Biography
Dr Ariel Dempsey earned her MD at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and is at University of Oxford completing a DPhil Science & Religion. She studies uncertainty in end-of-life care and how we can better deal with uncertainty in medicine. Her DPhil is on "Palliating Uncertainty," emphasizing an approach to uncertainty that is modelled after the ethos and values of palliative care and draws on tools from the philosophy of pragmatism. She helps design and teach a Medical Humanities Curriculum for the Oxford Medical School and is a Rotary Global Grant Scholar who has led trauma healing groups in Oxford. After the PhD, Ariel plans to do residency in psychiatry with fellowship in palliative care.
Select Publications
Dempsey, A. (2025). A Tribute to Robert Twycross: Pioneer of Palliative Care and His Hopes for the Future. Journal of Palliative Medicine.
Dempsey, A. (2024), Palliative Matters Podcast: Palliating Uncertainty, Grand Rapids, Michigan https://trilliuminstitute.org/podcast-palliative-matters/Dempsey, A. McGill International Palliative Care Congress 2024 Keynote Address, Montreal Quebec, Canada https://youtu.be/j41He-BG4W8?si=X4Se3iD8O2yXoKWO
Watson, M., Dore, M., Twycross, R., Dempsey, A., & Flemming, K. (2024), Hospice UK Clinical ECHO, May 2024. Hospice UK Project Echo. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZVlzi-Lukc&ab_channel=HospiceUKECHO
Dempsey, A. UK Palliative Care Congress 2023 plenary address: Living with Uncertainty in End-of-Life Care, Edinburgh, Scotland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHiG2v0lzVk&t=4s&ab_channel=AlexTheDigitalNomad
Dempsey, A., & Mulder, J. (2023). Quality versus quantity of life: beyond the dichotomy. Palliative Medicine Reports, 3(1), 17-23.
Dempsey, A. (2023). “Theological Aesthetics and Clinical Care.” In Poltrum, M., Musalek, M., Galvin, K., & Saito, Y. The Oxford Handbook of Mental Health and Contemporary Western Aesthetics. Oxford University Press.
Dempsey, A. (2022). “How Can Bread and Wine Change Into Flesh and Blood?” Theological Puzzles (Issue 11). https://www.theo-puzzles.ac.uk/2022/07/07/dempsey/.
Dempsey, A. (2020). Live Like You're Dying?: Acting in Uncertainty. TED Talk. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/ariel_dempsey_live_like_you_re_dying_acting_in...
Links
Ariel Dempsey | Faculty of Theology and Religion
