Religions and Public Health:Bridges and Barriers to Improving Global Health Outcomes

Series Convenor: Professor Emma Tomalin

This seminar series will interrogate methodological and theoretical questions about the complex ways that religious world-views and institutions shape understandings of and outcomes related to health. We will ask:

• How can we develop better translations across different paradigms for thinking about wellbeing (e.g. from the spiritual/holistic to the biomedical)? What are implications/consequences for health providers and health seekers?
• Where desired, how can we increase PH awareness amongst religious actors, including with respect to contributions they already make, as well as linking them more effectively to PH systems in their localities?
• How can we be open about the difficulties/chasms between religious and ‘secular’ actors – where can these be reconciled, and where can they not?

Through careful selection of contributors, both academic and non-academic, and drawing upon the University’s strong traditions in the study of health, the research agenda we develop will clearly focus on the most relevant questions to enable us to understand the opportunities and limits for engagements between religions and public health globally, incorporating qualitative as well as quantitative methods.

For schedule of events see here