Healing Narratives, Embodied Histories: Medical Humanities in South Asia

deadline for submissions: 
June 15, 2025
full name / name of organization: 
Animesh Roy and Bosudha Bandyopadhyay
contact email: 

Call for Papers

Healing Narratives, Embodied Histories: Medical Humanities in South Asia

Animesh Roy and Bosudha Bandyopadhyay

 

  

 

 

Medical Humanities is an interdisciplinary field that examines the human dimensions of health, illness, and healthcare through the lens of literature, arts, humanities, and social sciences. It seeks to deepen understanding of medical practices by exploring how cultural, historical, ethical, and literary contexts shape healthcare experiences.

The core objectives of Medical Humanities include:

·       Enhancing Empathy and Compassion: Studying narratives of illness helps healthcare professionals understand patients' experiences beyond clinical symptoms.

·       Ethical Reflection: Philosophical and ethical discussions within the humanities offer critical perspectives on bioethical issues such as medical consent, autonomy, and healthcare equity.

·       Cultural Competency: Literature, history, and anthropology provide insights into how cultural beliefs and societal norms influence health behaviours and medical practices.

·       Narrative Medicine: Analysing patient stories helps improve communication and narrative competence in clinical settings.

·       Historical Insight: Historical accounts of diseases, epidemics, and medical advancements contextualize modern healthcare systems.

By incorporating perspectives from literature, art, history, and ethics, Medical Humanities encourages a holistic understanding of healthcare that respects the complexity of human experience. South Asia with its checkered history of diverse cultural practices, colonial legacies, and pluralistic medical systems offer an ideal ground to read how medical practices and narratives are deeply embedded in social, cultural, and historical contexts.

This proposed volume would seek to critically engage with these intersections to examine how South Asian narratives and experiences contribute to global conversations on the relationship between health, illness, and the humanities by highlighting culturally specific issues, practices, and representations.

 

Scope and Objectives

 

The volume endeavours to seek:

 

·       Explore representations of health, illness, and healing in South Asian literature, cinema, and art.

 

·       Address how socio-cultural contexts in South Asia shape healthcare policies and medical practices.

 

·       Examine historical and contemporary issues in South Asian public health narratives.

 

·       Discuss the role of traditional and indigenous healing systems in South Asia within modern medical discourse.

 

·       Highlight the lived experiences of marginalised communities in accessing healthcare in South Asia.

 

·       Investigate bioethical concerns unique to South Asia, including reproductive rights, medical tourism, and healthcare inequities.

 

 

Suggested Themes and Topics

 

The proposed volume would seek to invite submissions on (but not limited to) the following topics concerning specifically within the context of South Asia:

 

·       Narratives of Illness and Healing:

 

a.     Health, trauma, and recovery in South Asian literature and folklore

 

b. Memoirs and autobiographies related to health experiences

 

·       Cultural Representations of Medicine:

 

a.     Portrayal of doctors, healers, and patients in South Asian films and TV

 

b. Medical metaphors in poetry and prose

 

·       Historical and Social Dimensions of Health:

 

a.     Epidemics and pandemics in South Asian history

 

b. Colonial and post-colonial health policies

 

·       Bioethics and Public Health:

 

a.     Reproductive rights and women’s healthcare

 

b. Disability and accessibility in South Asia

 

c. Medical tourism and its ethical implications

 

·       Traditional and Indigenous Medical Systems:

 

a.     Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, and alternative medicine practices

 

b. Integration of traditional healing with modern medicine

 

·       Health Inequities and Marginalisation:

 

a.     Caste, gender, and economic barriers in accessing healthcare

 

b.     Mental health stigma and awareness campaigns

 

Please keep in mind the following points while submitting your paper:

1. Papers should be between 5000 to 7000 words typed in A4 size pages.

2. The title of the paper should be in sentence case and centre alignment.

3. The main body of the essay should be in left alignment. Kindly do not justify.

4. Double spacing should be used between lines.

5. The Chicago Manual Style Handbook (17th Ed.) should be followed for references and

citations.

6. Please do not use Foot Notes. Use End Notes instead.

7. Each paper must be accompanied by:

a. A declaration that it is an original work and has not been published elsewhere, or is

under consideration for publication.

b. An abstract of the paper of around 300-400 words.

c. A short biographical note about the contributor/s indicating name, institutional

affiliation, brief career history, postal address, contact address (both personal and

office), and e-mail id as a single attachment.

 

Mode of Submission

Contributors are requested to send their abstracts with brief bio-notes as well as the finished

papers to both roy.english82@gmail.com. Do note that while the

deadline for the submission of abstracts is 15th February, 2025, the deadline for the finished paper is 15th June, 2025.

 

Selection Procedure

Final selection of the papers will be made by the editors. Details regarding the selection of papers would be informed through e-mail. The editors reserve the right to make editing changes in the papers selected for publication for the sake of conceptual clarity and formatting, if needed.

Please indicate “Healing Narratives, Embodies Histories: Medical Humanities in South Asia” in the subject line for all e-mail correspondences.

