Next Event
Neurodiversity: Diverse Perspectives
Friday 13th and Saturday 14th March
A two-day interdisciplinary workshop which brings together a range of viewpoints on neurodivergence—including academic and therapeutic perspectives—with a particular focus on the role of lived experience in making sense of neurodivergence.
Funding for this event has been generously provided by: The Department of Philosophy, The Arché Research Centre, and The Scots Philosophical Association. Also supported by the Network for Medical Humanities.
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Upcoming Events
Network for Medical Humanities Seminar: Lucas Michallet-Lanzarone (Sorbonne)
25th March, 3-5pm, School V, St Salvator’s Quad, UC050
Title: ‘Between veterinary therapy, biological unpredictability, and technical mediation: sheep infected with brucellosis in France in the 20th century’
Joint seminar: Institute for Transnational and Spatial History, Centre for French History and Culture, Network for Medical Humanities, Erica Charters (Oxford)
20th April 3.30-5pm, Room 0.01 St Katharine’s Lodge
Title TBC
Endemic Transformations
9th-10th July, Old Union Diner (Further details to be announced). Convened by Christos Lynteris (Social Anthropology) and funded by a Ladislav Holy Memorial Trust Conference Grant. Also supported by the St Andrews Network for Medical Humanities.
Endemic Transformations will bring anthropologists and historians in dialogue for the first time over the examination of disease endemicity as a phenomenon whose neglected but seminal impact on the modern world can only be made sense of by considering the synergies between its epistemological, sociocultural, political, and environmental dimensions in a synchronic and diachronic manner. Used to identify epidemic origins, to describe existing epidemiological states, and to predict the future of ongoing epidemics or pandemics, the “endemic” has been a formative if highly contested notion in scientific approaches to and lay experiences of infectious diseases. The conference will explore how biomedical approaches to disease endemicity have been transformed across different historical and ethnographic settings since the beginning of the nineteenth century, and the impact of these framings upon relations between humans, non-human animals, and the environment. Including talks by leading anthropologists and historians presenting new histories and ethnographies of the social, multispecies and environmental entanglements of disease endemicity across the globe, the conference will provide a radically new approach to the ways in which animals, humans, environments, climate, and infectious diseases come together and shape our world, proposing “endemic transformations” as a new, interdisciplinary research field in the social sciences and humanities.
Past Events
St Andrews Network for Medical Humanities 2nd Annual Symposium
Following the success of 2025’s event, the Network returned to Parliament Hall on 23rd January 2026 for another packed schedule. This event was kindly sponsored by the School of Philosophical, Anthropological, and Film Studies.
Chaired by Richard Bellis (Medicine), Bettina Bildhauer (Modern Languages), Christos Lynteris (Anthropology), and Panna Muqit (Medicine), the day comprised sessions on: Information and Translation from Ariana Serafinceanu (Modern Languages), Emily Hammer (Divinity), Lydia King (Anthropology), Chia Liu (Geography); Trauma, Anxiety and Neurodivergence Emanuela Borghi (Anthropology), Kendra Löwer (Modern Languages), Patricia Buck (Anthropology), Patrick Greenough (Philosophy) and Bridget Bradley (Anthropology); Places, Movement and Diseases Alex Archer (Anthropology), Richard Bellis (Medicine), Mary Abed Al Ahad (Geography), Islay Shelbourne (History), Christos Lynteris (Anthropology); All Singing, All Dancing Bethany Whiteside (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), Anindya Raychaudhuri (English), Panna Muqit (Medicine), Sophie Boyd (University of Glasgow), and Brianna Robertson (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), Charlie Guy (Medicine).
The full programme is available here: 2nd Annual Symposium Programme (Word)
St Andrews Medical Humanities Network Inaugural Symposium
The inaugural St Andrews Medical Humanities Network Symposium on 20 January 2025 was hosted by the Graduate School for Interdisciplinary Studies at Parliament Hall, South Street.
The programme was chaired by Dr Morven Shearer (Medicine/GSIS) and Dr Richard Bellis (Medicine) and included sessions on Exhibition, narrative and storytelling from Dr Emily Hanson and Dr Billy Rough (Art History), Dr Bridget Bradley (Anthropology), Dr Roxani Krystalli (International Relations) and Dr Zoe McElhinney (Medicine); on Assessing medical research from Dr Mattia Fumanti (Anthropology), Dr Joseph Millum (Philosophy), Prof. Aileen Fyfe (History), Dr Jane Illés (Medicine) and Dr Ted Bergman (Modern Languages); on Medical humanities methods from Prof. Alison Beach and Dr Sally Mubarak (History and Classics), Katrin Metsis (Medicine), Prof. Bettina Bildhauer (Modern Languages) and Dr Enrico Galvagni (Philosophy); and on Wellbeing throughout Life from Dr Philippa Woodcock (History), Dr Chia Liu (Geography and Sustainable Development), Dr Sarah Bowers (Medicine) and Dr Mary Abed Al Ahad (Geography and Sustainable Development).
Dr Jaipreet Virdi from the University of Delaware delivered the symposium keynote on ‘Beyond the shot: the complex history of depo-provera and endometriosis’. Dr Jaipreet Virdi is an award-winning historian whose research focuses on the ways medicine and technology impact the lived experiences of disabled people.
Full programme available here: Medical Humanities Symposium Programme (Word)