Institut for Nordiske Studier og Sprogvidenskab (NorS)

Educational Aspects in Medical and Health Humanities

Conference.

In recent decades, there has been a growing emphasis on education in medical and health humanities across the Nordic countries. Disciplines are collaborating in new ways, placing interdisciplinarity at the heart of their work, which brings both opportunities and challenges along with the need for further development. Lund University and the University of Southern Denmark have been leading in this field, and now the University of Copenhagen is preparing to launch a new collective package in health humanities from 2026.

The interest in innovative interdisciplinary education invites careful considerations of how to design and assess seminars, courses, diplomas, and curricula aimed at humanities students as well as medical and health students. Opportunities span a wide range of humanities disciplines – such as literature, linguistics, philosophy, theology, history, ethnography, anthropology, cultural studies, visual arts, film studies, and performance art – as well as fields in medicine and health, including hospitals and healthcare institutions. What can we learn from existing experiences, and how can we develop them further? How can we foster collaboration between humanistic disciplines on health issues and between the faculties of humanities and health? And what insights can be drawn from health-related interventions outside the university setting?

Keynote speakers

Rishi Goyal, MD, associate professor, Department for Medical Humanities and Ethics, Columbia University
Astrid Pernille Jespersen, professor, Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen
Tine Høeg, artist, writer-in-residence at the Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, University of Copenhagen

Programme

10 June

12:00-12:15 Anders Juhl Rasmussen: Welcome

12:15-13:00 Keynote Astrid Pernille Jespersen, University of Copenhagen: Educational aspects of Health Humanities

13:15–14:30 Paper session: Medicine and the humanities. Chair Jeanette Bresson Ladegaard Knox (JBLK)

Cindie A. Aaen Maagaard & Merethe K. Andersen, University of Southern Denmark	Perspective shifts: A narrative reflection on interdisciplinary collaboration
Mike van Spaandonk & Lies Hoogerwerf, UMC Utrecht	Advancing reverse translational medicine by connecting the medical humanities with research-based (bio)medical education
Jan Buts, University of Oslo	Text Corpora and Healthcare Education
Lars Hagander & Katarina Bernhardsson (with students), Lund University	Medical Students’ Perceptions of Educational Aspects of Medical Humanities Teaching

14:45–15:45 Paper session: Narrative and Pharmacy. Chair Katarina Bernhardsson (KB)

Charlotte Klemmensen (et al.), Aalborg University/University of Copenhagen	Pharmacy staff-client encounters revisited with video analysis
Nanna Broch Mottelson (et al.), University of Copenhagen	Emotional awareness at the community pharmacy counter
Mathias Møllebæk, University of Copenhagen	Opening the black box of societal values in the pharmaceutical curriculum

16:00–16:45 Tine Høeg (and Anders Juhl Rasmussen), University of Copenhagen:
Skriveværksted for mennesker i fertilitetsbehandling

18:00 Dinner at Food Club. Address: Sortedam Dossering 7C, 2200 Nørrebro.
Dinner is at the participants’ own expense. We hope many of you want to join us at Food Club!

11 June

9:00–10:00 Paper session: Medical humanities within the humanities. Chair KB

Linda Hamrin Nesby & Ingri Løkholm Ramberg, University of Tromsø	Mellom laboratoriet og speilsalen. Valg av litteratur i samlesing
Rachel Irwing, Lund University	Experiential Learning in the Medical Humanities
Henrik Johnsson, Østfold University College	Teaching a Course on Illness in Children’s and Young Adult Literature: Lessons and Suggestions

10:15–11:15 Paper session: Ethnography and narrative practices. Chair JBLK

Marika Osuji, Karolinska institutet	Developing narratively engaged practices to enable core values in elderly care
Linda Timm, Karolinska institutet	Narrative relations in a nursing home for Finnish migrants living in Sweden
Lea Muldtofte & Helene Speyer, Mental Health services, Capital Region, Denmark	Value of unease in fostering epistemic humility

11:30–12:15 Paper session: Interventions. Chair Hilde Bondevik

Petra Partanen, University of Jyväskyle	Narrative agency and narrative sensitivity in bibliotherapeutic family support work
Torbjörn Forslid, Lund University	Reflektioner kring forskningen om och bruket av högläsningskonceptet shared reading

12:15–13:00 Lunch (at the participants’ own expense)

13:00–13:45 Paper session: Psychiatry and trauma. Chair KB

Dennis Meyhoff Brink & Birgit Bundesen, Mental Health Care Center Amager/ The Danish Center for Arts and Mental Health	The Therapeutic Atmosphere
Katarina Båth, Lund University	Trauma-Informed Pedagogy in Literary and Creative Writing Contexts

14:00-14:45 Paper session: Visual culture. Chair JBLK

Anna C. Rédei, Lund University	Ethical aspects in healthcare communication
Jorun Larsen, Universitetet i Bergen	Fotografi, helse, liv og død – refleksjonar kring eit gjennomført undervisningsopplegg

15:00–16:00 Keynote Rishi Goyal, Columbia University (via Zoom): Educational aspects of Medical Humanities

Call for papers - closed

Nordic network for narratives in medicine welcomes papers from scholars and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines and specialties within the medical and heath humanities as well as the social and psychological aspects of medicine and healthcare. For the network meeting, we invite papers on the theme of “educational aspects in medical and health humanities” studied within many different areas, including but not limited to:

Didactic reflections on humanities courses about health topics
Didactic reflections on humanities elements in medical and health educations
Creativity as a method and practice in medical and health humanities courses
Health-related interventions outside university education which promote learning in medical and health humanities
Studies or reviews on the benefits and challenges of courses, seminars etc. in the intersection of humanities and health

Please send an abstract of max 200 words to Åsa Thormählen by 15 February, 2025. Each presenter is allotted 15 minutes, followed by a short discussion. Presenters will be notified of the acceptance of the abstract at the latest on 15 March.

We encourage presentations in any Scandinavian language or in English.