 

Important Dates

Abstract submission: 15th February, 2025 (along with a brief bionote of the author).

Submission of the final manuscript: September 15th June, 2025.

 

 

 

 

Medical Humanities is an interdisciplinary field that examines the human dimensions of health, illness, and healthcare through the lens of literature, arts, humanities, and social sciences. It seeks to deepen understanding of medical practices by exploring how cultural, historical, ethical, and literary contexts shape healthcare experiences.

The core objectives of Medical Humanities include:

·       Enhancing Empathy and Compassion: Studying narratives of illness helps healthcare professionals understand patients' experiences beyond clinical symptoms.

·       Ethical Reflection: Philosophical and ethical discussions within the humanities offer critical perspectives on bioethical issues such as medical consent, autonomy, and healthcare equity.

·       Cultural Competency: Literature, history, and anthropology provide insights into how cultural beliefs and societal norms influence health behaviours and medical practices.

·       Narrative Medicine: Analysing patient stories helps improve communication and narrative competence in clinical settings.

·       Historical Insight: Historical accounts of diseases, epidemics, and medical advancements contextualize modern healthcare systems.

By incorporating perspectives from literature, art, history, and ethics, Medical Humanities encourages a holistic understanding of healthcare that respects the complexity of human experience. South Asia with its checkered history of diverse cultural practices, colonial legacies, and pluralistic medical systems offer an ideal ground to read how medical practices and narratives are deeply embedded in social, cultural, and historical contexts.

This proposed volume would seek to critically engage with these intersections to examine how South Asian narratives and experiences contribute to global conversations on the relationship between health, illness, and the humanities by highlighting culturally specific issues, practices, and representations.

 

Scope and Objectives

 

The volume endeavours to seek:

 

·       Explore representations of health, illness, and healing in South Asian literature, cinema, and art.

 

·       Address how socio-cultural contexts in South Asia shape healthcare policies and medical practices.

 

·       Examine historical and contemporary issues in South Asian public health narratives.

 

·       Discuss the role of traditional and indigenous healing systems in South Asia within modern medical discourse.

 

·       Highlight the lived experiences of marginalised communities in accessing healthcare in South Asia.

 

·       Investigate bioethical concerns unique to South Asia, including reproductive rights, medical tourism, and healthcare inequities.

 

 

Suggested Themes and Topics

 

The proposed volume would seek to invite submissions on (but not limited to) the following topics concerning specifically within the context of South Asia:

 

·       Narratives of Illness and Healing:

 

a.     Health, trauma, and recovery in South Asian literature and folklore

 

b. Memoirs and autobiographies related to health experiences

 

·       Cultural Representations of Medicine:

 

a.     Portrayal of doctors, healers, and patients in South Asian films and TV

 

b. Medical metaphors in poetry and prose

 

·       Historical and Social Dimensions of Health:

 

a.     Epidemics and pandemics in South Asian history

 

b. Colonial and post-colonial health policies

 

·       Bioethics and Public Health:

 

a.     Reproductive rights and women’s healthcare

 

b. Disability and accessibility in South Asia

 

c. Medical tourism and its ethical implications

 

·       Traditional and Indigenous Medical Systems:

 

a.     Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, and alternative medicine practices

 

b. Integration of traditional healing with modern medicine

 

·       Health Inequities and Marginalisation:

 

a.     Caste, gender, and economic barriers in accessing healthcare

 

b.     Mental health stigma and awareness campaigns

 

Please keep in mind the following points while submitting your paper:

1. Papers should be between 5000 to 7000 words typed in A4 size pages.

2. The title of the paper should be in sentence case and centre alignment.

3. The main body of the essay should be in left alignment. Kindly do not justify.

4. Double spacing should be used between lines.

5. The Chicago Manual Style Handbook (17th Ed.) should be followed for references and

citations.

6. Please do not use Foot Notes. Use End Notes instead.

7. Each paper must be accompanied by:

a. A declaration that it is an original work and has not been published elsewhere, or is

under consideration for publication.

b. An abstract of the paper of around 300-400 words.

c. A short biographical note about the contributor/s indicating name, institutional

affiliation, brief career history, postal address, contact address (both personal and

office), and e-mail id as a single attachment.

 

Mode of Submission

Contributors are requested to send their abstracts with brief bio-notes as well as the finished

papers to both roy.english82@gmail.com. Do note that while the

deadline for the submission of abstracts is 15th February, 2025, the deadline for the finished paper is 15th June, 2025.

 

Selection Procedure

Final selection of the papers will be made by the editors. Details regarding the selection of papers would be informed through e-mail. The editors reserve the right to make editing changes in the papers selected for publication for the sake of conceptual clarity and formatting, if needed.

Please indicate “Healing Narratives, Embodies Histories: Medical Humanities in South Asia” in the subject line for all e-mail correspondences.

 

Important Dates

Abstract submission: 15th February, 2025 (along with a brief bionote of the author).

Submission of the final manuscript: September 15th June, 2025.