Fwd: [Forum for Global Health Ethics] Registration open – Webinar 'Narrating Illness: Who Cares?' | 17 March, 11am CET

[IFMSA Liaison Officer for Human Rights and Peace Issues Account]

Dear IFMSA family,

I am happy to forward an invitation to the upcoming webinar “Narrating Illness: Who Cares?”
Date: Tuesday, 17 March 2026
Time: 10:00–11:30 GMT

This event explores how narrating illness can make subjective experiences visible and valuable in healthcare, and will feature speakers from multiple universities and disciplines in the medical humanities.

For more details on speakers, organisers, and the full programme, please see the forwarded email below.

Feel free to share this invitation within your networks!

Best regards,
Kana

---------- Forwarded message ---------
Subject: [Forum for Global Health Ethics] Registration open – Webinar 'Narrating Illness: Who Cares?' | 17 March, 11am CET
To:

Dear colleagues and friends,

It is a pleasure to invite you to register for our upcoming webinar: 'Narrating Illness: Who Cares?'

Date: Tuesday, 17 March 2026
Time: 11:00–12:30 (Zurich) | 10:00–11:30 (Maynooth) | 10:00–11:30 (Accra)
Register here: https://uzh.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rciCtBBDReGEy8XcAe8emw#/registration

Organisers:
Forum for Medical Humanities (University of St Gallen & University of Zurich)
Forum for Global Health Ethics – an outreach initiative of the Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine, University of Zurich, WHO Collaborating Centre

With support from:
Institute for Medical Humanities (Durham University)
Critical Medical Humanities Research Cluster (Maynooth University)

Speakers:

• Prof Martina King (Medical Humanities Research Group, University of Fribourg) – Specialist in modern German literature and medical history, former clinician
• Dr Loïc Bourdeau (Critical Medical Humanities Research Cluster, Maynooth University) – Specialist in cultural studies, French studies, and patient narratives
• Dr Victoria Osei-Bonsu (Department of English, University of Ghana) – Expert in anglophone literary and cultural studies, and comparative analysis of health-related narratives
• Dr Veronica Heney (Institute for Medical Humanities, Durham University) – Specialist in sociology, literary studies, and narratives of madness and mental distress

Chairs:
Dr Jordan McCullough (Assisted Lab, University of St Gallen) and myself; we also jointly developed the concept for this event.

This webinar explores how narrating illness, through multiple disciplinary perspectives, can make subjective experience visible and valuable as a form of evidence within healthcare systems that often prioritise quantitative data. It seeks to contribute to ongoing debates in the medical humanities by presenting narrative as a shared experience of storytelling and emphasising its potential benefits for health and wellbeing at individual, institutional, and societal levels.

At the same time, the webinar critically interrogates the limits of narrative. For some, narrative serves as a means of bioethical reflection; for others, it offers a window into subjective experience; and for others still, narrative tools such as those developed in narrative medicine may constitute a form of care in their own right. Our speakers will reflect on these perspectives, and we warmly encourage participants to take part in the discussion.

Please help us spread the word by forwarding this invitation within your networks.

With best wishes,

Tania Manríquez, PhD

Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine 

WHO Collaborating Center

University of Zurich

Bio

*If you would like to subscribe to or unsubscribe from the Forum for Global Health Ethics mailing list, please reply to this email with “subscribe” or “unsubscribe.”

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Kana Halić Kordić, Vice-President for External Affairs

Monitoring the Liaison Officer for Human Rights and Peace Issues account

Tel : +385 99 69 36 086 | l...@ifmsa.org

International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations

IFMSA International Secretariat

Meibergdreef 15, J0-208 1105 AZ 

Amsterdam, the Netherlands

    

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