Glow digs down to the roots of how we live with care: to the care that sustains us through sickness and health, but is not always seen. Care is the ground beneath our everyday lives, in hospitals and clinics, at home, at work and in the neighborhood, paid and unpaid.
Care is not always visible, but it is at work: you feel it immediately when it is there, and when it is missing. Care has a body, a price, a limit. It shows itself through people who are rarely thanked for it. It is often written out of budgets that cannot measure its value. Glow Collective pauses at what does not show itself in care.
Care is the way we live, engage and look: at patients and colleagues, at deadlines and systems, at who appears in our work and our world, and who does not. Above all, Glow sees care as a window through which we begin to see human conditions and the systems and protocols around them, differently. At its core, this is an aesthetic shift.
By aesthetics we don’t mean beauty or decoration, but perception itself (the Greek aisthēsis): how we sense, notice and are moved, and how that shapes what we discern to be right. In care, ethics and aesthetics are inseparable. We draw on care ethics, philosophy and the arts, and on growing research in neuroaesthetics and the neuroarts that shows how deeply sensory and artistic experience affects care, health and well-being.
Our collective makes room for questions:
How do we actually care for what we say we want to protect?
And who gets to answer that?
Who Glow is for
Glow brings together people from care ethics, the health and medical humanities, public health, the health sciences and care studies. They include clinicians, nurses, therapists and chaplains; home and family caregivers; social workers and educators; clinical ethicists; leaders and administrators in hospitals, hospice and long-term care; pharmaceutical and public health professionals; policymakers, patient and disability advocates; and scholars, designers, artists and students: anyone who lives and works with questions of care.
What we do
We work intuitively, contemplatively, creatively and intellectually, guided by scholarly traditions in ethics and science, professional practice and personal experience.
*Care Ethics Studios and self-reflection pathways may be taken for academic credit through Drew University. We also intend to offer continuing education credit (CME for physicians and CE for nurses, social workers and chaplains) through accredited partners.
Care is not always visible, but it is at work: you feel it immediately when it is there, and when it is missing. Care has a body, a price, a limit. It shows itself through people who are rarely thanked for it. It is often written out of budgets that cannot measure its value. Glow Collective pauses at what does not show itself in care.
Care is the way we live, engage and look: at patients and colleagues, at deadlines and systems, at who appears in our work and our world, and who does not. Above all, Glow sees care as a window through which we begin to see human conditions and the systems and protocols around them, differently. At its core, this is an aesthetic shift.
By aesthetics we don’t mean beauty or decoration, but perception itself (the Greek aisthēsis): how we sense, notice and are moved, and how that shapes what we discern to be right. In care, ethics and aesthetics are inseparable. We draw on care ethics, philosophy and the arts, and on growing research in neuroaesthetics and the neuroarts that shows how deeply sensory and artistic experience affects care, health and well-being.
Our collective makes room for questions:
How do we actually care for what we say we want to protect?
And who gets to answer that?
Who Glow is for
Glow brings together people from care ethics, the health and medical humanities, public health, the health sciences and care studies. They include clinicians, nurses, therapists and chaplains; home and family caregivers; social workers and educators; clinical ethicists; leaders and administrators in hospitals, hospice and long-term care; pharmaceutical and public health professionals; policymakers, patient and disability advocates; and scholars, designers, artists and students: anyone who lives and works with questions of care.
What we do
- Rounds: virtual conversations with guests, hosted by members of the collective.
- Self-reflection pathways*: contemplation and space for yourself, reflecting asynchronously at your own pace, with or without guidance.
- Care Ethics Studios*: in-house, synchronous or asynchronous training and consultation for organizations and professionals that want to make moral ambition count. Professionals pause, reflect and see their work anew through the radical lens of care. Get in touch to explore a collaboration.
- The Gathering: an informal in-person gathering, once a year.
We work intuitively, contemplatively, creatively and intellectually, guided by scholarly traditions in ethics and science, professional practice and personal experience.
*Care Ethics Studios and self-reflection pathways may be taken for academic credit through Drew University. We also intend to offer continuing education credit (CME for physicians and CE for nurses, social workers and chaplains) through accredited partners.
