Dispatches · Issue 17 · Newsletter ·
The Existential Dispatch, Issue No. 17
The question “What makes care human?” is never settled by adding more capability alone. It is answered in the ways institutions listen, protect dignity, and leave room for a person’s own account of what matters. Thinker of the issue: Friedrich Nietzsche.
A Word from the Founding Director
The question “What makes care human?” is never settled by adding more capability alone. It is answered in the ways institutions listen, protect dignity, and leave room for a person’s own account of what matters. This issue follows that question from workplace safety to disability and technology, from global cancer policy to the strange new frontier of digital mourning.
Existential Thinker of the Issue
Friedrich Nietzsche
“From the military school of life. — What does not kill me makes me stronger.”
Nietzsche’s line is often flattened into motivational wallpaper. Clinically, it is more useful as a provocation: survivorship is not automatically strength, and suffering does not become meaningful by decree. The work is to ask what a person has endured, what it has changed, and what forms of agency remain possible without romanticising harm. archive.org
In Academia
The rising tide of workplace violence in the healthcare sector — A global scoping review of 77 studies across 53 countries finds psychological and verbal violence are the most frequently reported forms, with burnout, anxiety, turnover, and impaired patient care among the consequences. Its clinical invitation is systemic: accessible reporting, context-sensitive prevention, training, and psychosocial support must be designed together. frontiersin.org
In Film, Literature and Culture
The Double Bind of Disability: How Medical Technology Shapes Bodily Authority — A July review of Rebecca Monteleone’s book asks what happens when disabled people are told to take responsibility for their health while their lived expertise is discounted in the technologies shaping their lives. The existential question is not only what medicine can do, but whose account of a life counts as knowledge. choice360.org
In Healthcare (Global)
WHO Global status report on cancer 2026 — The WHO’s July report pairs unprecedented scientific progress with persistent inequities in who benefits. Its three shifts — better capabilities, better protections, and better value — place people affected by cancer at the centre of a holistic, equitable system. who.int
Funding and Grant Opportunities
CIHR Project Grant — Fall 2026 competition — For University of Toronto applicants: notify RSO of intent to submit by July 31 for optional editorial review; registration is due August 12, 2026; the MRA deadline is August 31; and the full application is due September 9, 2026 at 8:00 p.m. ET. Check the U of T page for the internal workflow and current instructions. utm.utoronto.ca
Conferences and Events
Asia Pacific Hospice & Oceanic Palliative Care Conference 2027 — The call for abstracts closes August 10, 2026. Submissions are electronic, limited to 300 words including references, and the “Emerging Work” category can proceed without completed results (for rapid-fire or poster consideration). aphc27opcc.com
Startup and Innovation Watch
AI grief bots and the ethics of a simulated presence — Hospice News surveys tools such as Hereafter.ai, StoryFile, and Versona Voice that recreate a deceased person’s voice, image, or conversational presence. The innovation is striking; so are the questions about consent, posthumous autonomy, data ownership, and whether technology can support mourning without asking us to bypass it. hospicenews.com
To Close: An Existential Joke
Why did the existentialist refuse the elevator? He wanted to confront the stairs himself.