TORCH’s Medical Humanities Research Hub (MedHum) has been shortlisted for the University of Oxford Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Culture.
MedHum is an interdisciplinary research hub that supports Humanities and social-science based research on health and medicine at the University of Oxford, and promotes public awareness of the contribution the Humanities make to a proper understanding of health, disease, and medicine.
MedHum hosts a variety of events, activities, and projects, ranging from a weekly writing group for doctoral students and early career researchers, to one-off conferences and long-term projects. Recent examples include an interdisciplinary conference on Biotechnologies, Artificial Intelligence, and Human Identity; ethnographic workshops on mental health, bringing together patients, psychiatrists, anthropologists and mental health activists; and interdisciplinary workshops on vaccine hesitancy, involving political scientists, historians, ethicists, and microbiologists.
In 2023-24, MedHum hosted AfOx Visiting Scholar Dr Tolulope Osayomi, working with him on events that showcased African medical research, culture, politics, and agency in understanding the global patterns of Covid-19. In 2024, MedHum partnered with the Cultural Programme for its Adventures in Consciousness Season, which resulted in over 20 public events showcasing world-leading academic research and the performing arts, attended by more than 5,000 visitors. The hub’s strength lies in its ability to work with existing centres, units, and faculties, drawing in a vibrant range of attendees and varied groups.
Although rooted in the Humanities, Medhum draws its steering group members from across the Divisions, including members from Social Sciences, GLAM, and the Medical Division, and from a variety of career points such as postgraduate students, research staff, administrative staff, and both junior and senior researchers. Headed up by Academic Lead Erica Charters (History), steering committee members and project leads named in the award include Edward Harcourt (Philosophy), Angeliki Kerasidou (Ethox), Alberto Giubilini (Uehiro), Ankhi Mukherjee (English), Sally Frampton (History), Imogen Goold (Law), Ashok Handa (Surgical Sciences), Patricia Kingori (Ethox), Eben Kirksey (Anthropology), Kate Saunders (Psychiatry), Jim Harris (Ashmolean), Eleanor Kerfoot (History), Sarah Clay (TORCH), Alexia Lewis (History), Joanna Miller (Global Health), Joshua Hordern (Theology), Gina Hadley (Neuroscience), Tolulope Osayomi (AfOx/Ibadan/Geography), Hohee Cho (PSI), Andrew Moeller (History), Yuxin Peng (Anthropology), and Utsa Bose (History).
MedHum’s activities also play a leading role in connecting Oxford Humanities with public and policy engagement, including its Oxfordshire Health Humanities project, helping to capture the importance of culture and social trust for health interventions. Alongside, MedHum provides support and methodologies for medical training. As one Clinical and Tutorial Fellow in Medicine explains, she works with MedHum because ‘studying and interpreting humanities-based content equips medical students to develop a professional identity that will sustain them amidst the complexities, changes, and ambiguities they will encounter. These are skills my students cannot gain from a textbook and nor can they be measured numerically.’
MedHum shows that the questioning of evaluation methodologies can lead to a reappraisal of research priorities. Its theme of ‘Global Health, Public Health, and Community Health’ gives prominence to the global, the public, and the community in order to understand health. Most fundamentally, MedHum provides a radical corrective to the common assumption that cutting-edge research and innovation in healthcare and medical treatments lie solely within the domain of physicians and laboratories.
Come to hear more about MedHum, as well as other shortlisted projects, at the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards showcase on Tuesday 13 May, 10-4 pm, Weston Library.
Visit the MedHum site to sign up to its mailing list and learn about its projects and upcoming events.
