Health Humanities: Humanism in Health and Healthcare Delivery for Migrant and Minority Populations

Dear Colleagues,

Between 2020 and 2022, the world was in a heightened public health crisis as it went through a new, little-understood pandemic: the COVID-19 pandemic. This little-understood issue raised the need for a multidisciplinary approach to research in understanding public health problems. Within that period, IJERPH, under my guest editorship, produced a very successful Special Issue titled Health Humanities: Social Determinants of Access to Healthcare in Migrant and Minority Populations. The focus of that Special Issue was on health humanities, a new, emerging multidisciplinary approach to researching public health. Health humanities is an interdisciplinary area of study that interrogates how the different components of the humanities, such as linguistics, literature, history, philosophy, music, anthropology and sociology, among others, contribute to a better understanding of public health in the area of diagnosis, treatment, and care for members of the society. 

Building on that issue, I am editing another Special Issue—a sequel— which focuses on another important aspect of Health Humanities that was not covered in the earlier issue: the question of humanism! Titled Health Humanities: Humanism in Health and Healthcare Delivery for Migrant and Minority Populations, this latest issue will define and interrogate all aspects of humanism towards understanding its role in elucidating on the nature of health and how health care is viewed and delivered, especially in minority populations. 

What is humanism?

Humanists International defines humanism as “a democratic and ethical lifestance which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethics based on human and other natural values in a spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities” (Humanists International). The word humanities developed from the Latin word, humanitas, which meant developing human virtue to the fullest. The word relates to the modern word, humanity, which involves understanding, benevolence and compassion. However, it goes beyond that to include fortitude, prudence, eloquence, and love of honour. 

For us, one of the most important aspects of humanism is how it relates to modern concepts of agency and resilience which are essential aspects of meeting new challenges such as the emergence of pandemics.

This Special Issue, whose main theme is on humanism and humanistic, compassionate, and resilient approaches to health and healthcare, will feature papers that discuss some of these important social issues that affect access to health care in diverse populations, but focusing on minority and migrant populations around the world in places such as Africa, Asia, South America, and the Global South in general, not forgetting minority and diaspora populations in places of the Global North, such as Europe and North America. Included papers:

1. Will discuss contemporary interdisciplinary humanistic approaches to finding solutions to handling infectious diseases that develop into epidemics such as EBOLA and pandemics such as COVID-19;
2. Will be expected to fit into the scope of Health Humanities including its distinctions from Medical Humanities, and its place in interdisciplinary Humanities, and Public Health disciplines. 

A few of the questions that might be addressed are:

Language, Communication and Public Health: How are specific public health terminologies expressed in minority languages? Are speakers of these languages given the agency to devise their own terminologies? How does one express health and well-being in these languages? How do we communicate measures to contain pandemics in minority populations in humane, less draconian ways?

History and Public Health: What humane lessons can we learn by a study of past pandemics?

Literature and Public Health: How have literary works in diaspora and minority populations represented health care experiences in diaspora and minority populations? What are some of the resilient roles played by characters in these literary works?

Philosophy, Anthropology, Sociology and Public Health: How do certain key socio-cultural humanistic beliefs and moral values affect the management of pandemics in diaspora and minority populations? How ethical are health care providers, vaccine developers, politicians, and other stakeholders in managing pandemics?

Prof. Dr. Adams Bodomo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• humanism
• agency
• resilience
• healthcare
• pandemics
• infectious diseases
• health humanities
• language
• linguistics
• history
• literature
• anthropology
• COVID-19