CMHB international conference 2027

Health Challenges in Times of Societal Transformations: CMHB international conference 2027

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Welcome to the conference "Health Challenges in Times of Societal Transformations: Medical Humanities, Bioethics, and Interdisciplinarity across the Humanities, the Social Sciences, and Medicine". The conference brings together researchers to examine health challenges from socio-cultural, biopolitical, epistemological and ethical perspectives.

Complex health challenges in shifting socio-political contexts and times as well as rapid introductions of new medical technologies and practices demand in-depth analyses through interdisciplinary and disciplinary research strands and collaborations. The medical humanities and bioethics are crucial for interpreting and critically examining such challenges and developments, while also envisioning and working towards just, inclusive forms of care 鈥� in the present and for the future.

The conference provides a platform for exchange among researchers and encourages dialogue and collaboration across disciplinary boundaries.

About the research fields

Medical and health humanities encompass the humanities, the interpretative social sciences, and research at the intersections of medicine, the humanities, and the social sciences. Some research in this field examine how sociocultural, ethical, and political aspects shape the development and use of medical technologies and practices, and how these, at the same time, raise sociocultural, ethical and political questions.

Central to this field are also studies of lived experiences of illness, health, embodiment, bodily and functional variation, risk, and wellbeing; the conditions for and meanings of narrativity in medicine and the medical humanities, and the conditions for knowledge production in medical humanities, medicine, and interdisciplinary health research, to mention but some examples.听

Bioethics examines ethical questions and aspects of biomedicine, health care practices, old and new medical technology developments, health care policies, as but some examples. Further, scholars in bioethics critically examine how values, norms, structural inequalities and power relations shape ethical agency, responsibility, and the very practices of health care.

Conference topics

With the above as some of the focal points for the conference, we invite researchers working in the fields of medical humanities, bioethics, and/or in interdisciplinary projects at the intersection of medicine, the humanities, and the social sciences.

Topics at the conference will include, but not be limited to:

Subjectivity, intersubjectivity and the lived experiences of, for example, illness, pain, suffering, pregnancy, birth, ageing, dying, health and well-being
Affectivity and agency in health care, and in relation to experiences of illness, pain, suffering, pregnancy, birth ageing, dying, health and well-being
Norms, values and sociocultural assumptions about bodies, body parts, sex, race/ethnicity, gender, age, functional and/or bodily variations, or specific diseases
Ethical analysis of/within medicine
Equality and equity in healthcare
Historical formations of and perspectives on embodiment, care, and medical practice
Contested illnesses, chronic illnesses
Intersectional perspectives on, and structural discrimination within the healthcare services
The development and use of new technologies in medicine (ranging from, for example, ML/AI-models to new forms of genetic testing or practices within reproductive medicine)
The co-production of society, medicine, science, and subjectivity
Cultural diversity in health care and health care policy debates
Conditions for knowledge production across epistemic fields in interdisciplinary health research when humanities, social sciences and biomedicine are combined
Conditions for knowledge production in medicine, the medical and health humanities, and/or bioethics
Knowledge, evidence, and policymaking in health care
Local and global health challenges: crises and resilience, pandemic and post-pandemic insights and challenges in relation to health, illness, health care
Narrativity in medical humanities and/or bioethics, graphic medicine, and art-research collaborations within medical humanities and/or bioethics听

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Epistemology and post-Covid

While focusing broadly on interdisciplinary medical humanities and bioethics and interdisciplinarity across humanities, social sciences and medicine, the conference also includes specific sessions focused on themes within this research project, such as intersectionality and postcovid/longcovid (and other long-term illnesses); knowledge, evidence, policymaking; and epistemological dimensions of interdisciplinary work across medical humanities and biomedicine.

Submission of abstracts for presentations and posters

Please submit your abstract through this form:

Upon submission you will be asked to provide an abstract of 500 words and to indicate whether you prefer an oral presentation (20 minutes presentation, 10 for questions) or a poster.

Deadline for abstract submissions: 1 November 2026.

Decision about acceptance of abstracts: 15 December 2026.

Registration and fee

The conference fee includes three lunches, conference mingle on June 16, conference dinner on June 17, and coffee and refreshments throughout the conference.

Fee for PhD students: 1900 SEK (25% VAT excluded)

Fee for non-PhD students: 2400 SEK听(25% VAT excluded)

Deadline for registration and payment of conference fee: 1 April 2027.

Organisers and contact

The conference is arranged by the Centre for Medical Humanities and Bioethics (CMHB), Link枚ping University, Sweden, in collaboration with the research project "Biomedicine, Clinical Knowledge, and the Humanities in Collaboration: A Novel Epistemology for Radically Interdisciplinary Health Research and Policy-Work on Post-Covid-19 Syndrome", funded by the Swedish Research Council.

The conference is also supported by LiU Humanities, a forum for the humanities and social sciences at Link枚ping University.

Contact us

E-mail: cmhb_conference_2027@liu.se

Centre for Medical Humanities and Bioethics

We gather, strengthen, and develop research, teaching, and collaboration with the society around us, within the areas of medical humanities and bioethics.

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Epistemology och post-Covid

The pandemic has impacted us all, but some more than others. For those who are suffering from post-Covid, the lingering impact is particularly tangible. Interdisciplinary research is needed to understand this new health challenge.

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LiU Humanities

LiU Humanities is a forum for collaboration between researchers, teachers and doctoral students active in the intersection of humanities and social sciences.

More about research at LiU

Research at 糖心直播

What makes LiU special is the lack of boundaries between different subjects and faculties, which has resulted in world-leading research environments and companies. We address issues where the results can benefit all of society.