Engaged Medical Humanities—A Framework for Knowledge Production in Research Collaborations

In the field of medical humanities, there has been a general call to understand biocultural entanglements and to break down rigid distinctions between culture and health, as well as disciplinary boundaries. In line with this call, we suggest a medical humanities approach that further breaks down the distinction between basic and applied research. We conceptualize this approach as engaged medical humanities, as it both contributes to ongoing theoretical discussions and engages in empirical settings. Based on our ten-year practice of conducting medical humanities research at the Copenhagen Centre for Health Research in the Humanities (CoRe), and by zooming in on two collaborative research projects, we discuss how we realize and navigate these diverse engagements. On this basis, we offer a framework for conducting engaged medical humanities research to encourage and inspire future projects. First, we discuss how we take our main inspirations from the critical medical humanities and engaged research. Second, we identify several challenges that arise when our research approach is put into practice. We focus on our collaborations with stakeholders outside of academia, discussing how we navigate collaborative complexities while emphasizing the importance of empirical sensitivity and fluid accountabilities in studying health issues. Third, we discuss our knowledge production, encompassing various formats spanning both theoretical and conceptual contributions within academia, as well as practical interventions and instrumentation aimed at societal needs. Finally, we offer reflections on the potential we see in our framework and discuss the conditions for further developing the engaged medical humanities in a Scandinavian context.