About Us

Our research group 'Medical Humanities' tries to make sense of different discourses, from the biological to the social, economic, political, and aesthetic, that influence health and shape our perceptions of physical and psychological well-being.

Our works will foreground the muted conversations about Medical Humanities in India, specifically focusing on texts written and read in Indian English and Indian languages and the psychological and physiological narratives that emerge from the subcontinent.

The group delves into the language, images, and symbols used in these texts to gain insights into the complexities of health and its portrayal in different contexts. We aim to create a collaborative research space that fosters interdisciplinary discussions across fields, including Humanities, Social Sciences, Medicine, and Healthcare.

Through our ongoing projects, we analyse literary and visual texts and anatomical and medical illustrations of bodies to gain deeper insights into the narratives of illness, health, and medicine in various forms of artistic expression. Led by Dr Aratrika Das, the research group comprises five scholars who work together to explore and critically examine the intersection of medicine and humanities.

Our vision is to develop an India-specific Medical Humanities model that considers our socioeconomic and cultural realities and the diverse needs of our population, thereby advancing the field in South Asian studies. It aims to foray into yoking the explanatory medicine model with the experiential model of suffering.