In this article for December’s Special Issue, Hume, Mulemi, and Sadok take a look at the unique challenges facing humanities researchers in clinical and community health settings in Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa. Their work considers these experiences within the broader context—but our broader context of disciplinary ’ethnocentrism’ that hampers the development of knowledge in medical humanities more generally. Structures within universities separate the humanities, medicine and social science, and the authors use case studies from their own experiences to illustrate the issues cross three disciplines: arts, anthropology, and history. They discuss the need for improved dialogue between the disciplines to bring a diverse community of knowledge to bear on human health, and also a more robust awareness of diverse and intersecting relations. We can do great things together, though it sometimes means circumventing the very disciplinary structures that keep us separated and wary of collaboration.

Listen to the authors discuss their article here:

Read the full article on the Medical Humanities Journal website.