IHSS Health and Humanities Research Forum
The Health and Humanities Research Forum (HHRF) brings together people from across Queen Mary who are engaging critically with the idea of health. It supports research that frames ‘health’ and ‘healthcare’ as social, political, and economic concepts, and that understands medicine as culturally situated. It is also a home for research that foregrounds experiences of disability, race, gender, ageing, neurodiversity, and marginalisation in healthcare.
At Queen Mary, researchers from across the humanities, social sciences and medicine are exploring these themes using a rich array of approaches; the forum aims to bring this work into view, create a collegiate community, and to cultivate a research culture around the health humanities. Crucially, the purpose of the forum is to reach across disciplinary boundaries at QM to promote dialogue and collaboration. Together, they want to broaden the range of perspectives that inform healthcare and to transform their collective understandings of health.
News
Drs Kasia Mika and Shital Pravinchandra (Comparative Literature) and Drs Megan Clinch and Sara Paparini (Wolfson Centre for Population Health) have successfully been awarded a grant by QMUL's Championing Interdisciplinary Research Culture (CIRCLE) scheme. Our project is entitled "Health Inequalities: Towards a Reparative Glossary" and we will be holding several events over 2026. Stay tuned for updates!
Outputs
In January 2024, the Forum members were awarded a grant from the QM Enhancing Research and Innovation Cultures fund. The grant allowed them to produce a report Mapping Health and Humanities Research at QMUL July 2024 [DOC 165KB], and to hold three events bringing researchers together to plan future interdisciplinary collaborations in the health humanities. For more information about these events please click on the links below:
Workshop in the Barts Pathology Museum on 9 May 2024,
Workshop on Empathy on 10 June 2024,
Workshop on Future Collaborations in the Health Humanities on 1 July 2024,
The Steering Committee
The HHRF's interdisciplinary steering committee consists of:
Shital Pravinchandra (Comparative Literature, School of the Arts) (Co-Convenor of the HHRF),
Evelien Lemmens (Wolfson Institute for Population Health) (Co-Convenor of the HHRF),
Robin Basu Roy (the Blizard Institute),
Richard Davies (Centre for the Cell, Barts Cancer Institute),
Bridget Escolme (Drama, School of the Arts),
Meredith Hawking (Wolfson Institute for Population Health),
Rhodri Hayward (School of History),
Agnieszka Lyons (Linguistics, School of the Arts),
Kasia Mika (Comparative Literature, School of the Arts),
Harvey Wells (Clinical Communications Skills, Institute of Health Sciences Education).
Call for Members
Dr Shital Pravinchandra and Dr Evelien Lemmens co-convene the Forum.
The Forum members are researchers from the Schools of the Arts, History, Geography, Law, Business and Management, and the Wolfson Institute for Population Health.
The Convenors would be delighted to have more members of the Forum. If you would like to join, please email them at s.pravinchandra@qmul.ac.uk and e.c.g.lemmens@qmul.ac.uk.
Are you a medical student interested in the health humanities?
QMUL offers an iBSc in Global Medical Humanities and an SSC entitled Global Cultures, Medicine, and Inequality" for second-year medical students. To find out more about these courses, please contact either Dr Shital Pravinchandra (s.pravinchandra@qmul.ac.uk) or Dr Kasia Mika-Bresolin (k.mika@qmul.ac.uk).
Image: A nurse monitoring a patient after an operation and taking notes. Drawing by Virginia Powell, c. 1995. Wellcome Collection, License: CC-BY 4.0.