Christine Montross

Christine Elaine Montross (born 1973) is an American medical doctor and writer. First a published poet and a high school teacher, she later took up medical studies, and became an assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University's Alpert Medical School. She is the recipient of a 2015 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Personal life and early career

Montross was born to Scott and Janice Montross.[1] She is a sister of former NBA basketball player and sports commentator Eric Montross.[2]

Montross grew up in Indianapolis before moving to Ann Arbor, Michigan to attend the University of Michigan. There, she studied French literature and environmental science as an undergraduate and went on to receive a Master of Arts in poetry from the same university in 1998. She had her works published in various literary journals including Calyx, Witness, and Alligator Juniper. While a graduate student, she also met her wife, Deborah Salem Smith; the two moved to San Francisco together. Montross' experiences there as a teacher at a charter school for at-risk students led to her interest in psychiatry; after a year doing pre-medical coursework at Bryn Mawr College, she entered the Brown University School of Medicine in September 2001.[2] While a medical student, she also pursued independent study under Carole Maso of Brown's literary arts program.[3] She received her MD degree in 2006 and her Master of Medical Science degree in 2007, and completed her residency in 2010. She went on to be appointed to her current position of assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior.[4]

Books

Body of Work

Montross' first book, Body of Work: Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab, is a memoir of her time as a medical student. She wrote it during her first year at Brown.[5] A major theme of Body of Work is the reactions of Montross and her student colleagues to their first dissection of a human corpse, which they nickname "Eve".[6][7] More broadly, Montross also discusses the history of anatomy, including her visit to Padua to see the laboratory where Andreas Vesalius performed the dissections which led to his influential work on human anatomy, De humani corporis fabrica.[8] Montross appeared on C-SPAN's Q&A for an interview with Brian Lamb about the book.[9] Rachel Hartigan Shea of The Washington Post praised Body of Work as "a beautiful book" which "offers of a place off limits to anyone without Montross's clearsighted courage", while Katie Roiphe of The New York Times Book Review named it an Editor's Choice.[6][10]

Falling Into the Fire

Montross received the MacColl Johnson Fellowship in 2010, using the award money to conduct research in Paris on the origins of psychiatric treatment and to begin work on a collection of poetry, tentatively titled Lunacy and Light.[11] That project evolved into Falling Into the Fire: A Psychiatrist's Encounters with the Mind in Crisis, a nonfiction work that discusses mental disorders in a series of case studies.[12][13][14] The profiles are interspersed with anecdotes from Montross's domestic life.

Waiting for an Echo: The Madness of American Incarceration

Montross used her 2015 Guggenheim Fellowship grant award to work on a third book about mentally ill people in United States jails and prisons, titled Waiting for an Echo: The Madness of American Incarceration.[15][16] In the course of her research, she studied correctional institutions in the United States and abroad, including the Cook County Jail in Chicago and Halden Prison in Norway.[17]

References
  1. Almond, Elliott (1993-04-05). "A Lighter Shade of Blue: Montross' Family Has a Michigan Tradition, but North Carolina Hopes". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
  2. Harvey, Charlotte Bruce (September 2007). "Anatomy Lesson". Brown Alumni Magazine. Retrieved 2015-07-19.
  3. Chimene-Weiss, Sara (2010-02-26). "Three alums receive prestigious fellowships for literature". Brown Daily Herald. Retrieved 2015-09-30.
  4. "Author: Christine Montross, MD'06, MMS'07, RES'10". Brown Medicine Magazine. Archived from the original on 2018-04-18. Retrieved 2015-09-30.
  5. Roach, Mary (2007-06-24). "Love and Human Remains". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-07-19.
  6. Shea, Rachel Hartigan (2007-07-16). "Anatomy of an Education". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2015-09-04.
  7. Jurecic, Ann; Marchalik, Daniel (2017-04-22). "A psychiatrist's search for resilience". The Lancet. 389 (10079): 1599. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(17)31007-3. S2CID 205986366.
  8. "Body of Work: Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab". Kirkus Reviews. 2010-05-20. Retrieved 2015-07-19.
  9. "Q&A with Christine Montross". C-SPAN. 2007-07-12. Retrieved 2015-07-19.
  10. Roiphe, Katie (2007-01-01). "Editor's Choice". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-09-04.
  11. "3 RI Writers Awarded MacColl Johnson Fellowships". Rhode Island: State Council on the Arts. February 11, 2010. Retrieved September 30, 2015.
  12. McGrath, Melanie (February 11, 2014). "Falling Into the Fire by Christine Montross, review". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved July 19, 2015.
  13. Merit, Stephanie (March 9, 2014). "Falling Into the Fire review – a psychiatrist's impressive study of mental health". The Guardian. Retrieved July 19, 2015.
  14. Crist, Meehan (July 26, 2013). "'Falling Into the Fire' a piercing portrait of psychiatry". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 19, 2015.
  15. Driver, Justin (July 21, 2020). "Waiting for an Echo: The Madness of American Incarceration". The New York Times. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  16. Wooldridge, Emily (April 10, 2015). "Brown University Prof. Honored With Guggenheim Fellowship". Rhode Island Public Radio. Retrieved July 19, 2015.
  17. Baldwin, Sarah (2017). "Social Justice League: A cadre of medical and legal advocates cares deeply about the health of people behind bars". Brown Medicine Magazine. Archived from the original on December 5, 2017. Retrieved December 5, 2017.
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