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 Are you an “Architect” or a “Scrounger” in your writing process, or maybe a little bit of both? Join Chihiro and me to talk about designing a holistic writing practice that meets your style and deadlines, especially for interdisciplinary research methods. Chihiro also talks about her efforts to promote wellness resources for graduate students and healing patients in hospital settings through music therapy.  While your research doesn’t have to tie directly into real-world applications, Chihiro’s study of ancient medical notions of holistic health emphasizes the importance of weaving architectural and musical beauty into places of care.

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Explore other episodes of The Write In podcast—and other podcasts about grad student life.

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Our Guest

Chihiro Larissa Tsukamoto is an award-winning musician, historian, writing instructor, interpreter and translator, and ballet dancer. Chihiro received a Ph.D. from Yale University, where she won the Janice Carlisle Prize for Excellence in Teaching. She wrote her dissertation on how music was used for therapeutic purposes in Ancient Greece, and in the Byzantine, Abbasid, and Ottoman empires. She hopes to apply her research in clinical settings and was a volunteer harpist at the Yale-New Haven Hospital. She loves all things ballet, mythology, and languages.

Explore Chihiro’s website

Credits

A heartfelt thanks to Ryan McEvoy, Podcast and Video Producer at Yale Teaching Studios, for teaching me podcast production and his continued guidance and quality control, The Poorvu Center for supporting the Write In Podcast project, and my wonderful team at the Graduate Writing Lab for their insights and motivation. 

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