Winner of the Undergraduate Award: Tenzin Dhondup. Please register below!
Lecture Title: Embodied Testimonies: Physicians, Forensics, and the Crisis of Credibility in Asylum Adjudication

📅 Date & Time: Wednesday, October 8, 2025, at Noon
📍 Location: MUSC Library, 4th Floor, Room 424 and live stream on Zoom
🍕 Lunch will be provided for in-person attendees!

This event will also be streamed virtually for those unable to attend on campus.

Dhondup’s paper traces a global history of “asylum medicine,” where physicians serve as forensic witnesses in asylum determinations, and examines its role in shaping how credibility is assessed in claims of persecution and trauma. It outlines three key developments: the post–World War II elevation of trauma as legal evidence, the rise of physician-led anti-torture documentation efforts, and the institutionalization of medico-legal standards like the Istanbul Protocol.

The paper critiques how medicalized credibility frameworks, while intended to protect, can reinforce testimonial and interpretive injustices—particularly for political asylees and survivors of torture. It argues that this form of forensic humanitarianism imposes burdens of proof that may ultimately harm. Dhondup calls for refugee protection systems grounded in trust rather than extraction—centered on taking refugees at their word.

Tenzin's academic and policy work spans global health, refugee rights, and legal medicine. He has worked with the United Nations Refugee Agency, the Tibetan Government in Exile’s Department of Health, and the Yale Law School’s Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy. He plans to pursue an MD and JD focused on the intersections of legal status, identity, and health.

Join us on October 8 at Noon for this timely and thought-provoking lecture, hosted by the Student History Club. Attend virtually or in person in Room 424 of the MUSC Library’s 4th Floor — and enjoy pizza with the SHC community!