Medical Humanities is an interdisciplinary field that examines the human dimensions of health, illness, and healthcare through the lens of literature, arts, humanities, and social sciences. It seeks to deepen understanding of medical practices by exploring how cultural, historical, ethical, and literary contexts shape healthcare experiences. The core objectives of Medical Humanities include: 

• Enhancing Empathy and Compassion: Studying narratives of illness helps healthcare professionals understand patients' experiences beyond clinical symptoms.
• Ethical Reflection: Philosophical and ethical discussions within the humanities offer critical perspectives on bioethical issues such as medical consent, autonomy, and healthcare equity.
• Cultural Competency: Literature, history, and anthropology provide insights into how cultural beliefs and societal norms influence health behaviours and medical practices.
• Narrative Medicine: Analysing patient stories helps improve communication and narrative competence in clinical settings.
• Historical Insight: Historical accounts of diseases, epidemics, and medical advancements contextualize modern healthcare systems.

  By incorporating perspectives from literature, art, history, and ethics, Medical Humanities encourages a holistic understanding of healthcare that respects the complexity of human experience. South Asia with its checkered history of diverse cultural practices, colonial legacies, and pluralistic medical systems offer an ideal ground to read how medical practices and narratives are deeply embedded in social, cultural, and historical contexts. This proposed seminar would seek to critically engage with these intersections to examine how South Asian narratives and experiences contribute to global conversations on the relationship between health, illness, and the humanities by highlighting culturally specific issues, practices, and representations.