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Health and Medical Humanities in Global Health: From the Anglocentric to the Anthropocene

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Handbook of Social Sciences and Global Public Health

Abstract

This chapter addresses three research questions. First, it asks, in what ways have the health and medical humanities been conceptually or practically connected with global health? The chapter provides a schematic history of the health and medical humanities to identify that the medical humanities have been, and continues to be, very much a “Western” Anglo-European project, but one that has always contained critiques of dominant paradigms in medicine and health. It then asks, how might the health and medical humanities meaningfully shift to become a global area of research and practice? It describes a recent World Universities Network Health Humanities Initiative, which brought scholars together from across the world to take a first step toward this goal, and emphasizes the key importance of open dialogue to support this shift. Finally, it asks, in what areas might the health and medical humanities be of fundamental benefit to global health into the future? It discusses the health humanities in health professions education and future development and describes a framework to plan and evaluate health humanities teaching. The chapter concludes by discussing the key importance of the humanities in tackling the health challenges of the future.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the contribution to this chapter by all members of the WUN Health Humanities initiative: Prof Pamela Brett-Maclean; Dr. Anna Harris; Prof Steve Reid; Dr. Mary Ani-Ampousah; Dr. Daniel Vuillermin; A/Prof Karen Scott; Dr. Farah Noya; and Dr. Nahal Mavaddat.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sydney Health Ethics, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Claire Hooker

  2. Centre for Arts, Mental Health and Wellbeing WA, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia

    Brid Phillips

  3. Health Professions Education, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia

    Sandra Carr

Authors
  1. Claire Hooker
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  2. Brid Phillips
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  3. Sandra Carr
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Claire Hooker .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Health Sciences, Western Sydney University, Camberwell, VIC, Australia

    Pranee Liamputtong

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Hooker, C., Phillips, B., Carr, S. (2023). 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. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96778-9_14-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96778-9_14-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-96778-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-96778-9

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