An interdisciplinary workshop around the notion of empathy toward the dead or diseased body in medical practice.
Thursday, 11 June 2026, 2pm to 6pm
This interdisciplinary workshop aims to investigate the notion of empathy toward the dead or diseased body in medical practice. It is often assumed that medical professionals develop a distinctive sensibility through repeated exposure to death and other emotionally charged situations. Historically, since the 19th century, the cultivation of emotional detachment was considered essential to the making of the medical professional, and played a central role in establishing medicine as an objective scientific discipline. However, recent research in the Medical Humanities has emphasized the need for more empathetic approaches to medical practice. By bringing together medical practitioners and humanities scholars, this workshop wishes to interrogate the historical, cultural, and pedagogical dimensions of medical detachment, to examine the challenges it creates for students and practitioners, and to consider how cultivating greater empathy might contribute to reshaping professional norms and improving the patient experience.
Speakers:
- Jim Harris (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)
- Paquita de Zulueta (Imperial College London)
- Eleanor Kerfoot (Balliol College, Oxford)
- Martin Robert (Institut Catholique de Paris)
- Felicity James (Stoneygate Centre for Empathic Healthcare)
- Charlotte Dewarumez (Université de Toulouse, France)
Series: TORCH Medical Humanities
Venue:
Schwarzman Centre - Room 00.063
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Room 00.063 Schwarzman Centre Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Woodstock Road Oxford Oxfordshire OX2 6GG United Kingdom
Department: Humanities (Division)
Organiser: Charlotte Dewarumez
Host: Charlotte Dewarumez