RPCS Welcomes Back Author and Physician Dr. Lydia Kang for Annual Crane Lecture

RPCS Welcomes Back Author and Physician Dr. Lydia Kang for Annual Crane Lecture
RPCS Welcomes Back Author and Physician Dr. Lydia Kang for Annual Crane Lecture
On March 26, Roland Park Country School was thrilled to welcome back author, physician and RPCS alumna Lydia Kang, M.D., 1989 as the special guest speaker for this year’s Sarah Crane Cohen Visiting Scholar in Humanities Lecture. Dr. Kang’s most recent book, Pseudoscience: An Amusing History of Crackpot Ideas and Why We Love Them, was just published last month and is a follow-up to her 2017 book, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything. 
 
Dr. Kang spent the day meeting with our Middle and Upper School students. In her presentation to Middle School students, Dr. Kang spoke about how the scientific method has been a recurring theme in her life and how she learned the importance of not focusing on “failures” or “successes,” but rather collecting data and learning from that information. She talked about how she fell in love with both writing and science during her four years at Roland Park Country School and how she pursued both passions, despite setbacks, challenges and fear. “We need curiosity, lifelong learning and a willingness to change to grow,” Dr. Kang told the Middle School students. She also encouraged them to nurture their passions and remember that the impossible is possible, but takes a lot of difficult and sometimes painful work. 
 
In her presentation to Upper School students, Dr. Kang explained how she generates ideas for her books, including a haunting poem she read in elementary school and an organic chemistry class she took at RPCS. “It was at Roland Park Country School that I learned I had a brain,” Dr. Kang told the girls. “And I had people around me who supported me for being smart.” In both student presentations, she fielded several thoughtful questions from students about imposter syndrome, balancing her dual careers and family, and her favorite memories of RPCS. In the afternoon, Dr. Kang led a creative writing workshop with the sixth graders in which they were tasked with selecting a minor character from an existing story and writing a fresh perspective from their point of view.
 
 
In her evening lecture to the community, Dr. Kang delighted the audience with examples of pseudoscience from her new book, including palm reading, polygraph tests, cryptozoology (e.g. Bigfoot, Chessie) and UFOs. She shared the definition of pseudoscience, a system of theories, assumptions, and methods erroneously regarded as scientific, discussed several reasons why pseudoscience is so compelling even when disproven by science and explained why it will continue to persist. Dr. Kang acknowledged that the scientific process creates continuous iterations, resulting in regular updates and improvements in results. Because of this constant process of revision, she encouraged the audience to have faith in the results of rigorous research that follows the scientific process. A book sale and signing followed her evening lecture.
 
 
Dr. Kang is the author of 12 books, including young adult fiction, adult fiction and non-fiction, and poetry. She graduated from Columbia University and New York University School of Medicine, completing her residency and chief residency at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. Dr. Kang is also a practicing physician and associate professor of Internal Medicine who has gained a reputation for helping fellow writers achieve medical accuracy in fiction. Her poetry and non-fiction have been published in JAMA, The Annals of Internal Medicine, Canadian Medical Association Journal, Journal of General Internal Medicine, and Great Weather for Media. 
 
About the Sarah Crane Cohen Visiting Scholar in the Humanities Lecture
The Sarah Crane Cohen Visiting Scholar in the Humanities Endowment was established in 1993 by the late Charles Crane in memory of his mother. It is intended that the Sarah Crane Cohen Visiting Scholar shall be recognized for his/her accomplishments in any of several fields which comprise “the humanities.” This individual is selected from a culturally diverse background which varies from scholar to scholar.