In partnership with the University of Stirling, the NNMHR is delighted to announce a call for applications to join a two-way ECR workshop on Decentring the Medical Humanities (29-30 October 2026, University of Stirling).
The workshops aims to explore ways of challenging a Western-centric focus in the medical humanities by exchanging ideas and deepening the relevant knowledge of PhD students who take or wish to take decentring/decolonising approaches in their research. The workshop builds on, and aims to contribute to the paradigm of the Critical Medical Humanities, which is working to illuminate social hierarchies in health, healthcare, and health campaigns (Viney, Callard, Woods, 2015; Whitehead and Woods, 2022). It incorporates non-western perspectives in an effort to comprehensively include the different voices of activists globally. Such research dovetails with recent work in Queer and Transgender Studies, which challenges the ‘West’ as necessarily the reference point for notions of gender and sexuality globally (e.g., Aizura 2018). Thus, the workshop aims to encompass research explicitly addressing perspectives from the Global South and/or racialised minorities in the Global North.
Call for chapter proposals – Tongues: The Edinburgh Companion to the Global Medical Humanities
Editors: Benjamin Dalton (Lancaster University), Steven Wilson (Queen’s University Belfast), Alex Wragge-Morley (Lancaster) and Stephanie Wright (Lancaster)
Deadline for abstracts: 31 December 2025
We invite proposals to participate in a new Edinburgh Companion to the Global Medical Humanities. Following on from the landmark Edinburgh Companion to the Critical Medical Humanities, this handbook aims to catalyse the emerging field of global, multilingual work in the medical humanities. In its earliest form, the medical humanities sought to recognize the importance of literature and the arts to medical education and communication. In the following decades, scholars have recognized the entanglements that have existed between mind, body and environment – entanglements that call into question still prevalent distinctions between the sciences and the humanities, or between biology and culture (Whitehead et. al., 2016). Now, scholars and practitioners are increasingly bringing global cultures, epistemologies, and languages to bear on the medical humanities. At the same time, new approaches that both challenge and extend the concerns of the medical humanities are emerging in non-Anglophone and non-Western contexts.
This volume will give students and scholars a comprehensive guide to the dynamic and emerging field of global medical humanities – identified as such in recent editorials in Medical Humanities, The Polyphony and The Routledge Handbook of the Medical Humanities. This is a field that engages critically with the notion of global studies, recognizing that some of its iterations simply perpetuate the cultural, epistemic, and cultural hierarchies that have so long dominated the fields of health and the humanities. At once synthesizing and developing the insights of the field, this Edinburgh Companion will deploy the metaphor of the tongue to bring together, without homogenizing, a globally diverse range of contexts and interconnections. The tongue is at once an instrument of speech and a bodily organ that connects people to their cultures and environments. Indeed, through its communicative function and the pleasures and pains of taste, the tongue relates people to the language and foodways frequently taken to define cultures and societies. Moreover, the tongue is an interface for pleasure, intimacy and connection between bodies. And, of course, the tongue quite literally brings the world into the body through acts of taste and eating (Mol, 2021).
On the one hand, therefore, this Companion will deal with language, exploring the manifold ways in which translation between cultural and linguistic contexts can change our understandings and experiences of health. But at the same time, taking its cue from the corporeality of the tongue, it will explore how thought, perception and bodily reality may alter or be altered by movement in and between cultural and linguistic settings. This new handbook will thus serve as a crucial resource for anybody engaging with the trans-cultural and trans-linguistic aspects of health and wellbeing, from scholars and students to medical practitioners and carers.
The handbook will include a foreword by Angela Woods (Durham University), and the editors invite proposals for chapters on any topic relating to the global medical humanities, including but not restricted to:
Translating the medical humanities across cultures (broadly conceived)
Vernaculars of healthcare
Non-verbal languages
Global conceptions or expressions of pleasure, sexuality, taste, and/or pain
Bodies, senses and environments
Failures of language to communicate pain and/or bodily resistance to translation
Abstracts of between 200-300 words should be sent along with a short (50-word max) bio to , , and by 31 December 2025. Informal enquiries can be directed the same addresses.
