Aaron Levy, PhD, MPhil is a Senior Lecturer in the Departments of English and the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania and the inaugural Director of Health Humanities Initiatives at Penn Medicine. He is also a Senior Fellow in the School of Social Policy & Practice and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Levy received his BA and MPhil from the University of Pennsylvania and his PhD from the University of Leeds in the UK.

As a leading scholar and advocate for the role of the arts and humanities in health and healing, Dr. Levy directs the Penn Medicine Listening Lab, which has collected over 70 stories from patients, caregivers, and providers, and the Health Ecologies Lab, which explores the intersections of care, healing, and the humanities. He co-directs Rx/Museum, a project examining the intersection of art and medicine, and is the author or editor of several influential works on these topics, including On Listening as a Form of Care (2020), On the Poetics and Politics of Health (2021), The Language of Care: Stories from the Penn Medicine Listening Lab (2021), and Rx/Museum: 52 Essays on Art and Reflection in Medicine(2022). Dr. Levy has developed numerous courses on these themes across multiple schools at the University of Pennsylvania, including the first-ever educational partnership between the School of Arts and Sciences and the Barnes Foundation.

He is the also author or editor of numerous other publications about the arts and humanities, including Cities Without Citizens (2002), Helene Cixous: Ex-cities (2007), and Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch (2010), On the Living History of the Venice Architecture Biennale (2010), John Cage's How to Get Started (2010), and Four Conversations on the Architecture of Discourse (2011). His filmography includes works on Carolee Schneemann, Dennis Oppenheim, and Werner Herzog.

Alongside his academic responsibilities, Dr. Levy is a seasoned non-profit leader and curator whose work is marked by a commitment to addressing socio-political issues through art and community collaboration. As the founding Executive and Artistic Director of Public Trust, he has developed and led numerous interdisciplinary programs and exhibitions engaging pressing cultural and political topics. He has curated hundreds of exhibitions, programs, and projects, working with prominent artists such as Carolee Schneemann, Agnes Varda, and Susan Meiselas. Examples of his large-scale projects include Into the Open (2008) at the Venice Biennale, the Perpetual Peace Project (2010), and No Mud, No Lotus (2018) with Louverture Films.

Dr. Levy has served on prestigious committees such as the Artist Protection Fund Selection Committee and the Federal Advisory Committee on International Exhibitions (FACIE). He was a U.S. Cultural Envoy to Pakistan in 2010.