Institute for Medical Humanities

Improving health by understanding hidden experience

Welcome to the Institute for Medical Humanities

We conduct interdisciplinary research into what we call 'hidden experience' and investigate experiences of health and illness which are marginalised, difficult, unspeakable, unacknowledged, or invisible. Our aim is to transform knowledge within and beyond the critical medical humanities, improve health policy and practice, and benefit the lives of communities and individuals.

Vertical sign reading 'Confluence Building' next to a brown-bricked square building beneath blue skies.

A structure of interconnected platforms and floating islands on a stormy sea. Each platform features items that reflect the Labs and Sites of the Platform. Top left to top right: Visual and Material, The WellSpring, Measurement, Narrative and Cognition, The Festival. Bottom left to bottom right: The Practice, Affective Experience, Narrative Practice, Moving Bodies.

Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities

We are delighted to have been awarded a £9 million Wellcome grant to develop a Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities (DRP-MH). The Platform will create space for experimentation and intellectual risk-taking, support networks globally, and revolutionise the capacity of the field.

Find out more about the DRP-MH

Explore

Explore the research and activities of our Institute and keep up to date with our latest news and events.

Research Themes

Our Institute supports work across six interdisciplinary research strands from 2025–2027.

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MA in Medical Humanities

Apply now for our interdisciplinary programme introducing students to a variety of different perspectives and methodologies for studying health and wellbeing.

Creative Facilitation

Find out more about how arts-based and creative approaches can transform interdisciplinary and cross-sector health research.

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What is Medical Humanities?

Based on the MedHums 101 series at The Polyphony, this brochure introduces ten core ideas and ways of working central to the critical medical humanities.

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Join us for Fika!

We are running fika sessions every Wednesday for those connected to IMH to informally come together to share coffee and cake and make visible the working, thinking and ideas that animate our Institute.

Find out more about Fika!

Latest News

Durham hosts world’s first major international conference on critical neurodiversity studies

Over three hundred researchers, practitioners, and artists gathered in Durham and online for a three-day conference on Critical Neurodiversity Studies: Directions / Intersections / Contradictions.

Research news
ReaderBank at Edinburgh International Book Festival 2025

ReaderBank returns to the Edinburgh International Book Festival with a stellar line up of events for August 2025.

Research news
2025 Medical Humanities In Practice Research Fellows Day

The IMH welcomes our Medical Humanities in Practice Research Fellows for the first in a series of events.

Research news