The NNMHR is delighted to welcome the University of Stirling as the newest members of the Steering Group. Research in the Medical Humanities at the University of Stirling includes ongoing or recently completed individual and collaborative projects involving scholars based at the following divisions or institutes at Stirling: History, Heritage and Politics; Communications, Media and Culture; Law and Philosophy; Literature and Languages; Health Sciences; Institute for Social Marketing; and the University Archives. The researchers working on Medical Humanities projects at Stirling vary from Professors to PhD students, but also in terms of gender and ethnicity. The themes of such research cover the following topics:
HIV and AIDS activism, a large collaborative project on the global history of HIV and AIDS activism, funded by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship
Alcohol policy: for instance, the project ‘Regulating alcohol packaging and supply to protect health in Sub-Saharan Africa: lessons from policy systems in Malawi and Uganda’(RAPSSA, https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FV015257%2F1).
Health communication, like work with young mothers and various studies involving healthcare professionals in areas of multiple deprivations.
Health and the arts, like the projects Gothic Diagnostics in British Fiction 1830-1897, and “‘Now thou art an O without a figure’: A Theopoetics of Apophatic Embodiment in Early Modern Thought”
The 7th annual international Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research (NNMHR) Congress took place from May 21st – 23rd, which was an event jointly hosted by Lancaster University’s FASS Health Hub, and Durham University’s Institute for Medical Humanities. With over 200 attendees, 23 panel sessions, and three keynote speaker sessions over three days, the conference was packed with interdisciplinary, cutting-edge research surrounding the themes of linguistic and cultural diversity within the medical and health humanities across the world.
The Medical and Health Humanities are an interdisciplinary field which underlines the importance of humanities perspectives in health and medicine. The particular theme for the congress was Tongues: Medical Humanities across Linguistic and Cultural Frontiers, which examined the importance of linguistic and cultural diversity within the medical humanities, demonstrating that we must look beyond western and largely Anglophone medical perspectives, and canonical western works of art and literature. This theme allowed participants to take a truly global view of the medical humanities, which was explored throughout the congress thanks to a wide range of panellists with a diverse perspectives.
Reflecting on this framing, one of our attendees said:
‘If medicine can’t communicate with us (or if we can’t communicate with medicine) there is no hope at all. We urgently need to find, and keep finding, clear channels to each other’s understanding.’
Two of the keynote speakers, Professor Steven Wilson and Professor Nandini Wilson, examined different aspects of how medical humanities are communicated and transferred. For Professor Wilson, the focus was on the ‘language worlds’ that exist around health and illness, and how such modes of communication affect bodily experiences. These language worlds examine the ways in which language and space interact in communication surrounding the medical humanities. In Professor Bhattacharya’s keynote, the focus was on medicine and its alternatives in the Global South, where we were encouraged to consider the ways in which these medical alternatives have been seen and categorised, with attendees being invited to reconsider what they consider ‘alternative medicine’. We also hosted a workshop, hosted by Sophie Guingouain from Manchester Metropolitan University, who invited the congress to examine the challenges within medical translation, and how these challenges can come in forms obvious and not-so-obvious. These included issues such as the use of acronyms in medical contexts, and the different cultural assumptions that can exist in relation to medication.
The panels throughout the conference explored themes including how the medical humanities intersect with areas such as queerness, decolonisation and translation between different languages. Not only this, but the congress focused on different aspects of health and healthcare, such as mental health, chronic illness and communication between patients and healthcare practitioners. Each panel allowed for in-depth and thought-provoking discussions between panellists and attendees.
This year also saw the first NNMHR conference panel compromised entirely of undergraduates. This panel was composed of Grace Cooke, Rory Hankins, and Lorenzo Meira Gobel, all final year students in Lancaster University’s School of Global Affairs. These undergraduates drew on a workshop presentation format to discuss trauma-informed teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) strategies for refugees with PTSD, showing great facilitation skills. Another panel which highlighted the experiences of researchers in the Medical Humanities at different career stages was organised by the Neurodivergent Humanities Network, which not only showcased its research, but also discussed their role in providing mutual support to members through mentor-mentee relationships.
Overall, the 7th annual NNMHR congress was an opportunity to explore themes surrounding translation, communication and the medical humanities, through panels, workshops and keynote speakers. This research presented and discussions surrounding the core topics shows a bright future for this field, and gives a good indication of the directions research in this field can go in.
By David Murphy, an International Relations Doctoral Researcher at Lancaster University and Conference Assistant for the NNMHR Congress 2025. This post originally appeared on Lancaster University’s website.
