Global Medical and Health Humanities MA - Lancaster University (2025)

Top reasons to study with us

• Hone your research skills via a group project

• 96% Satisfaction with Learning ResourcesPostgraduate Taught Experience Survey 2023

• Engage with leading, socially-engaged academics

The School of Global Affairs offers four master’s degrees that share a common ethos and course structure. Each provides distinctive yet interconnected opportunities to develop the skills, knowledge, relationships and partnerships needed to meet the global challenges of our time.

Why Lancaster?

• Discover the latest innovations and research insights in global medical and health humanities
• Develop critical, creative and cross-disciplinary approaches to health and medical challenges in global contexts
• Work with an interdisciplinary team with world-leading expertise in a diverse range of health research settings across the arts, humanities, and social sciences
• Learn global leadership skills that will equip you to navigate difficult decision-making
• Develop a practical and future-orientated understanding of how change is made
• Immerse yourself in Lancaster’s distinctive, collaborative environment

How can the humanities play a part in creating an inclusive, trans-cultural and global healthcare that is fit for the future? Our innovative master’s in Global Medical and Health Humanities starts at the forefront of existing knowledge and practices in medical and health environments around the world. Join us as we expand these boundaries through new knowledge and collaborative leadership.

Cutting-edge approaches to well-being, illness, and healthcare

The medical and health humanities are fast-evolving, interdisciplinary fields that marshal expertise in arts, humanities and social sciences to tackle healthcare challenges and drive positive future change.

The key values informing this exciting new field of study are interdisciplinarity, criticality, collaboration, and creativity. Through a range of team-taught modules that draw on the theories, methodologies and practices of humanities subjects, you will explore and address some of the major health and medical issues facing the world today and have the opportunity to contribute to cutting-edge health innovation.

These might range from addressing inequalities within health, exploring the need to create inclusive and diverse hospital environments, or engaging with difficult and sensitive issues such as sites of trauma, poverty and environmental crisis in healthcare settings.

You will develop critical and cross-cultural approaches to explore such areas as:

• Narratives and artistic expressions of mental health, illness and pain
• Sites of health activism and intervention
• The collaborative design of future spaces such as inclusive environments and hospitals fit for purpose
• The provision of health advocacy
• The de-colonisation of health, moving beyond Eurocentric, Anglophone perspectives
• Sustainability in healthcare
• Critical Disability Studies
• LGBTQIA+ healthcare
• Global histories of medicine and healthcare

Collaboration in practice

This master’s course is one of a series of four interconnected courses that have a common ethos and structure.

You’ll take part in subject-specific modules designed to build in-depth knowledge of global medical and health humanities. You’ll assess, engage in and create responses to real world issues.

In studio modules you’ll work collaboratively with other course participants on live community briefs, connecting Lancaster’s research with local healthcare environments and analysing global healthcare issues.

For some modules, you’ll join with students from other master’s cohorts on projects that will develop your leadership skills – using generative, collaborative thinking to create innovative solutions that are relevant to diverse external stakeholders.

Working with students from our other cohorts will bring you into contact with those specialising in global sustainability and the environment, AI, and global affairs. You’ll experience the benefits that harnessing skills and knowledge from diverse groups and subjects can bring.

You’ll have the opportunity to tailor your final project to draw on your academic, personal or professional experience and research ambitions. For example, if you are passionate about dis/ableism, representations of mental health in art practices or LGBTQI+ healthcare environments, you can explore these and many other topics during the course.

A range of innovative assessment types will give you the freedom to represent your chosen topic creatively and persuasively.

Leadership for the future of the world

With its dedicated leadership module, this course prepares you for a future as a collaborative change-maker. The course challenges traditional views of leadership. It adopts an understanding of inclusive leadership that is grounded in critical, creative and collaborative skills - a holistic and humanistic way of thinking.

By taking this interdisciplinary approach and engaging in the discourses of leadership ethics, you’ll be equipped to perform whatever role you take to bring about positive change.

You’ll benefit from the rich, collaborative environment in health innovation and research at Lancaster, being able to participate actively in research events and opportunities provided by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Health Hub and the Queer Medical Humanities Network, as well as, beyond the Faculty, the health research ecosystem hosted at Lancaster's Health Innovation Campus.

This course will appeal to those already engaged in a professional role as well as graduates wishing to move into a challenging but rewarding career where you can make a difference to the world. It is an opportunity to extend your prior educational and work experience in new directions.

The master’s is suitable for students from a wide range of academic backgrounds and careers who are keen to work in healthcare innovation anywhere in the world.

You may be interested in roles within:

• The Intelligence services
• Health Activism
• NGO
• Health Advocacy
• Civil Service
• Health media and journalism
• Policy Making
• Healthcare and hospital design
• Research in the medical and health humanities

Academic Requirements

2:1 Hons degree (UK or equivalent) in any subject, or 2:2 with professional experience relevant to the programme (please give further detail of your experience in your personal statement).

The personal statement should be a 300-500 word reflection on your interest in the programme, the relevance of your experience and what you hope to gain from the programme.

The department plan to interview all eligible applicants.

If you have studied outside of the UK, we would advise you to check our list of international qualifications before submitting your application.

English Language Requirements

We may ask you to provide a recognised English language qualification, dependent upon your nationality and where you have studied previously.

We normally require an IELTS (Academic) Test with an overall score of at least 6.5, and a minimum of 6.0 in each element of the test. We also consider other English language qualifications.

If your score is below our requirements, you may be eligible for one of our pre-sessional English language programmes.

Contact: Admissions Team +44 (0) 1524 592032 or email pgadmissions@lancaster.ac.uk

Pre-master’s programmes

Delivered in partnership with INTO Lancaster University, our one-year tailored pre-master’s pathways are designed to improve your subject knowledge and English language skills to the level required by a range of Lancaster University master’s degrees. Visit the INTO Lancaster University website for more details and a list of eligible degrees you can progress onto.

You will study a range of modules as part of your course, some examples of which are listed below.

Information contained on the website with respect to modules is correct at the time of publication, but changes may be necessary, for example as a result of student feedback, Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies' (PSRB) requirements, staff changes, and new research. Not all optional modules are available every year.

Core

Optional

Fee status:

• Health Studies
  • Clinical Psychology DClinPsy
  • Health Economics and Policy MSc
  • Health Economics and Policy PhD
  • Health Research PhD
  • Mental Health PhD
  • Organisational Health and Well-Being PhD
  • Palliative Care PhD
  • Public Health PhD
• Sociology
  • Applied Social Science PhD
  • Artificial Intelligence, Society, and Global Challenges MA
  • Environment and Society PhD
  • Environment, Culture and Society MA
  • Gender Studies MA
  • Gender Studies PhD
  • Gender Studies and English MA
  • Public Policy MSc
  • Public Policy (Distance Learning) MSc
  • Science Studies PhD
  • Social Research MA
  • Sociology MA
  • Sociology PhD
  • Sustainability and Global Environmental Futures MA