New research programme brings a humanities perspective to health
The new research programme Health Transitions brings together researchers across disciplines to explore care, mental health and medical knowledge. Here, the programme’s two new research programme directors introduce Health Transitions and its research focus.
Which questions about health and illness are you particularly interested in?
With a focus on care, mental health and knowledge production, the programme addresses a range of interconnected questions.
In relation to care, we explore how care is understood and provided in a complex and rapidly changing world, and how ideals of good care and equality are supported or challenged.
Within mental health, we examine how mental health is produced, understood and addressed through biosocial processes and interactions, and how these interactions become visible or remain invisible in everyday life and in clinical settings.
We also explore how current forms of medical knowledge about what counts as health, illness and care are being transformed and challenged by biosocial, technological and environmental conditions and forms of knowledge.
The ambition of the research programme is to support, bring together and raise the visibility of the many research activities at the department that address questions related to health and illness, including humanities-based contributions to knowledge about the causes of illness and the effects of care and treatment. The programme supports both research and the development of practice and innovation.
What characterises your approach to research on health and illness?
Research and development in the field of health require interdisciplinary approaches capable of navigating the complexity of the issues involved.
Across a wide range of disciplines, we draw on quantitative and qualitative methods, philosophical and intellectual-historical analyses of concepts and discourse, as well as ethnographic studies of everyday life and healthcare practices.
The programme’s core disciplines are anthropology, philosophy, history of ideas, history, global studies, theology and the study of religion. The programme also collaborates across disciplines with researchers in the health sciences and with practitioners and other stakeholders in the healthcare sector.
How can the research contribute to society?
The programme’s interdisciplinary and humanities-oriented health research contributes to society at several levels.
The major and complex challenges facing late-modern welfare societies call for interdisciplinary analyses capable of examining issues across disciplinary boundaries, areas of public administration and scientific paradigms. The programme’s research supports and contributes to health innovation through the development of both practice and theory in close collaboration with practice partners.
The research also contributes to critical public debate. Democratic discussion about how future welfare societies should be organised, and about the strategies needed to address complex challenges in healthcare, depends on the historical, philosophical and anthropological depth offered by the humanities and social sciences.
The programme’s researchers contribute to public debate through public lectures, opinion pieces, podcasts and radio programmes, among other formats.