Zoe Boudart
Research Project
The Case of the Human: Co-Producing Plural Knowledge on the Body, the Social, and the Subject
Project Team:
2024 – 2025
Paul Klee, A Woman for Gods, 1938 (detail).
Key Question
What new knowledge about humanity can be produced through focused collaboration between humanists and medical experts?
Project Summary
Medical and humanistic understandings of health and well-being have intersected in recent decades, but the category of “the human” continues to be defined and applied in different ways. This project will identify a more holistic understanding of “the human” that is neither primarily medical nor humanistic, generating critically and clinically innovative knowledge.
Between the humanities and medicine there exist numerous definitions of the human, from different perspectives and with different political implications. In recent decades, these disparate fields have built a tentative and growing dialogue. However, truly multidisciplinary research between the two is still rare. This project aims not merely at translating existing theory across humanities and medicine, but rather at co-producing new plural knowledge of the human that transcends epistemological boundaries. As such, The Case of the Human proposes one ambitious project addressing core questions: “What is the human?” and “What does the category of the human do?” Our project is thus to create novel, multidisciplinary, and pluralistic knowledge on the human along three important axes: the human as body, as social, and as subject. We achieve this goal through three key aims, each involving specific outputs: 1) co-developing novel, plural knowledge on the human, through a multidisciplinary research conference series; 2) disseminating new knowledges on the human, through a collaborative case series published in The Lancet; and 3) fostering community reflection and personal engagement on the human, through collective writing on this collaborative process. The project is led by a group of scholars and practitioners in medicine, the humanities, and the humanistic social sciences, in partnership with Janna Palmer, Executive Editor at The Lancet. The Lancet editorial team will review the final submitted essays, and will select content for publication in the journal.
Research Team
Brian Callender
Brian Callender
Adult Specialist, Hospital Medicine; Associate Professor of Medicine
University of Chicago
E. Summerson Carr
E. Summerson Carr
Professor, Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice and Department of Anthropology
University of Chicago
Michele Friedner
Michele Friedner
Professor and Chair, Department of Comparative Human Development
University of Chicago
Jeremy A. Gottlieb
Seth Holmes
Seth Holmes
Chancellor's Professor, Division of Society and Environment, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management
UC Berkeley
Julie Orlemanski
David Meltzer
David Meltzer
Fanny L. Pritzker Professor; Chief, Section of Hospital Medicine; Associate Professor of Economics and Public Policy
University of Chicago
Theodore Michaels
Mirko Pasquini
Mirko Pasquini
Assistant Professor in Medical Anthropology, School of Global Studies
University of Gothenburg
Eugene Raikhel
Eugene Raikhel
Associate Professor, Department of Comparative Human Development; Faculty Chair, Health and Society Minor
University of Chicago
Mayssa Rekhis
Mayssa Rekhis
Lecturer and Researcher, School of Public Health and Community Medicine
University of Gothenburg
Scott Stonington
Project Narrative
Carousel with 3 slides shown at a time. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate, or the slide dot buttons at the end to jump to slides.
Neubauer Collegium Extends Support for Case of the Human Project
Neubauer Collegium Extends Support for Case of the Human Project
A new phase of the initiative will enable the research team to deepen collaboration between humanists and medical experts.
The Case of the Human: Panel Discussion between the Humanities and Medicine
Discussion
The Case of the Human: Panel Discussion between the Humanities and Medicine
This roundtable brought together clinicians and scholars to discuss the theoretical development of social medicine.
Case of the Human Working Conference
Case of the Human Working Conference
Carousel with 3 slides shown at a time. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate, or the slide dot buttons at the end to jump to slides.
Neubauer Collegium Extends Support for Case of the Human Project
Neubauer Collegium Extends Support for Case of the Human Project
A new phase of the initiative will enable the research team to deepen collaboration between humanists and medical experts.
Carousel with 3 slides shown at a time. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate, or the slide dot buttons at the end to jump to slides.
The Case of the Human: Panel Discussion between the Humanities and Medicine
Discussion
The Case of the Human: Panel Discussion between the Humanities and Medicine
This roundtable brought together clinicians and scholars to discuss the theoretical development of social medicine.
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