Max Brody is a fourth-year from Bethany, Oklahoma, majoring in English with a concentration in Literary Theory and Cultural Studies, and minoring in chemistry and Native and Indigenous Studies. Identifying as a first-generation college student, he is interested in rural and Indigenous healthcare advocacy, critical theory, and narrative medicine. In particular, he is interested in affect theory and the embodiment of emotions in the scope of social, biomedical, and political institutions. As a Wolf Humanities Fellow, he hopes to examine schools of thought—psychoanalysis, 20th century poststructuralism, and postcolonialism—to understand how we perceive and critique our material conditions of existence. Beyond research, he co-founded Word for Word: Penn’s Medical Humanities Journal, a platform amplifying underrepresented voices in the intersections of medicine, humanities, and social justice. He is also the co-chair of the English UAB, External Vice President of Medical Interpreters @ Penn, and an avid board representative of FGLI DAB.
Max Brody
Wolf Humanities Center Undergraduate Fellow
2025—2026 Forum on Truth
Max Brody
English, Native and Indigenous Studies (NAIS)
Crazed, Psychotic, and…Desperate?: Prototypes of “The Sick Woman Theory” in 20th Century Theory and Literature
Conceived in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Johanna Hedva’s “Sick Woman Theory” (2020) incisively critiques how emotional distress from chronic illness is framed by medical institutions. This project aims to explore the historical tenets of Hedva’s critique, particularly attending to 20th century theory that may have shaped Hedva’s affective experience today. Focusing on Sigmund Freud’s Mourning and Melancholia (1917) and Michél Foucault’s The Birth of the Clinic (1963) as opposing schools of thought on the role of medicine, the project will analyze how Freud’s position affirms the gendering and medicalization of the body while Foucault attempts to deconstruct Freudian “truth” surrounding medicine. Then, employing Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (1963) as a case study of the mid-20th century feminine psyche, it will examine how Freud’s psychoanalysis imposes itself on Esther’s understanding of self, and how Foucault undermines the psychological analysis that Plath asserts in the narrative. All throughout, it aims to trace the relevance of these theoretical frameworks and literary works to postmodernist feminist theory, drawing salient connections to both Hedva’s experience and academic critique.