Stomach Ache is led by two practicing curators and emerging leaders in the fields of visual arts, creative-public health and the medical humanities: Dr Vanessa Bartlett and Dr Rachel Marsden. The project aims to explore and test new perspectives on curating and lived experience, using the gut and digestion as a conceptual framework.
The ‘New Networks in Critical Medical Humanities Funding Scheme’, part of the Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research (NNMHR), supported three international, interdisciplinary workshops. These were designed to share insights from the project and foster long-term partnerships for future large-scale grant applications. Attendees included representatives from Crohn’s and Colitis Australia, The Microbiome Research Centre, clinical researchers and gastroenterologists from Western Sydney University and Monash University, and a recent recipient of a major Australian Research Council grant on the microbiome, demonstrating the strength of the project’s interdisciplinary networks.
During the grant period, Stomach Ache engaged approximately 2,200 participants digitally and in person, including 40 event attendees and 11 newly initiated artistic collaborations. The project website also received over 2,000 unique visits, demonstrating public interest and reach. A key outcome of this engagement has been the commissioning of Bartlett to curate Gut Waters at Bankstown Arts Centre in Western Sydney (26 July – 6 September 2025). This exhibition explores the role of the human gut in reimagining health and our relationship in the world, featuring work by four Australian and two international artists, including new commissions by Eugenia Lim and Helen Pynor. Gut Waters exemplifies the project’s unique contribution to advancing new dialogues around lived experience through curatorial practice, and represents the realisation of research outcomes via artistic methods and practice.
For Bartlett and Marsden, who identify as lived experience researchers, Stomach Ache has been transformative, while deepening understandings of how personal health narratives can shape artistic, curatorial and research practices. The project has challenged traditional research frameworks by positioning lived experience as the central mode of enquiry, reshaping how the lead researchers approach interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge production in the medical humanities.
For 2025, our theme is TONGUES: Medical Humanities Across Linguistic and Cultural Frontiers.
This workshop features an exciting array of papers, interventions and creative sessions, organised into 27 panels and sessions over three days. Papers will be presented in a range of languages, and automatic live translation will be provided. The workshop will take place online, using Microsoft Teams.
We are pleased to announce that our keynote speakers will be:
Professor Steven Wilson (Queens University Belfast), The “Language Worlds” of Health and Illness
Professor Nandini Bhattacharya (University of Houston), Medicine and Its Alternatives in the Global South
Sophie Guingouain (Manchester Metropolitan University), The obvious and not-so-obvious challenges when approaching medical translation
The Medical Humanities Research Centre (University of Glasgow) is pleased to announce a change in leadership and a new member of core staff. Dr Gavin Miller (Reader in Contemporary Literature and Medical Humanities), after twelve years of dedicated service, has now stepped down as lead director, and his co-director, Dr Megan Coyer (Senior Lecturer in English Literature), has taken up the role. Dr Manon Mathias (Reader in French) has been appointed as co-director. The MHRC is also delighted to welcome Dr Dieter Declercq as Lecturer in Medical Humanities (Narrative Medicine) within Film & TV Studies as a new integral part of the centre team from September 2024.
University of Liverpool’s Centre for Health Arts Society and Environment (CHASE) are delighted to invite you to a Zoom webinar launch for the creative work and findings from their project funded project by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC): ‘Imagining Better Futures of Health and Social Care with and for People with Energy Limiting Conditions (ELC)’. This project is part of a series of projects on the future of health and social care, funded to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the NHS.
The project has involved a series of creative workshops for people of marginalised genders (women, trans men, non-binary, intersex and gender nonconforming people) who live with ELCs, with dedicated workshops for Muslim women and for LGBTQIA+ people. The workshops were facilitated by creative practitioners Khizra Ahmed, Khairani Barokka (Okka), Julian Gray, Mish Green and Louise Kenward. During the workshops participants were asked to imagine what better health care would be like for themselves as they age, and for people who will be diagnosed with ELC in the future. Participants and the creative practitioners have produced new work, including a podcast, comic book, zines, animation and creative writing. They also used learning from the creative workshops in discussions with healthcare practitioners and allied professionals.
The webinar will launch these creative outputs and the policy recommendations from the work with healthcare practitioners.
