Event Details

Join us for an overview of the MA in Global Medical and Health Humanities. We will give you an idea of how the MA allows you to mobilise interdisciplinary research and thinking across the arts, humanities and social sciences to make an impact in diverse health/care contexts.

Are you interested in medicine, health and healthcare from arts, humanities and social sciences perspectives, from histories the philosophy of mental health? Do you want to learn more about the interdisciplinary fields of the Medical and Health Humanities? Do you want to explore how you can activate your skills to help shape health/care futures and drive innovation?

Whether you are from an arts, humanities and social sciences background, an intercalating medical student, or a healthcare professional, this event introduces you to the cutting-edge Medical and Health Humanities research ongoing in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Lancaster, and in particular to our MA in Global Medical and Health Humanities.

At this event you will:

• find out more about the MA
• meet colleagues across many disciplines who are working on ground breaking projects in health/care through the arts, humanities and social sciences
• participate in a taster session for the MA, responding to a live health/care brief with a team by using interdisciplinary methodologies

More about the MA in Global Medical and Health Humanities:

The MA in Global Medical and Health Humanities demonstrates how the arts, humanities and social sciences are vital in tackling and developing innovative solutions to the healthcare challenges of our times. No one discipline alone can respond to the health challenges and opportunities of the world today and in the future: in order to fully understand global healthcare challenges and imagine the healthcare futures of tomorrow, we require not only biomedical knowledge but also understanding of the human, cultural, historical, socio-political, and linguistic factors driving diverse experiences of and approaches to health, healthcare, and medicine around the globe. This programme activates the Medical and Health Humanities as an interdisciplinary field which provides methodologies for exploring these areas, whilst also empowering collaborations between medical and health/care contexts and the arts, humanities and social sciences to drive impact and innovation within healthcare.

Interdisciplinary approaches to health and wellbeing across the arts, humanities and social sciences are vital, from understanding the human experiences and legacies of pandemics and epidemics (such as Covid-19, HIV/AIDS, and Ebola) from diverse cultural and socio-political perspectives; to exploring how art and design shape how we experience healthcare environments and are central to building the hospitals of the future; to breaking down healthcare barriers and stigma faced by the LGBTQIA+ community; to confronting colonial legacies in healthcare and driving decolonial methodologies.

On this MA, you will develop critical and cross-cultural approaches to explore such areas as:

• Narratives and artistic expressions of mental health, illness and pain
• Sites of health activism and intervention
• The collaborative design of future spaces such as inclusive environments and hospitals fit for purpose
• The provision of health advocacy
• The de-colonisation of health, moving beyond Eurocentric, Anglophone perspectives
• Sustainability in healthcare
• Critical Disability Studies
• LGBTQIA+ healthcare
• Global histories of medicine and healthcare

You will also get the chance to collaborate with students on other interdisciplinary MAs at Lancaster, exploring, for example, the connections between health/care and Artificial Intelligence; or health/care, sustainability, and environmental crisis.

What kinds of students will you be joining on the MA?

The MA in Global Medical and Health Humanities takes place in a highly interdisciplinary classroom and welcomes students from all academic and professional backgrounds who want to study health and healthcare from arts, humanities and social sciences perspectives.

Students of arts, humanities and social sciences

Perhaps you are an undergraduate student in an Arts, Humanities or Social Sciences subject such as English Literature, Languages, History, Politics, or Sociology, and are interested in cultural representations, histories, and politics of illness and healthcare in different global contexts… This MA empowers you to activate and transform your skills in these subjects to create real impact in an area that is particularly important to you, from disability activism, to LGBTQIA+ healthcare, to decolonial healthcare policies.

Intercalating medical students

Maybe you are a medical student and are thinking about doing an intercalation year. This programme will provide a space for you to complement and extend your clinical training with immersion in the historical, cultural, philosophical, and socio-political contexts within which illness, disease, and healthcare are understood across the globe. You will acquire the critical tools to approach these concepts, and the space to develop creative and innovative projects which develop your specialist areas of interest from multiple angles and perspectives.

Healthcare professionals

Maybe you are a healthcare professional working in a clinical context, but looking to pivot in your role to engage more in policy, activism or advocacy. Maybe your clinical practice has made you aware of a particular problem within healthcare, or a way of thinking about illness or healthcare that you would like to change or transform through impact-driven research in the Medical and Health Humanities.

Join us on Wednesday 29th January to find out more, or contact Dr Benjamin Dalton directly as Programme Lead, who will be more than happy to discuss and answer any questions.