COVID-19 has been a stark reminder that understanding a novel pathogen is essential but insufficient to protect us from disease. Biomedical and technical solutions are necessary, but they do not prevent or resolve misinformation, vaccine hesitancy, institutional amnesia (such as the forgetting of the SARS Commission report), or resistance to public health measures, nor are they sufficient to advance the development of more equitable and effective healthcare systems. The Humanities have the evidence base and the methodological tools to help address such social and cultural challenges.

We need to reignite the conversation about integrating the Humanities better into health research and health systems, including Humanities knowledge of our values and our pasts, understanding of the cultural forces that maintain inequities, and ability to analyze how we discuss and understand health.  The Humanities teach us that we have agency in our world, including a capacity to learn from the past and reinterpret our present to build a better future.

On January 18, 2024, the RSC and the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences are hosting an hour-long Webinar convening a panel to discuss how the Humanities – a group of methodologically diverse fields, including interdisciplinary studies that overlap significantly with the social determinants of health – are an underused source of cultural and social insight that is increasingly important and could be better leveraged. 

The webinar will take place via Zoom from 1:00pm to 2:00pm EST in English, with simultaneous interpretation in French. There will also be live captioning in English and French.