The launch takes place on Wednesday July 17th 2-4pm via Zoom. Further information is available here.
CHASE has a series of regular events called The Interdisciplinary Lab events. More information about these can be found on the CHASE Events site.
The Medical Humanities Research Centre (University of Glasgow) hosted an end of year networking and drinks reception for the Glasgow Medical Humanities Network on 12th June this year. The GMHN brings together and enhances medical humanities across universities and collections in the city of Glasgow and was established with the support of a Wellcome Trust grant in 2019. At the reception everyone enjoyed nine 5-minute lightning talks from network members on current or recently completed medical humanities research projects. The drinks reception that followed took place in the Anatomy Museum, and we were treated with a short talk from Dr Ourania Varsou (Lecturer in Anatomy) on the history of the museum and its collections. We hope to make this an annual event!
New co-director, Manon Mathias, delivers her lightning talk.
On the 11th March 2024, the University of Liverpool’s History Department hosted the annual Frances Ivens Lecture, where visiting Prof. Gamble examined the life of Dr. Virginia M. Alexander, an African-American physician-activist. One of Department’s students, Mollie Hynes, attended and gave an account of what she learnt.
Prof. Vanessa Gamble is pictured in the middle, alongside members of the History Department.
The title of this lecture, “Pioneering Health Equity,” applies equally to Dr Gamble, a pioneer in the histories of race and racism in medicine and public health. Professor of Medical Humanities, Medicine, Health Policy and American Studies at George Washington University, she is currently writing the biography of Dr Virginia M. Alexander, a Black female physician and activist who worked to expose the discrimination and racism faced by Black patients and physicians in the American medical profession and healthcare system.
Personal Connections
In the decision to write Alexander’s biography, Dr Gamble noted a series of personal connections they shared. Looking past the similarity of their work as physicians, both Gamble and Alexander grew up in Philadelphia, and had spent time living in Washington DC and Alabama. Both were graduates of the University of Pennsylvania, it was here that Gamble’s mentor, Dr Helen Dickens, introduced her to the life of Alexander, who she had practiced with in 1935. The most convincing of these connections for Gamble to begin writing Alexander’s biography was the discovery that their ancestors had been enslaved in Mecklenburg County, Virginia.
Overcoming Individual Challenges
In the recognition of activism and individual activists, the personal challenges faced by those campaigning for broader, bigger structural changes often become obscured. This was a key theme that Dr Gamble highlighted in discussing the life of Alexander. In 1920, Alexander began her study at the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, where she was the only Black American in her class. At this time, only 65 Black women physicians practiced across the United States. Facing discrimination from fellow students and professors throughout her higher education, Alexander’s activism began in 1924 as she led a protest to denounce the racism from a professor at the college. At her graduation in 1925, difficulties followed in finding an internship. Many hospitals did not accept Black interns and were particularly reluctant to accept female interns. Alexander eventually secured a position at Kansas City Hospital in Missouri, becoming the first female intern alongside her U. Penn classmate.
Aspiranto Health Home
In 1927, Alexander returned to Philadelphia and began to provide outpatient care in her home. This became Aspiranto Health Home in 1930, a practice primarily for maternity care and for the Black community of Philadelphia, who faced difficultly in finding healthcare. Aspiranto Health Home was a uniquely interracial practice, with over 2000 Black and white patients being treated by 1933. The importance of interracial relations to Alexander is clear in her activism, as she used her ties to Quakerism to gain support for her 1935 report on the health problems of North Philadelphia.
Opposing Racism in Medicine
The report by Alexander connected the social and political factors of inadequate housing, education, employment and healthcare for the Black population to the cause of her North Philadelphia neighbourhood’s health disparities. Widening these disparities was the racism faced by Black patients in hospitals and by Black physicians in their professions. Using Quakerism to gain white attention and support, Alexander’s influence meant the Race Relations Committee of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, a predominantly white group, attempted to address and oppose racism in medicine. Alexander recognised that action against racism in medicine was not restricted to the profession but hinged on political and religious support too. She advocated for health equity throughout her life and career, long before it was considered a national public health issue.
The event highlighted the activism of an inspirational Black female physician, whose contributions to tackling racism in medicine and public health are both under recognised and were ahead of her time. To find out more about the life and career of Dr Virginia M. Alexander, alongside the activism of other Black female physicians, below is some further reading.
