Research Centre for Irish Studies (RCIS)

Everything that Makes Us Human: The Potential of the Medical Humanities

Online Interdisciplinary International Symposium

7th May 2024

Call for Papers
Abstract Submission
Keynote Speakers
Registration
Programme
Zoom Links to Sessions
Book of Abstracts
Pre-recorded Sessions
Publication of Papers
Organising Committee
Acknowledgment
Contact Us
Call for Papers

Call for Papers

When he was asked what was missing from medical training, K. Danner Clouser, the first philosopher to teach ethics at a U.S. medical school, answered “everything that makes us human.” In the 1980s, Clouser called attention to the “belief that something vital and fundamental was missing in health professions education and that the humanities could fill in those gaps and omissions.” In the years since, this provocative idea of the humanities providing something “missing” in the way we think about, study, and teach medicine and health has flourished.

This online interdisciplinary symposium on medical humanities aims to explore the study of the human aspects of medicine from within traditional arts disciplines. It is an interdisciplinary field that intersects the humanities (literature, philosophy, ethics, history and theology), social sciences (anthropology, psychology and sociology), arts (theatre, film, music and visual arts) and medicine.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

  1. Representations of pandemics and disease: Covid-19, influenza, Cholera, Tuberculosis, Malaria, the plague
  2. Histories/representations of the intertwining of medicine, scientific knowledge, healing, and therapy,
  3. Representations of health, illness, and death in wars and natural disasters
  4. Representations of disability, dementia, aging, and neurodiversity
  5. Curricular opportunities for integrating the Humanities into Medical Education
  6. Historical perspectives on and representations of medicine in the East, West, and the Arab region
  7. Translation and interpretation in the medical humanities,
  8. Social justice and health equity,
  9. Bioethics
Abstract Submission

Deadline for submission: 20th March 2024.

Submissions should be sent to rcis@bue.edu.eg. Please include a proposed title, a 250 word abstract or 500-word abstracts for pre-formed panels outlining your paper, a short bio of 200 words (name, title, academic field, affiliation and contact email). Presentations should not exceed 15  minutes.

Questions to be sent to: rania.khalil@bue.edu.eg

Notification of acceptance: 30th March 2024

Keynote Speakers

Keynote Speakers

Prof. Matthew Reznicek, University of Minnesota Medical School 

Dr. Lucy Burke, Manchester Metropolitan University

Registration

Registration includes a certificate of participation or attendance and support for possible publication in a journal.

International Presenter (30 Euros)
International Attendee (20 Euros)
Egyptian Presenter (1,000 EGP)
Egyptian Attendee (600 EGP)

Registration for presenters closes 6th May 2024

Registration for Attendees closes 7th May 2024 18:00pm Cairo Local Time

Programme

 

Download PDF here:

Programme MedHum.NoZoom

 

Final.Programme.MedHum

Zoom Links to Sessions

 

Here are the Zoom Links to all the Sessions

Zoom Links

Book of Abstracts

Download here Book of Abstracts

Final.Book of Abstracts

Pre-recorded Sessions

Pre-recorded Presentations

Keynote Speech -Prof Matthew L. Reznicek,

video1699399439.mp4

 

 

Interrogating the Intersection between Disability and Gender Discourse in the Context of Medical Humanities: A Reading of Mahesh Dattani’s Tara

Shortened version

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ENw0F-NZh01skB27UWRx48_wYF240k9Z/view

Full version of the pre-recorded presentation

Habib Subhan Diamond Harbour Womens University India.mp4

Presentation- pre-recorded

Melvin Mathew Thomas Presentation.pptx

Rare: Stories of Dis-Ease”

Sonja Kuftinec, James Cloyd, Paul Ranelli, Luverne Seifert (University of Minnesota, USA)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16pUoCqNiDT0koIA1qadbYjaQiL-B3MRt/view

TRAILER – RARE: Documentations of Hope and Dis-Ease

 

 

“Mad Women: Representations of Madness in Contemporary Latin American Women’s Literature”

Dra. Velebita Koričančić

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WqAkpCKlH5ytrkRvYsSgKFoCFhEbUsyB/view

Publication of Papers

Publication of Papers presented at the symposium:

Presenters after the symposium will be invited to submit their interdisciplinary research for double blind peer review and consideration for possible publication in a special issue of  The Journal of Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine.

Indexing: Scopus

Springer Nature publication.

No publication fee (fee has been waived)

Submission of completed manuscripts: 30th September 2025.

Please consult the journal page for author guidelines.

Manuscripts should be sent to: rcis@bue.edu.eg.

Inquiries email:  rania.khalil@bue.edu.eg

Expected publication date: June 2026

Organising Committee

Symposium Organising Committee 

Rania M Rafik Khalil, Walaa Hassan, Noha Hanafy.

Symposium Convener : Associate Prof Rania M Rafik Khalil – Acting Vice Dean for Research and Postgraduate Studies, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, The British University in Egypt

Acknowledgment

Thank you to all those who volunteered to support the making of the online symposium on medical humanities on behalf of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the British University in Egypt:

Programme: Associate Prof Walaa Hassan with support as needed from Dr Noha Hanafy, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, The British University in Egypt

Abstracts / Book of Abstracts  cm Committee: Dr Noha Hanafy with support as needed from Dr May Serag El Din, Dr Nohayer Lotfy, Dr Rania Salem, and Dr Wessam Morsi, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, The British University in Egypt

Abstracts reviewers: Scientific Committee.

Flyer Design: Dr Rania Salem, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, The British University in Egypt

Certificates Design: Ms Salma El Saadi, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, The British University in Egypt

 

Special Thank You to:

IT Department at the British University in Egypt

Contact Us

 

Contact Us

Symposium Organising Committee are available for any inquiries or concerns you might have. You can reach the Programme Committee (Dr Walaa Hassan) or the Abstracts Facilitator Committee (Dr Noha Hanafy) on the email below

medhum.symp@bue.edu.eg

 

You can reach out to the symposium convener (Dr Rania M Rafik Khalil) on this email: rcis@bue.edu.eg

 

Note: We kindly request that you address any concerns or frustrations you have constructively and politely taking into consideration that due to the high number of successful abstracts it has been challenging to accommodate all requests in the programme. We have also tried very hard to take into consideration the huge time difference for some presenters.

Thank you.