaine, You and more. She attended hundreds of medical conferences and CME’s (Continuing Medical Education seminars for physicians) and spent countless hours interviewing patients, doctors and others.
Eventually, as she began to appreciate the complelxity of of physiology and the deep roots so-called scientific medicine has in history, economics, society and culture, her work changed; she wrote a book on the immune system and, eventually, a doctoral thesis (Medicine, Metaphors and Metaphysics), where a single, simple notion, restrictive formularies, was parsed through the interdisciplinary lens of clinical medicine, medical sociology/anthropology, health economics, bioethics, communications and history.
Today, as the sheer amount of medical information threatens to overwhelm even the most knowledgeable of us, her focus continues to be the inner workings of medicine and the interdisciplinary analysis of our understanding of health matters. As a writer, independent scholar, educator and speaker, Baxter spends her time sifting through medical texts and journals in an attempt to demystify the morass of medical advice we are subjected to as individuals.
Susan Baxter continues to offer her trans-disciplinary slant through her writing and teaching. Her next project is an introductory text for the “Foundations of Health Science” she has taught at SFU that will also serve as a guide for her students at the Seniors Program.
Click to Shrink <<