Medical Humanities Graduate Programme

In 2023, a graduate programme in medical humanities was launched by the Centre for Medical Humanities at Uppsala University. The programme aims to create a milieu for interdisciplinary, border crossing research connected to central challenges for our society. It constitutes a nursery and platform for a new generation of researchers trained in interdisciplinary work in the field of medical humanities.

The graduate programme includes five PhD students with interdisciplinary projects within the field of medical humanities. Each project engages supervisors from both the disciplinary domain of medicine and pharmacy and the disciplinary domain of one from the domain of humanities and social science. The graduate programme is funded by the vice-chancellor of Uppsala University.

The Centre for Medical Humanities offers courses, a seminar series, workshops and social events throughout the year as part of the graduate programme. A list of  courses offered within the frame of the programme is available below.

Ylva Söderfeldt, Director of the Centre for Medical Humanities, is responsible for the graduate programme. Erika Sigvardsdotter is the programme coordinator. 

The programme is overseen by an international advisory board, consisting of Ericka Johnson, Professor at Tema Genus, Linköping University; Jeremy Greene, William H. Welch Professor of Medicine and the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University; and Mariacarla Gadebusch Bondio, Professor in Medical Humanities at Bonn University Hospital.

Introduction to the medical humanities, 4–6 credits, Spring 2023
This course offers an introduction to the medical humanities as a field of research and provides a basis for performing interdisciplinary studies related to health and medicine. It covers the main themes of medical humanities research as well as the history and development of the field. The course is designed for PhD candidates in biomedicine, health, humanities and social sciences, and it is organized as a series of seminars, supplemented by written assignments based on course literature and guest lectures.

Publishing interdisciplinary research, 3 credits, Spring 2024
This course is organized in collaboration with the university library. It is designed for PhD students in biomedicine, health, humanities and social sciences, that are interested in reaching broader academic audiences than that of their own discipline. The course includes insights in to the academic publishing system and other routes to research visibility, focusing on the specific challenges of interdisciplinary publishing. Individual mentoring in search and publishing strategy is offered as part of the course.

Rosie Duivenbode

I am an interdisciplinary PhD student at the research group International Maternal and Reproductive Health and Migration (at the Department of Women and Children’s Health) and part of the graduate program in Medical Humanities (at the Center for Medical Humanities).

My doctoral research takes place at the intersection of medicine, law and the humanities. I am exploring the relationship between healthcare professionals and the state through studying their role in the enforcement and implementation of female genital cutting policies and legislation.
I have a joint medical and translational research degree from Utrecht University in the Netherlands (2017) and subsequently completed postdoctoral training in Muslim health and Islamic bioethics at the University of Chicago (2019). I then went on to pursue a graduate degree in religious studies at the University of Chicago Divinity School (2021) before joining Uppsala University as a doctoral student.

Kristina Humphreys

have a background in neuroscience, medicine, philosophy, and sustainable development with a focus on global health and subjective wellbeing. My PhD project is about immune cell functions and the extent to which metaphorical notions of immune cells impact interpretation and representation of their functions, especially within research and medical education as they become increasingly data driven. For example, the project explores functions of immune cells such as those involved in development, tissue repair, and maintaining homeostasis as well as how alternative metaphors of the immune system can be represented to capture a broader understanding of immunology. The project will also engage with experiences of immune system dysfunction as both reflecting and informing societal, biological, and subjective levels of analysis.

Camilla Lyckblad

I have a BA in practical philosophy from Stockholm University and a Master's degree in library and Information science from Uppsala University. Prior to my current Ph.D. position at the ALM department, I worked as a research librarian for Danderyd Hospital and the Law department at Stockholm University.

My research is focused on patient records and their agency as powerful documents affecting people's behaviors. The research aims to problematize sensitive recordkeeping in a digitalized society.

Susanna Pohjola

I joined CRB and CMH in February 2023 and my PhD project explores ethical dilemmas and ethical competence when providing dietary advice. The project also includes an evaluation of an educational intervention with the aim to increase ethical competence and reduce ethical stress for health care professionals.

I hold a degree of Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Mälardalen University and a Postgraduate Diploma in Specialist Nursing in Primary Health Care from Umeå University. As a RN I have self-lived experiences of ethical difficulties when providing care. The experience of working as a lecturer in higher education has given me an increased pedagogical interest. Together with a pedagogical interest and sympathies for ethical issues, I hope to make a difference for health care professionals who face this in their every day work.

Martina Wallberg

I have a bachelor's degree in sociology with an orientation towards work and organization from Uppsala University and a master's degree in work life studies from Mälardalen University. Post graduating, I worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska Institutet (KI) in the project Future Work.

In my doctoral project Laboratories of the future? A historical biography about complex buildings, flexible organizations, and research and education within the life sciences, I study the interdependency between buildings, organization, and work as sites of negotiation and economic foundations for research and education by examining the shaping and reshaping of one life science building, BMC.