Stanford Medicine
Imagination and Medicine: Graphic Medicine, Comics, and Science Fiction
JULY 6 - JULY 17, 2026
Imagination and Medicine: Graphic Medicine, Comics, and Science Fiction is a two-week course that explores how speculative storytelling and visual narratives shape the ways we understand the human body, illness, technology, and care. Using graphic novels, comics, classic and contemporary science fiction, pop culture, and emerging medical research, students examine medicine past, present, and future while sharpening critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills. Through case studies ranging from Frankenstein to superhero narratives, space medicine, AI, and disability representation, the course invites students to ask “what if?” about the ethical and scientific possibilities of healthcare. Students will apply these ideas by creating an original short medical comic, storyboard, or speculative scenario that imagines new futures for medicine and healing.
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Register HERE
Registration Deadline:
March 1, 2026
Join us for an upcoming information session:
Course Directors: Dr. Sakena De Young-Scaggs & Bryant Lin, MD, MEng
Rev. Dr. Sakena Young-Scaggs is Senior Associate Dean for Religious and Spiritual Life and Pastor of Memorial Church. Rev. Dr. Sakena Young-Scaggs is an unyielding voice on race, gender, and social justice. She holds a BA in Italian Culture and Language and a BA in Political Science & International Studies. After completing both her MDiv and STM at Boston University, she worked and served in Higher Education for over a decade as what she calls an "academic midwife" lending to her contention that we must birth new life every day in the academy and nurture students toward their success. “Rev. Dr. Sys” or simply Rev. Sys as her students call her, is an ordained Itinerant Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Rev. Dr. Young-Scaggs has given talks and lectures on race, gender, Africana folklore, Womanist theology, phenomenology, Science Fiction, and Philosophy. She continues to write and research in the areas of Afrofuturism, Womanist Phenomenology, Geographies of Race and Gender, and Religion in Higher Education. Intentionally interdisciplinary and intersectional, her work continues to interrogate transformational issues in the academy and the world.
Bryant Lin, MD, MEng is a primary care physician, educator and researcher. The cornerstone of Dr. Lin's work is keeping medicine focused on humans - patients, providers, families and trainees - and not lost in technology and algorithms. His research and educational interests span (1) Developing and testing novel medical technologies, (2) Improving the health of Asian populations with Precision and Population Health, and (3) Increasing expression and interconnections in the Health Community with the Humanities and Arts. After receiving his undergraduate and master's degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, he completed his MD and internal Medicine training at Tufts University School of Medicine and Tufts Medical Center.