Public Health Ethics and Health Humanities

Welcome!

Working Group "Public Health Ethics and Health Humanities"

The working group was established at the Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research (IPP) in 2023. The working group develops its projects through the involvement of student expertise and in collaboration with national and international cooperation partners.

Public Health Ethics deals with the determination, evaluation and prioritization of possible approaches in the field of public health. It is based on ethical principles and values, but also on the convictions of interest groups. Public health ethics works on an interdisciplinary basis to develop solutions to ethical and social challenges. In our understanding, public health ethics focuses on maintaining and improving the conditions for a healthy and good life as a collective practice. The normative basis are concepts of social justice.

Health humanities are an interface between health sciences, humanities and the arts. They are regarded as research approaches that have diversified writing, thinking and speaking about illness and health. The creative or visual arts are relevant, as are concepts from the humanities and epistemological methodologies. Social, normative and historical contexts are included in the consideration of the healthcare system and subjective well-being. Health Humanities are not to be understood as an alternative to other areas of the health sciences, but rather offer a complementary perspective.

Research Foci

• Social justice as the normative foundation of public health
•  Ethics of Public Health Communication
•  Health Humanities
•  Body weight: socio-cultural and ethical aspects
•  Organ transplantation: socio-cultural, ethical and preventive aspects

Teaching

We convey the basics of public health ethics and health humanities in a variety of courses, which are related to current topics and issues of our research projects.

In the BA Public Health, the working group offers seminars in the following modules:

•     Social Inequalities, Justice and Health
•     Health Humanities
•     Health risks and resources in different phases of life
•     Writing the Bachelor thesis
•     Good scientific practice

The following courses are offered in the Master's degree programs:

• Ethics and Public Health (MA Public Health: Health Promotion and Prevention and MA Public Health: Health Care, Economics and Management)
• Ethics and Epidemiology (M.Sc. Epidemiology)
• Research ethics in the project seminar (MA Public Health: Health Promotion and Prevention)

Theses

Theses on the following topics can be written in the working group: Public health ethics, didactics of public health ethics, health humanities, health communication, organ transplantation, body weight/obesity, disability, gender/intersectionality, qualitative or hermeneutic methods.