Academic career
In 1982 Cole became a professor at UTMB Galveston, where he assisted his mentor, Ronald Carson, in developing the nation’s first Ph.D. Program in medical humanities. [3]
His 1993 book, The Journey of Life: A Cultural History of Aging in America]examined the tradition of European thought and art about aging, traced its evolution in America, and emphasized the absence of social and cultural meaning in later life. [4]
In 1997 Cole wrote No Color is My Kind, the story of Eldrewey Stearns and the integration of Houston. [5]
Cole and his student at the time, Kate de Medeiros, taught Life Story Writing Workshops to groups of elders in Galveston from 1998-2003. [6] The PBS film Life Stories was made about the workshops.
In 2004 Cole became the founding director of the McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics. [7] With Ronald Carson and Nathan Carlin, he co-authored Medical Humanities: An Introduction.
In 2018 Cole began training to become a Spiritual Director under Rabbi James Ponet. He was ordained in 2021 by Rabbi Ponet, Rabbi David Lyon, Rabbi Richard Address, Dr. Catherine Stephenson, Reverend Laura Mayo, and Dr. Thelma Jean Goodrich. In 2021, he founded Congregation Beth Israel’s Center for Healing, Hope, and the Human Spirit with Rabbi David Lyon and began working as a Spiritual Director at Temple Beth Israel in Houston. [8]
Published works
Documentary films
- The Strange Demise of Jim Crow (1998)
- Still Life: The Humanity of Anatomy (2001)
- Life Stories: Aging and the Human Spirit (2001)
- Stroke: Conversations and Explanations (2007).
Edited collections
What Does It Mean to Grow Old? Reflections from the Humanities. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1986.
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?: An Annotated Bibliography of Aging and the Humanities. Washington, D.C.: Gerontological Society of America, 1988.
Handbook of the Humanities and Aging. Springer Publishing Co., 1992.
Voices and Visions of Aging: a Critical Gerontology. Springer Publishing Co., 1993.
The Oxford Book of Aging. Oxford University Press, 1994.
Handbook of the Humanities and Aging. Springer Publishing Co., 1999.
Practicing the Medical Humanities: Forms of Engagement. University Publishing Group, 2003.
Faculty Health in Academic Medicine: Physicians, Scientists, and the Pressures of Success. Totowa, NJ: Humana Press, 2009.
A Guide to Humanistic Studies in Aging. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.
Critical Humanities and Ageing: Forging Interdisciplinary Dialogues. New York, NY: Routledge, 2022.
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