Built together
Glow is reciprocal at its core. It is not a program run for people, but a collective built with them. Everyone can take part, and everyone gives something back: hosting a round, or mentoring someone newer. Membership is pay-what-you-can and always free for students. As Glow grows, those who carry it will share in what it brings in.
At Glow, we are discovering what it means to build a collective that stays open. Picture a room that keeps rearranging itself, so that no one who longs to join is left standing outside. Non-hierarchical doesn’t mean no one leads. It means the leading moves, passing from hand to hand. We don’t rank who matters most; ranking simply isn’t what we are drawn to. What we are drawn to is generosity, care and gentleness. Gentle here is not soft. It can be firm and unforcing at once, like a hand that holds without gripping.
That gentleness goes together with moral ambition. Many of us live with privileges most people in history never had. We take that as a responsibility to use what we have been given in service of others. Awareness matters, but it isn’t enough on its own. We are ambitious, and we measure success by the good we can do together.
Glow works closely with the Netherlands-based Gloed collective, with the Medical Humanities, Health and Society Program at Drew University, with renowed ethicists and scholars, as well as the recently launched program on Apophatic Art, which explores the unsayable experiencies of life.
Please join us
Get in touch/join the Collective
Call: help build Glow
Glow is taking shape, and it needs people to help carry it. During this founding phase all roles are voluntary, but we want Glow to become self-sustaining over time: through pay-what-you-can membership (always free for students and anyone facing financial hardship), Care Ethics Studios for organizations, donations, partnerships and grants. As Glow grows, those who carry it will share in what it brings in.
We’re forming a small core team to help shape Glow in its first phase. You could:
Wanted: volunteers. We’re especially looking for a few people to take on a leadership role: shaping Glow together with the core team and handling the practical side of this first phase. It’s a real commitment of roughly 8–10 hours a month, for people who take initiative, keep things moving and follow through. In return, you’ll help build something from the ground up and grow into a visible role in an international community.
Interested? Respond by November 15 through this short form. Tell us what draws you, what gives you pause and how you’d like to be involved.
Glow is reciprocal at its core. It is not a program run for people, but a collective built with them. Everyone can take part, and everyone gives something back: hosting a round, or mentoring someone newer. Membership is pay-what-you-can and always free for students. As Glow grows, those who carry it will share in what it brings in.
At Glow, we are discovering what it means to build a collective that stays open. Picture a room that keeps rearranging itself, so that no one who longs to join is left standing outside. Non-hierarchical doesn’t mean no one leads. It means the leading moves, passing from hand to hand. We don’t rank who matters most; ranking simply isn’t what we are drawn to. What we are drawn to is generosity, care and gentleness. Gentle here is not soft. It can be firm and unforcing at once, like a hand that holds without gripping.
That gentleness goes together with moral ambition. Many of us live with privileges most people in history never had. We take that as a responsibility to use what we have been given in service of others. Awareness matters, but it isn’t enough on its own. We are ambitious, and we measure success by the good we can do together.
Glow works closely with the Netherlands-based Gloed collective, with the Medical Humanities, Health and Society Program at Drew University, with renowed ethicists and scholars, as well as the recently launched program on Apophatic Art, which explores the unsayable experiencies of life.
Please join us
Get in touch/join the Collective
Call: help build Glow
Glow is taking shape, and it needs people to help carry it. During this founding phase all roles are voluntary, but we want Glow to become self-sustaining over time: through pay-what-you-can membership (always free for students and anyone facing financial hardship), Care Ethics Studios for organizations, donations, partnerships and grants. As Glow grows, those who carry it will share in what it brings in.
We’re forming a small core team to help shape Glow in its first phase. You could:
- design and host a Round
- help build and look after the online space
- curate resources
- help organize the annual Gathering
- develop partnerships, grants or other income
- invite others to join
Wanted: volunteers. We’re especially looking for a few people to take on a leadership role: shaping Glow together with the core team and handling the practical side of this first phase. It’s a real commitment of roughly 8–10 hours a month, for people who take initiative, keep things moving and follow through. In return, you’ll help build something from the ground up and grow into a visible role in an international community.
Interested? Respond by November 15 through this short form. Tell us what draws you, what gives you pause and how you’d like to be involved.