Lecture with Marisa de Andrade

Marisa de Andrade

(University of Edinburgh)

Public Health, Humanities and Magical Realism: A Creative-Relational Approach to Researching Human Experience

Imagine public health is on the cusp of a paradigm shift and about to take the words of Pablo Picasso quite literally: ‘everything you can imagine is real’. Imagine it is your task to sift through and make sense of what public health research, policy and practice says is real (evidence, objectivity, validity, truth) and unreal (opinion, subjectivity, weakness, falsehood) in this contradictory, liminal space of science and fiction. This is what happens to the author of this book one sleepless night on the eve of the Flower Supermoon one day in May in The Future….

This talk calls for a re-conceptualisation of the public health evidence-base to include crucial forms of creative and relational data about people’s lived experiences that cannot be accessed through the biomedical approach to generating and using evidence. Drawing from the author’s ethical, ontological and epistemological dilemmas when studying controversial topics, and methodological evaluation framework to measure impacts of creative community engagement, she argues that traditional methodologies and conceptualisations of evidence have the potential to exacerbate health inequalities by excluding and misrepresenting minorities.

Fantastical realities based on ‘truthful’ research findings are intertwined with traditional public health approaches through artistic engagement with so-called ‘hard-to-reach’ groups. Working with their (sur)real life stories, the author reflects on how the population’s breadth is inadequately reflected which threatens validity and generalisability in public health research and decision making. Through different ways of knowing (epistemology) and different ways of being (ontology), we’ll reflect on how to design studies, make recommendations and adapt services that are aligned with views and experiences of those living on the margins and beyond.

Session chaired by Isabel Fernandes

This session will take place in person, at the Amphiteatre IV of the FLUL, as well as online via Zoom, on April the 7th 2022, at 6 p.m. (GMT+1). The event will be open to the public, and can be accessed using the following data:

Link: https://zoom.us/j/99291948522?pwd=OTJqQUxWRXp5UWNLeTF5b2h6cXFlQT09
Session ID: 992 9194 8522
Password: D50xSj

Esperamos contar com a vossa presença!