Airs, Waters, Places: A Health Geography Perspective for the 2020s 

Are you keen to understand how complex issues that span multiple disciplines can be tackled in research? Then join this series, which will illustrate the value of geography as a connecting science, ideal for dealing with complex issues. A series of four sessions delivered across 2021 aims to provide a wide-ranging view of some contemporary issues in healthcare form a health geography perspective. In this series Dr. Hamish Robertson will range across disciplines to discuss the role of the humanities, social sciences and health disciplines in addressing emerging complexities and the value in making cross-disciplinary connections.

While the examples given will relate to health, the workshops will be valuable for researchers in many fields, studying many topics, providing opportunities to learn about working with different kinds of data, data representation / visualisation, and different approaches to analysis.

The key topics for discussion will include: (1) a general introduction to health geography and its connections to disciplines such as classical studies, religious studies, history, public health and the social sciences; (2) communicable and infectious diseases from a health geography perspective including the importance of quantitative and qualitative methods for effective management of these problems; (3) non-communicable diseases including trends such as population ageing and disability; (4) environmental racism and classism as a specific focus because social inequalities are health inequalities.

No experience in any branch of academic geography is expected for participation in this series. The mindset we ask for is an openness to different disciplines, perspectives and making connections across fields of inquiry, methodologies and events.

This is the registration page for the 1st session in the series:

Airs, Waters, Places: A Health Geography Perspective for the 2020s

From Hippocrates of Cos to the 21st century, health and illness have always existed in and been analysable through geographic perspectives. More than this, human beings are essentially and fundamentally spatial animals. This extends from the foundations of neuroscience through to the high technology spatial imaging seen in Google Earth. It includes the out of Africa migration of human being to the Mars Rover. In this wide-ranging overview we will explore how health and illness have always been spatial in nature as well as being understood by people and cultures using a variety of spatial concepts – ranging from the magical and mystical to proto-science and beyond. This includes the idea that some types of places are more or less beneficial to human health. Even now, almost 2500 years after Hippocrates, airs and waters remain central to our understanding of contemporary health and illness.

Learning Outcomes

1. Develop an understanding of a health geography perspective and its application to other disciplines.

2. Learn how to apply health geography concepts to complex social and environmental problems.

3. Expand your interdisciplinary scope and understanding through a health geography perspective.

Please note that this session will be recorded