Call for Proposals: 25 Years of MH: Equity, Justice, and the Future(s) of Medical Humanities

Posted on by Chris Pak

Special Anniversary Issue on the Future of Medical Humanities

Medical Humanities-BMJ is pleased to announce a call for proposals for a special anniversary issue marking 25 years of publication, on the theme “The Future of Medical Humanities.”

Medical humanities is an interdisciplinary field welcoming diverse approaches and methodologies that center the “human” in medical practices and value artistic and cultural interventions and understandings, broadly conceived, as a counterpart to strictly scientific and mechanistic concepts of health and illness. From its outset, Medical Humanities-BMJ has been publishing research that honors that deep interdisciplinary tradition and at the same pushed the field to critically examine itself and to broaden its outreach, especially outside its Western-centric paradigm. We are mindful of the move toward critical medical humanities (Atkinson et al., 2014; Bleakley, 2014; Viney, Callard, and Woods, 2015; Atkinson et al, 2016) which involves the consideration of “the deep entanglement of social, cultural, historical life with the biomedical” (McNaughton, 2023); we also keep in mind calls from scholars like Kristeva et al. (2017) and Scotts-Fordsmand (2023) to consider the bidirectionality of the relationship between biomedicine and the humanities.

Like many interdisciplinary fields, medical humanities periodically undergoes moments of self-examination and reckoning, especially in regards to notions of “utility” (Blease, 2016), collaboration with health practitioners, and value in terms of medical education, patient outcomes, and knowledge generation. In the wake of global transformations as engendered, for example, by the recent COVID-19 pandemic (Pietrzak-Franger M, Elsner, 2023; McNaughton, 2023) and the rise of AI and its potential implications for the field (Ostherr, 2022), the field of medical humanities is poised to re-examine its premises, goals, and footprint once again. In this spirit of critical exploration, we invite papers that deal with these issues and the future of medical humanities, broadly conceived. Possible themes include, but are not limited to:

  • Global perspectives: How can medical humanities scholarship become more inclusive of diverse voices and experiences from around the world?
  • New methodologies: How can medical humanities methods be adapted and expanded to address contemporary healthcare challenges?
  • Posthumanistic perspectives: How can medical humanities expand into more-than-human health, considering animal and planetary well-being?
  • Emerging technologies: How will artificial intelligence, big data, and other technological advancements impact research and practice in medical humanities?
  • The role of medical humanities in education: How can medical humanities better equip future healthcare professionals with the skills and perspectives necessary for patient-centered care? Can medical humanities be used to educate patients and directly assist in healing processes?
  • The impact of social and political change: How will ongoing shifts in healthcare policy, social justice movements, and environmental concerns influence the practice of medical humanities?

 

Medical Humanities-BMJ is particularly interested in submissions that:

  • Foster interdisciplinary and international collaboration.
  • Offer innovative theoretical frameworks for understanding the intersection of medicine, humanities, and society.
  • Engage with practical applications of medical humanities in clinical settings, healthcare policy, or public health education.
  • Reflect on the ethical considerations surrounding the future of medical humanities research.
  • Reflect diverse and traditionally disadvantaged voices.

 

Submission Guidelines:

  • Abstracts should be no more than 500 words and should include the following:
    • A clear and concise statement of the proposed topic and its significance for the future of medical humanities.
    • A brief outline of the argument or thesis.
    • A description of the methodology or approach.
  • Abstract submissions should be submitted electronically via this link: https://forms.gle/TJBxgCX9GdjA6v3GA by October 1, 2024.
  • Authors will be notified of acceptance by November 1, 2024.
  • Full articles need to be submitted in summer 2025 for peer review.
  • Publication of the special issue is slated for summer 2026.

This special issue is co-edited by Brandy Schillace, Medical Humanities-BMJ EIC, and Cristina Hanganu-Bresch, Associate Editor. If you have inquiries prior to abstract submission, please contact Brandy Schillace at brandy@brandyschillace.com.

 

We look forward to receiving your proposals!

 

Selected bibliography:

Atkinson, S., Evans, B., Woods, A., Kearns, R. ‘The Medical’ and ‘Health’ in a Critical Medical. Humanities. J Med Humanit 2015; 36:71–81. DOI 10.1007/s10912-014-9314-4

Atkinson, S., Macnaughton, J., Richards, J., Whitehead, A., Woods, A. The Edinburgh Companion to the Critical Medical Humanities. 2016. Edinburgh University Press. https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474400046.001.0001

Hooker, C., Phillips, B., Carr, S. Health and Medical Humanities in Global Health: From the Anglocentric to the Anthropocene. In: Liamputtong, P. (eds) Handbook of Social Sciences and Global Public Health. Springer, Cham. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25110-8_14

Bleakley, A. Towards a ‘critical medical humanities’. In Medicine, Health and the Arts: Approaches to the medical humanities. Bates, V., Bleakley, & Goodman, S. (Eds). Routledge, 2014: 17-26

Blease, C. In defence of utility: the medical humanities and medical education. Med Humanit 2016;42:103–108. doi:10.1136/medhum-2015-010827

Kristeva J, Moro MR, Ødemark J, et al Cultural crossings of care: An appeal to the medical humanities. Med Humanit 2018; 44:55-58.

Ostherr, K. Artificial Intelligence and Medical Humanities. J Med Humanit 2022; 43:211–232. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-020-09636-4

Pietrzak-Franger M, Elsner AM. Medical Humanities in Transition. Med Humanit 2023;49:501-502. https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2023-012853

Scott-Fordsmand H. Reversing the medical humanities. Med Humanit 2023;49:347-360.

Viney W, Callard, F., Woods, A. Critical medical humanities: embracing entanglement, taking risks. Med Humanit 2015;41:2–7. doi:10.1136/medhum-2015-010692

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