Health Humanities Consortium (HHC) Call for Proposals: Health Justice:​ So it goes?

We are getting very excited to welcome you to Indianapolis in the spring! We invite your proposals for individual and flash presentations, complete panels, roundtables and workshops. Proposals may respond to the conference theme of “Health Justice: So it goes?” detailed below, or contribute to the broader project of the health humanities. 

Health Humanities Consortium Annual Conference 2026 

“Health Justice: So it goes?” 

Indiana University, Indianapolis

April 8-11, 2026

The Health Humanities Consortium invites proposals for its annual conference on the theme of “Health Justice: So it goes?” We ask presenters to define the role of the health humanities in our current moment, to consider how health education can transform to meet today’s challenges, and to imagine humanistic approaches to building just futures. Our subtitle, presented in the form of a question, draws upon Indianapolis native and author Kurt Vonnegut’s masterpiece, Slaughterhouse Five, which prompts us to consider the meanings of devastation, destruction, and death in the world. Following every mention of death throughout the novel, his poignant phrase “So it goes” serves as an acceptance of the inevitable when written as a statement. In the form of a question, however, we are invited to consider the extent to which we must acquiesce; it becomes protest.

The concept of “health justice” has many origins in US history, though pride of place must be given to efforts to end health disparities and unethical medical practices, led by those most directly affected. The Black Hospital Movement, efforts to desegregate hospitals during the Civil Rights Movement, and the Black Panther Party’s community health clinics are just three examples of twentieth-century initiatives that emerged from Black communities. 

Health humanities education, in its focus on building cultural competencies and skills in critical thinking, humility, empathy, and communication, has played an important role in addressing harmful practices that exacerbate health disparities. 

Likewise, health justice also has been a key concern of bioethicists for half a century, with Tom Beauchamp asking us to consider “Public Health as Social Justice” in 1976; in 1979, both the “Belmont Report” and Tom Beauchamp and James Childress’s Principles of Biomedical Ethics enshrined “justice” as a core bioethical principle. The study of social determinants of health, which can be traced back to W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Philadelphia Negro (1899), continues to animate discussions about health disparities and efforts to ensure health equity. We can also point to tumultuous debates about health care as a human right and about access to health coverage in the US, including current controversies about Medicare, Medicaid, and the linking of health coverage to employment. 

We encourage humanistic perspectives on health and medicine as shaped by social, political, and community contexts, with a focus on efforts to ensure health and wellbeing for all. We invite presentations in a range of formats that explore humanistic approaches to any of the following:

• Health and medicine as shaped by politics, social structures, policy, and law
• Health disparities and social and political determinants of health
• Health, medicine, and human rights in US, international, and global contexts
• Health economics and the allocation of resources
• Public health, community health, and access to health care
• Grassroots and community-based health initiatives 
• Justice as a key principle in bioethics
• Literary representations and narratives implicating concepts of health justice
• The ethics of research using human subjects
• Health education and the teaching of health justice
• Community-engaged research in the health humanities

Panels, papers, and creative presentations that engage the conference theme are encouraged, but proposals which contribute to the broader project of the health humanities are equally welcome.

Deadline: Friday, October 31, 11:59 p.m. EDT. Please note: This deadline will not be extended.  

Submit your proposal here.

Expected notification date: Early January 2026 

Please consider becoming a proposal reviewer. Reviewers are sought across wide-ranging areas of expertise/experience and career stages. You will be asked to read and score up to 25 conference proposals during November-December 2024. Please sign up using our brief survey. Thank you to those who have already volunteered! 

Questions? Please contact embeckma@iu.edu.