Lunch Mates: a regular feature where an MBChB student chats to a member of staff over a leisurely lunch.
Whilst we remain online for this lockdown instalment of Lunch Mates, we’re delighted to invite you to the respective homes of Year 4 medical student, Udita Dolwani and Lecturer of Race, Ethnicity and Health, Dr Gwenetta Curry.
Udita
What were you expectations of this lunch meeting? A lovely chat with a member of staff in a field I’m really interested in and that I think is important. I had really enjoyed Gwenetta’s talk on Race and Ethnicity in February and was excited to meet her.
What did you talk about? Books, knitting, career changes, family members contracting Covid, structural inequalities and health disparities, takeaways, true crime. We talked at length about Gwenetta’s work researching race and health disparities, and about how important it is for people in medicine to be willing to have a conversation about race.
Can you tell us about your lunch mate’s role and what they most enjoy about it? Gwenetta is a Lecturer of Race, Ethnicity, and Health at Edinburgh Medical School. She enjoys being able to educate people about topics that they might have previously thought of as peripheral to the rest of medicine and getting them to confront their prejudices. She said that she liked being able to see the progression of someone’s ideas about race and health, as they learnt more.
What’s your lunch mate’s favourite lunch place (in normal times) and lockdown lunch these days? Her favourite place to order from these days is called ‘Down the hatch’ as it’s the closest Edinburgh can get to a proper Philly Cheesesteak. For lunch, she also loves sushi from Maki Ramen in Fountainbridge.
What does your lunch mate enjoy doing in their spare time? She loves knitting and is currently knitting a pair of socks. She also likes reading and watching Netflix, where she’s just finished watching Bridgerton and a True Crime series.
Did you find any interests in common (outside of work)? We both love books, walking in Edinburgh and warm weather. We also both come from near beaches and miss the beach living in Edinburgh (we like the Edinburgh beaches but can’t usually brave the Scottish waters).
Did anything surprise you about your lunch mate? I was surprised by her career path which has gone through a number of changes; from an animal scientist to a food scientist working in industry to now being a social scientist working as an educator.
What’s your lunch mate’s most memorable moment in their career so far? When working as a food scientist in the US, Gwenetta held focus groups with people living in ‘food deserts’ that had little or no access to fresh or healthy food. This made her consider the importance of structural factors that affect health and change from a corporate job to a social science focused one, in order to investigate and make a difference in this area.
Tell us about one aspiration your lunch mate has for the future. Gwenetta recently achieved one of her aspirations by getting to speak at an event with Dr Thomas LaVeist, one of her intellectual heroes. In the future, she hopes to continue to change the conversation around race at Edinburgh Medical School, and to expand the work she is doing.
Gwenetta
What were your expectations of this lunch meeting? During the lunch meeting, I expected to learn more about the life of students at the University and compared it to my experiences in graduate school in the U.S.
What did you talk about? Udita and I spoke about the various restaurants we enjoyed eating at before the COVID restrictions were in place and the beautiful places to walk in the city of Edinburgh. We also discussed the importance of understanding the social determinants of health and increasing medical school mtraining in race and ethnicity.
Can you tell us about your lunch mate’s role and what they most enjoy about it? My lunch mate is a medical student and I enjoyed learning about some of her interests and how she became interested in becoming a doctor.
What’s your lunch mate’s favourite lunch place (in normal times) and lockdown lunch these days? My lunch mate primarily eats at home but enjoys eating at restaurants near the university.
What does your lunch mate enjoy doing in their spare time? My lunch mate enjoys reading fiction novels and taking walks in her spare time. The green spaces around Edinburgh make for many picturesque walks when it is not RAINING.
Did you find any interests in common (outside of work)? Yes, we both enjoy reading books outside the academic literature to take a mental break. Using fiction books as an escape from the heavy medical literature we both have to engage in for our work.
Did anything surprise you about your lunch mate? Udita told me an inspiring story about her father coming to the UK first and staying with a friend. I was surprised she was not inspired by her parents who are also in the medical field but instead by a family friend. This friend inspired her to go into medicine due to her dedication to helping others.
>>Watch the recorded lunch mates video interview in full
If you would like to take part in a future edition of lunch mates, or have suggestions of who you would like to hear from, please email cmvm.communications@ed.ac.uk
