Objectivity and Subjectivity in Medicine
DPhil and ECR Work-in-Progress Two Day Workshop
Free event – registration required. Registration will open soon.
Day 1, Thursday 18 June 2026, 9am - 4pm | Learning Centre, Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities
Day 2, Friday 19 June 2026, 9am - 12pm | Seminar room 00.063, Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities
This interdisciplinary workshop will bring together DPhil students and early career researchers in the medical humanities to share their ongoing research in a supportive environment. Discussion will focus on the problems of objectivity and subjectivity in medical research and practice: is there such a thing as an “objective” approach to medicine, and if not, should there be?
Medical knowledge is always situated and inevitably shaped by forms of uncertainty. We invite contributions that explore the ways in which clinical and scientific practices may reproduce structural biases, as well as how they engage with key aspects of human experience that resist quantification – such as pain, fatigue, or emotional distress. In this context, the increasing use of artificial intelligence raises further questions: does it enhance objectivity, or simply reinforce pre-existing biases?
The subjectivity of patients also generates important tensions: lived experiences do not always align with standardized scientific frameworks. We welcome contributions that examine, for instance, how such experiences may be oversimplified when translated into medical categories and terminology, or marginalized when they fail to fit pre-existing classificatory systems. We are also interested in initiatives that seek to incorporate patients’ experiences and emotions into medical practice.
Organisers: Charlotte Dewarumez & Eleanor Kerfoot
Medical Humanities Research Hub, TORCH Research Hubs
