Exploring the Human Contexts of Health
through interdisciplinary research and creative communication
About Our Centre
The Centre for Medical Humanities is an interdisciplinary research centre, funded by the University of Otago, and launched in 2026.
Our members come from a huge variety of academic disciplines, as well as from creative fields, community organisations, lived experience groups, and various healthcare fields.
Together we work to facilitate events, community programmes, and grant initiatives that help explore and communicate the human contexts of health in Aotearoa NZ and beyond.
Partnerships
We are developing partnerships with a variety of community organisations, including Dunedin City of Literature, Flash Frontier journal, Nuku Ora, and FERNZ.
Our academic and institutional partners include Otago University Press, the Performance of the Real research theme, and the Critical Disability Studies research network, along with a variety of international connections.
What is the
'Medical Humanities'?
The Medical Humanities (or Health Humanities) is an interdisciplinary field focused on the social, political, historical, philosophical, ethical, and cultural aspects of health and healthcare.
It draws together diverse academic areas, ranging from the history of medicine to medical anthropology, from bioethics to disability studies, from health law to literatures of care, to engage with issues of communication, culture, power, stigma, inclusion, identity, justice, and more.
The Medical Humanities can help with 'humanising' biomedical systems, with practical applications around health policy, medical education, patient advocacy, and more. But it also supports the development of health research that engages deeply and rigorously with humanities tools and methods: including critical, participatory, arts-based, culturally-grounded approaches.
At the same time the medical humanities can help inform vibrant and creative forms of public engagement on topics to do with health and disability.
Our Contribution
The Centre draws on the identity, history, and strengths of the University of Otago as New Zealand’s oldest School of Medicine and a leading health research institution, while bringing the expertise of our humanities and social science researchers to the fore.
As a new Centre, we are working to develop our unique contribution to the medical humanities, with goals to:
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Advance high-calibre research on the human contexts of health and disability in Aotearoa NZ and beyond
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Facilitate conversations and collaborations between researchers from a range of fields
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Connect academics, healthcare practitioners, and lived experience communities
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Champion creative health storytelling, in diverse forms
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Connect Aotearoa-based researchers to other global centres for medical and health humanities
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Expand conversations on the relationship the medical humanities and Mātauranga Māori