Blog by Swati Joshi As a Medical Humanities researcher, I have always wondered how we learn about our body through language and how our anatomy forms the metaphorical elements of the linguistic corpus. This piece attempts to map the transformation in our understanding of hands in the face of the pandemic of COVID-19. Language has […]
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December 2017 Special Issue: Shame, Stigma and Medicine
Why Shame, Stigma and Medicine? Luna Dolezal and Barry Lyons introduce their special journal issue on Shame, Stigma and Medicine Shame, stigma and medicine by Barry Lyons, Luna Dolezal Shame and the vulnerable self in medical contexts: the compassionate solution by Paul Gilbert A dirty little secret: stigma, shame and hepatitis C in the health […]
Numbness and Angels
Reflection by Clare Best Risk-reducing bilateral mastectomy, December 2006. We have breast cancer in the family, on my mother’s side. While I was starting to think about whether to have preventive surgery, my cousin developed multiple aggressive tumours. This meant that in two generations of women I was the only one who had not yet […]
Immunity-Based Licenses and the Politics of the Body
Blog by Insa Marie Schmidt, MD, MPH As COVID-19 continues to ravage the globe, several countries have now proposed to issue certifications proving that a person has developed immunity against the disease, either through recovery from infection or through a potential vaccine. These so-called “immunity passports” or “immunity-based licenses” would allow those who have antibodies […]
#WhiteCoatforBlackLives: Physicians Advocating for Social Justice
Blog by Dr Neha Pidatala White Coats for Black Lives movement was ignited six years ago, when Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was murdered by a police officer in Ferguson, MO. In 2014, nationwide “die-in” protests were held in more than 75 medical schools in protest of police brutality. George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis […]
Human Trafficking: The Implications of COVID-19
Blog by Sonal Sian and Shalini Jose COVID-19 has had significant effects on vulnerable populations by exacerbating their exploitation and rendering them more susceptible to poor health outcomes. One particularly vulnerable population that has not received much attention is human trafficking victims. This is especially the case in India, where discussions about trafficking and its […]
The Case of Dr Masajiro Miyazaki Japanese-Canadian Healthcare in World War II
Article Summary by Leticia B. Johnson This article uses the memoir of one Japanese-Canadian physician, Dr. Masajiro Miyazaki, in combination with government records and correspondence, to show the complexity of Japanese-Canadian provisions of health care amidst the ethnic community’s internment during the Second World War. Dr. Miyazaki’s memoir represents the disparity between Japanese-Canadian recollections of […]
‘[Her] Hostess … Is Anxious To Have Her Back When She Is Cured’: The Impact of the Evacuation of Children on Wartime Local Services, England, 1939-1945
Article Summary by Jonathan Taylor Jonathan Taylor’s article, which is based on the study of a rural part of North West England, explores the impact of the Second World War on children’s welfare services. The article begins by arguing that, contrary to existing histories of the conflict, many of the problems associated with evacuees were […]
June 2020 Special Issue: The Human Bodies of World War II: Beyond the Battlefield
World War II: bodies beyond the battlefield Listen to the podcast with the editors by Hannah Simpson, Megan Girdwood ‘Between-time stories’: waiting, war and the temporalities of care by Laura Salisbury ‘Never forget’: fictionalising the Holocaust survivor with dementia [read the article summary] by Sue Vice Special operations: a hidden chapter in the histories of […]
Beyond Remedy
Film Review by Professor Robert Abrams, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York. Review of Skin (2018), directed by Guy Nattiv, USA. “You have to be taught …to hate and fear…before you are six or seven or eight …you have to be carefully taught” Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II for the musical ‘South Pacific’ (1958).[1] These wise, […]