The Health and Humanities Research Forum 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.
In January 2024 the Forum members were awarded a grant from the QM Enhancing Research and Innovation Cultures fund, and are now planning three events in May, June and July 2024 to promote discussion and collaboration between schools and faculties. Details of these events will be posted on this webpage; all are also warmly welcome to sign up to be a member of the forum for updates.
Dr Shital Pravinchandra (Comparative Literature) and Dr Jenny Bangham (History) co-direct the forum, which currently includes researchers from the Schools of English and Drama, Languages, Linguistics and Film, History, Geography, Law, Business and Management, and the Wolfson Institute for Population Health.
They would be delighted to have more members of the forum. If you would like to join, please email Shital (s.pravinchandra@qmul.ac.uk) or Jenny (j.bangham@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.