David Meltzer
David Meltzer
Fanny L. Pritzker Professor; Chief, Section of Hospital Medicine; Associate Professor of Economics and Public Policy
University of Chicago
Research Project
The Case of the Human II: Co-Producing Plural Knowledge on the Body, the Social, and the Subject
Project Team:
2025 – 2027
Paul Klee, A Woman for Gods, 1938 (detail).
Key Question
Can focused collaboration between humanists and medical experts measurably improve human health and well-being?
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 differing 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 remains rare. The Case of the Human is an ambitious collaborative project aimed not merely at translating existing theory across humanities and medical epistemologies, but rather at co-producing new, plural knowledge of the human that transcends epistemological boundaries. The project addresses the core questions: “What is the human?” and “What does the category of the human do?” The research team aims to create novel, multidisciplinary, and pluralistic knowledge on the human along three important axes: the human as body, as social, and as subject. We will achieve this goal through three key aims, each involving specific outputs: 1) co-developing novel, plural knowledge on the human through two working conferences (one of which was held during the first phase of the project), with distribution as a case-series in The Lancet; 2) establishing the University of Chicago as a hub in global medical humanities networks through a medical humanities institution-building conference, and convening Visiting Fellows to implement, refine, and disseminate, our novel interdisciplinary methodology; and 3) a visual artistic exploration the human and the case form through student artistic workshops and a graphic medicine exhibition. We seek to advance this project’s innovative scholarship that began with the Neubauer Collegium by scaling up its successes of interdisciplinary collaborations and centering artistic understandings of the human.
Research Team
Eugene Raikhel
Eugene Raikhel
Associate Professor, Department of Comparative Human Development; Faculty Chair, Health and Society Minor
University of Chicago
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
Julie Orlemanski
Michele Friedner
Michele Friedner
Professor and Chair, Department of Comparative Human Development
University of Chicago
Seth Holmes
Seth Holmes
Chancellor's Professor, Division of Society and Environment, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management
UC Berkeley
Mayssa Rekhis
Mayssa Rekhis
Lecturer and Researcher, School of Public Health and Community Medicine
University of Gothenburg
Mirko Pasquini
Mirko Pasquini
Assistant Professor in Medical Anthropology, School of Global Studies
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.
The Case of the Human: Medicine, Humanities, and the Boundaries of Knowledge
Conference
The Case of the Human: Medicine, Humanities, and the Boundaries of Knowledge
Speakers at this international conference will delve into the genre of the case in medicine, the humanities, and the social sciences.
Social Forces & Clinical Cases: Breaking Boundaries with The Lancet’s Global Social Medicine Cases
Lecture
Social Forces & Clinical Cases: Breaking Boundaries with The Lancet’s Global Social Medicine Cases
This event includes a talk by noted epidemiologist Sir Michael Marmot and a panel discussion on global social medicine.
Medical Journal Launches "Cases in Global Social Medicine" Series
Medical Journal Launches "Cases in Global Social Medicine" Series
The Case of the Human research team is partnering with The Lancet to produce a series of case studies with generalizable lessons from patient outcomes in communities around the world.
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.
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: Medicine, Humanities, and the Boundaries of Knowledge
Conference
The Case of the Human: Medicine, Humanities, and the Boundaries of Knowledge
Speakers at this international conference will delve into the genre of the case in medicine, the humanities, and the social sciences.
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.
Social Forces & Clinical Cases: Breaking Boundaries with The Lancet’s Global Social Medicine Cases
Lecture
Social Forces & Clinical Cases: Breaking Boundaries with The Lancet’s Global Social Medicine Cases
This event includes a talk by noted epidemiologist Sir Michael Marmot and a panel discussion on global social medicine.
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.
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.
Medical Journal Launches "Cases in Global Social Medicine" Series
Medical Journal Launches "Cases in Global Social Medicine" Series
The Case of the Human research team is partnering with The Lancet to produce a series of case studies with generalizable lessons from patient outcomes in communities around the world.
Reading List
Holmes S, Rekhis M, Stonington S et al.
Translational social medicine for global health: introducing Cases in Global Social Medicine The Lancet, 406, 2306-2307 ReadKasai K, Kumakura Y, Kitanaka J et al.
Medical compartmentalisation: a patient with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome in Japan The Lancet, 406, 2314-2315 ReadMartinez C, Samra S, Schneberk T et al.
Structural intercompetency: an asylum seeker with abdominal pain in Tijuana, Mexico The Lancet, 406, 2619-2620 ReadStonington S, Surinkaew P, Prachanukool T
Linguistic pragmatism: a woman with progressive abdominal pain in Thailand The Lancet, 407, 216-217 ReadElabd S, Mohamed Salem L, Michaels T et al.
Improvisation in contexts of infrastructural violence: a physician practising medicine in Sahrawi refugee camps The Lancet, 407, 566-567 ReadHeisler M, Sabino Pretel M, Boudart Z et al.
Medico-legal entanglement: a woman with abdominal pain in Peru The Lancet, 407, 940-941 ReadDarmon M, Rekhis M
Social habitus: a factory worker in a stroke rehabilitation unit in France The Lancet, 407, 1324-1325 ReadExplore
