Frontiers of Medicine, the theme of this year’s Thousand Festival

This year, the Thousand Festival is divided into four areas that Juan Ayala and Jose Gordon chose as director and curator of the festival, respectively. These themes are: Mental health in the twenty-first century, cutting-edge research in physiology, collective health and the science and art of medicine.

Mexico City, May 16 (however). – The thousand. Festival of Art and Science of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) will be held this year in its second virtual edition from May 20-30. It will include more than 130 activities, including 25 dialogue tables, 14 major conferences and workshops on the topic. “The limits of medicine.”

Jorge Volpe, UNAM’s cultural diffusion coordinator, explained that last year’s edition took place in the early stages of the pandemic, so think about this issue. This year, El Aleph is still in a pandemic but with a panorama that gradually changes thanks to vaccines, El Aleph is back. “It seemed important to us that this year’s edition of El Aleph be devoted to one of the most relevant disciplines about the epidemic, and thus to medicine and the most advanced part, which is at the forefront of medicine, so we called it“ the frontiers of medicine, ”Volpi said at a virtual press conference. .

The Cultural Diffusion Coordinator explained that this festival will allow from different perspectives and angles to observe what is the state of medicine in our time and how it has contributed to the alleviation of the epidemic and the perception of the world that awaits us. He stressed that all areas of UNAM have joined a joint effort to implement Operation A-1000. “We are convinced that it will be another tremendous effort by the Universidad de la Nación to reflect on these issues and offer a new, different, enlightened and multi-point starting point for society on medicine and how clearly medicine exists, more than now in our lives due to the pandemic.”

This year, the Thousand Festival is divided into four areas that Juan Ayala and Jose Gordon chose as director and curator of the festival, respectively. These themes are: Mental health in the twenty-first century, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the tools of neurosciences will be put into operation to maintain mental balance. Pioneering research in physiology, this topic includes topics related to the nanotechnology revolution and even robotics; Collective health, where he will talk about democratization of knowledge and equal access to medical treatment, in addition to gender bias in medical research; The last axis is the science and art of medicine to talk about the treatment of literature, music and poetry.

Juliana Notary and Aaron Sishanover, two of El Aleph’s participants. Photos: Courtesy

This edition will feature the participation of Israeli scientist Aaron Sishanover, winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry; Medical Director of FemTech Clue in Berlin, Lynae Brayboy; French neurologist Lionel Debate. And Mexican neuropsychiatrist Jess Ramírez Bermديdez; Nora Kerik Rottenberg, Head of the Molecular Imaging Unit PET / CT at the National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery Manuel Velasco Suárez, Mexico; French anthropologist and sociologist David Le Breton. In addition to writer Christina Rivera Garza, writers Juan Jose Milas and David Grossman. Multidisciplinary artist Heidi Boisvert. Chilean group LASTESIS, Juliana Notary and director Sar Harari, among others.

The Juan Ayala celebrations that have been incorporated into the program are the International Day of Action for Women’s Health and the 40th anniversary of the emergence of HIV, as well as joining the Mexico 500 program. Ayala said that there will be keynote lectures, live dialogue tables, talks, radio and television programs, all A day on UNAM TV there will be coverage at 7 pm; In addition, all activities will remain online for consultation throughout the year until February of the following year. He pointed out that last year’s copy achieved great circulation, reaching one million and 244 thousand copies, with the arrival of nearly 5 million users.

The full program can be viewed on the festival website http://culturaunam.mx/elaleph/