When Vivian Curran spoke at a recent panel event with Jeannette South-Paul, she highlighted the connections between her own work in comparative law and South-Paul’s work in family medicine.
“She has done so much ground-breaking work on the use of language in medicine and how physicians need to address the language of their patients,” said Curran, Distinguished Professor of Law.
South-Paul, the Andrew W. Mathieson Professor and chair of the Department of Family Medicine in the School of Medicine, surprised audience members when she noted the two had first met as freshmen in high school.
“You couldn’t have two more different preteens meeting in an all-girls academic public high school in Philadelphia who became great friends,” recalled South-Paul. “It wasn’t until I was selected for the position of chair, and the first person who wrote me and said ‘Congratulations — we’re going to get to be together again!’ was Vivian.”
South-Paul and Curran were joined on the panel by Gretchen Bender, assistant chair and director of undergraduate studies in the History of Art and Architecture in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and assistant dean of academic affairs in the College of General Studies, as part of an event honoring women faculty members promoted during the 2018 calendar year.