Embodiment. Health. Environment.
Health Humanities Research Group
Health humanities is an interdisciplinary approach that critically explores how health care is organised taking the cultural, societal, technological, political, religious, and economic context within which human beings need and provide care into consideration.
Within this field, our group specialises in applied phenomenology, which analyses the embodied and socially embedded experiences of individuals in the context of health care, environmental health, digital health, and public health. In today’s scientifically and technologically driven health care environment, phenomenology can make the voices of the people involved (patients, patient representatives, professionals, activists, and informal caregivers) more audible, providing great value for critical research within health care.
Group members
Group leader, Māra Grīnfelde has a PhD in Philosophy, and specialises in applied phenomenology, which combines phenomenological philosophy with qualitative research. Her main research interests lie in the phenomenological understanding of health and illness, analysis of embodied motivations behind health practices, and exploring the role of technology in the embodied experiences of patients and healthcare professionals.
Uldis Vēgners has a PhD in Philosophy and specialises in applied phenomenology. His main research competencies lie in the history of early phenomenology, the phenomenology of time, applied phenomenology, eco-phenomenology, and the phenomenology of psychopathology.
Andrejs Balodis has a PhD in Philosophy and specialises in applied phenomenology. His main research interests include the philosophy of time, theories of memory, and the study of normality in medicine, sociology, and the humanities.
Laura Bitiniece Mg.Phil., investigates the impact of health communication on healthcare outcomes and patient safety. She is interested in the integration of bioethics and health communication in the education of healthcare professionals, and how the education of healthcare professionals correlates with disparities in healthcare quality. Informed by her background in ancient philosophy, she enriches her research with a historical perspective, exploring the enduring human pursuit of happiness, health, and well-being.
Agita Misāne Dr. phil., and scholar of religious studies and the history of ideas. Her scientific interests include Latvian nationalism, contemporary religious diversity in Latvia, and thanatology.
Goals
- Using the potential of the humanities, especially philosophy, to create experience-based knowledge that would be useful in
- Addressing theoretical questions
- The development and improvement of health care, health education, health communication, and health policy
- To establish interdisciplinary collaboration between social, medical, and health sciences
Main areas of study
- Medical phenomenology
- Phenomenological bioethics
- Eco-phenomenology
- Phenomenological psychopathology
- Critical phenomenology
Main research questions
- What is health and illness?
- What are the relationships between health, happiness, well-being, and a good life?
- How is the experience of health shaped by social, political, and cultural conditions? What are the relationships between embodied experience and power?
- What is the role of the social and cultural context in individual’s embodied experience?
- What role do new technologies play in an individual’s experience of illness/health and in their relationship with doctors?
- How does the understanding of health change in the digital age? How does mobile health influence the understanding of health and health care?
- How do patients experience specific illnesses?
- How do people experience end-of-life care? How do technologies influence this experience?
- What is the role of an individual's embodied motivation in making decisions related to health, illness, and prevention?
- What is the relationship between embodiment, environment, and health?
- How can an embodied perspective on the environment help address issues related to public health?
- How do the contents and methods of health care professionals' education affect the quality of healthcare?
- How can experience-based knowledge inform and improve health education and health communication?
- What is the role of religion and spirituality in the context of healthcare?
Projects
The Latvian Council of Sciences programme Fundamental and Applied Research Project "Hesitant bodies: phenomenological analysis of the embodied experience of vaccine hesitancy", implemented by the University of Latvia Institute of Philosophy and Sociology (01.01.2022.-31.12.2024.)
Postdoctoral research project “Healing at a distance: phenomenological analysis of patient experience of clinical encounter in telemedicine” (1.1.1.2/VIAA/4/20/622), carried out by Māra Grīnfelde at the University of Latvia Institute of Philosophy and Sociology. Project is funded by the European Regional Development Fund, University of Latvia and the State budget (01.01.2021.-30.06.2023.)
Publications
Grīnfelde, M. 2023. "The Saturated Phenomenon of Flesh and Mine-ness and Otherness of the Body in Illness." The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, vol. 48(2), pp. 184–193
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/jmp/jhad004
Grīnfelde, M. 2023. "Body objectified? Phenomenological perspective on patient objectification in teleconsultation". Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-023-10148-w
Grīnfelde, M. 2022. "Face-to-Face with the Doctor Online: Phenomenological Analysis of Patient Experience of Teleconsultation". Human Studies 45, 673–696
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10746-022-09652-4
Grīnfelde, M. 2019. "Illness as the Saturated Phenomenon: the Contribution of Jean-Luc Marion". Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, vol, 22, 71–83
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-018-9843-0
Misāne, A., Neiders, I., Rungule, R., & Seņkāne, S. 2022. "Thou Shalt Not Kill Except. Abortion, Euthanasia, Suicide and the Death Penalty – Justification in Religious and Secular Populations of Latvia". Reliģiski-Filozofiski Raksti, 33
Link: https://dspace.lu.lv/dspace/handle/7/61792
Rakhra, D. & Grīnfelde, M. 2023. "Prevention of Disease and the Absent Body: A Phenomenological Approach to Periodontitis". The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, vol. 48(3),pp. 299–311
Link: https://academic.oup.com/jmp/article-abstract/48/3/299/7163…
Vēgners, Uldis. 2022. "The Phenomenology of the Coronavirus and the Uncanny World of the Pandemic". Analecta Husserliana, vol. CXXI, Eco–Phenomenology: Life, Human Life, Post–Human Life in the Harmony of the Cosmos. Springer International publishing, 229-241
Link: https://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319775159
Vēgners, Uldis. 2021. "Husserl and Dimensions of Temporality: A Framework for the Analysis of Temporal Experience". Horizon. Studies in Phenomenology 10 (1): 186–211
Link: https://doi.org/10.21638/2226-5260-2021-10-1-186-211
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