Medical and Health Humanities Lunchtime Seminar Series

Wednesday, 24 March 2021, 12:30 – 1:30pm

A seminar by Stephen Post, Director, Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care and Bioethics,
Professor of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine (Stony Brook University, USA) as part of the Medical and Health Humanities Lunchtime Seminar Series in association with Trinity Long Room Hub.

The Trinity College Dublin Medical and Health Humanities Initiative brings together researchers from a wide range of disciplines including history, philosophy, sociology, drama, health sciences, religion, cultural studies, arts, literature and languages.

Medical and health humanities seeks to provide insights into the cultural and social contexts within which diverse but interrelated concerns such as the human condition, the individual experience of illness and suffering, and the way medicine is (or was) practiced, might be understood.

Learn more at: https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/

TLRH | How Caregivers Can Meet the Challenges of Alzheimer’s Disease

Wednesday, 26 January 2022, 12:30am – 1:30pm

'Anticipating the Ageing Trajectories of the Marvel Superheroes' a seminar by Professor Ruth Hubbard (Queensland) as part of the Medical and Health Humanities Lunchtime Seminar Series in association with the Trinity Long Room Hub.

The Trinity College Dublin Medical and Health Humanities Initiative brings together researchers from a wide range of disciplines including history, philosophy, sociology, drama, health sciences, religion, cultural studies, arts, literature and languages.


Medical and health humanities seeks to provide insights into the cultural and social contexts within which diverse but interrelated concerns such as the human condition, the individual experience of illness and suffering, and the way medicine is (or was) practiced, might be understood.

The Trinity College Dublin Medical and Health Humanities initiative seeks to cultivate a richer understanding of the interactions and synergies between practices and discourses of wellness, health or medicine and the arts, humanities or culture through interdisciplinary research and education.

Learn more at: https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/

TLRH | Anticipating the Ageing Trajectories of the Marvel Superheroes

Recorded September 22, 2022.

An online seminar by Dr Kelly Gray as part of the Medical & Health Humanities Seminar Series in association with Trinity Long Room Hub.

Drug dependency became an increasingly serious problem in nineteenth-century America, and most of this use began with medical use. The problem remained largely hidden until the late 1860s, because habitual opiate users did not behave erratically and therefore went largely unnoticed. Americans of the era learned about drug addiction from reading accounts of such use abroad, and many dismissed the notion that the problem existed at home. There was almost no drug regulation in the U.S. at the time. Consequently, people did not associate addiction with criminality, but the rate of use escalated. National regulation emerged in the early twentieth century in response to international considerations, and it was facilitated by the fact that, increasingly, drug habitués were young, marginalized men whose use did not originate with medical need. They received little sympathy.

Elizabeth Kelly Gray is an associate professor of History and assistant chair of the Department of History at Towson University. She received her Ph.D. from the College of William and Mary. This December her first book, Habit Forming: Drug Addiction in America, 1776-1914, will be published by Oxford University Press.

Learn more at: https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/

'The Unhappy Victims of This Habit': Drug Addiction as a Problem in Nineteenth-Century America

Recorded October 3rd, 2024.
A hybrid seminar by Dr Ghaiath MA Hussein (Assistant Professor in Medical Ethics and Law, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin) as part of the Medical and Health Humanities Seminar Series.

This presentation examines how armed conflict reshapes the concept of self, particularly in the Global South. Drawing from his experiences as a medical doctor and his bioethics background, Dr Hussein will discuss the challenges to informed consent and individual autonomy in war.

His journey began at the University of Toronto, where he learned that respect for autonomy and informed consent are vital to ethical practice. These principles informed her advocacy for bioethics in oppressed regions like Sudan.

However, his views changed when she returned to Sudan for research on health ethics in conflict zones. Engaging with those affected by the Darfur war revealed a collective ethos of trust and interdependence, showing that community well-being often outweighs individual autonomy in crises.

In this talk, he will outline her thesis research questions and how his understanding of informed consent shifted from an individualistic model to a trust-based framework. This new paradigm prioritizes mutual support and communal resilience in ethical research practices during prolonged conflicts.

He will conclude by advocating for a trust-based consent model that complements and sometimes replaces traditional informed consent. This approach addresses the unique challenges of armed conflict and empowers individuals through solidarity and collective action, encouraging a reevaluation of ethical engagement with crisis-affected communities to enhance their agency and dignity.

Learn more at https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/


From Individuality to Solidarity: Reconceptualizing Selfhood in Armed Conflict

Wednesday, 24 February 2021, 12:30 – 1:30pm

A seminar by Neil Vickers, Professor of English Literature and the Health Humanities, King's College London, as part of the Medical and Health Humanities Lunchtime Seminar Series in association with Trinity Long Room Hub.

The Trinity College Dublin Medical and Health Humanities Initiative brings together researchers from a wide range of disciplines including history, philosophy, sociology, drama, health sciences, religion, cultural studies, arts, literature and languages.

Medical and health humanities seeks to provide insights into the cultural and social contexts within which diverse but interrelated concerns such as the human condition, the individual experience of illness and suffering, and the way medicine is (or was) practiced, might be understood.

The Trinity College Dublin Medical and Health Humanities initiative seeks to cultivate a richer understanding of the interactions and synergies between practices and discourses of wellness, health or medicine and the arts, humanities or culture through interdisciplinary research and education.

Learn more at: https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/

TLRH | On the Nature and Meaning of Care

Opened in 2010, the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute is dedicated to advancing Trinity College Dublin’s rich tradition of research excellence in the Arts and Humanities, on an individual, collaborative and inter-disciplinary basis.

From Individuality to Solidarity: Reconceptualizing Selfhood in Armed Conflict

TLRHub