Episode 26: Portraying the Realities of Infertility Through ART

With a degree in photography from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Elizabeth works in imaging and communications for the University of Michigan Medical School’s Department of Pathology where she also serves on the department’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion committee and the Patients and Families Advisory Council. After her own infertility diagnosis, the focus of her artwork shifted using a variety of mediums to express her experiences with infertility. She also began documenting the lives of others with infertility through portraits and interviews, in order to allow them healing through sharing their stories, and, to share those stories with medical practitioners and legislators, advocating for improvements to the care of those with the disease.

Maria teaches professional writing at the University of Wisconsin. Her dissertation, “The ART of Infertility: A Community Project Rhetorically Conceiving Failed Fertility,” overviews her collaboration with The ART of Infertility and features the stories of three infertile women who created pieces of art for the project. The findings of her research document how art, an extension of multimodal-making, is used as a rhetorical practice to navigate an infertility diagnosis. Broadly, her research advocates for curated exhibits of patient artwork as a method to facilitate more effective, patient-centered communication in healthcare settings.