Rethinking Body in Medical Humanities (Editors’ Note)
Faizan Moquim | Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University
Nikita Goel | Independent Researcher
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.71106/DIGG8409
Publication: Volume 6 Issue 3
Excerpt | The origin of medical humanities can be traced back to the post-World War II debates on bioethics, with the term being coined by George Sarton in 1948. Yet it would perhaps be misleading to anchor this new field of inquiry in a particular monolithic cultural moment. The emergence of medical humanities is a multi-factorial phenomenon which bridges the clinical divide between medical science and arts/humanities, and thinks through curriculum reforms in medical education, pharmaceutical and technological advances, etc. This field promotes a critical dialogue between biomedical science—particularly the theoretical and practical issues in the domain of medicine, clinical practices, and medical ethics—and humanities as well as social sciences. In the recent decades, medical humanities has grown into an exciting area of interdisciplinary inquiry, allowing an interrogation into a range of concerns around human illness and wellness. In doing so, it deals with pertinent questions about bodily experience of disease, patient-practitioner relationship, health policies and infrastructure, narrative ethics, palliative care, suffering, illness narrative, gerontology, and medical technology.
Key words | Bioethics, Medical Humanities, Disease, Illness, Death, Body, Patient Care, Personhood, Health Practices
Faizan Moquim (faizan.moquim@vips.edu) is Assistant Professor of English at Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies (VIPS), New Delhi. He completed his Ph.D. in the Department of English at Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi. His doctoral thesis titled “Aesthetics of Dissonance: A Study of Khalid Jawed’s Art of Fiction” is an existential inquiry into the novels of Khalid Jawed. He has previously taught English at Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD), Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University (DSEU), Indira Gandhi Technical University for Women (IGDTUW), and University of Delhi (DU). His research interests include Comparative Aesthetics, Translation Studies, Existential Thought, English Language Teaching, and Writing Pedagogy.
Nikita Goel (nikita.goel@ellids.com) is a co-founder and editor at the Open Access research journal, Language, Literature, and Interdisciplinary Studies (LLIDS). After completing her post graduation in English Literature from University of Delhi in 2015, she graduated in Publishing Course from Columbia University, New York. Her other research interests include Open Access, Publishing, Decolonial Studies, Indian Classical Literature, Mythology, and Romanticism.
MLA Citation for this Article:
Moquim, Faizan, and Nikita Goel. “Rethinking Body in Medical Humanities (Editors’ Note).” Language, Literature, and Interdisciplinary Studies, vol. 6, no. 3, 24 Jul. 2025, pp. v-viii, https://doi.org/10.71106/DIGG8409.