NEH Medical Humanities Conference

Sam Houston State University
Huntsville, Texas
October 2-3, 2025

Call for Panel and Paper Proposals

Sam Houston State University is hosting a medical humanities conference, which aims to promote interdisciplinary discussion around topics common to medicine, humanities, and the social sciences. We invite proposals for panels and paper presentations on topics related to health, medicine, and disability, broadly construed. The conference will feature plenary talks by Jonathan Metzl, author of Dying of Whiteness, and Lynn Harter, Ohio University, whose extensive research focuses on issues of health care communications and narrative.

The NEH Medical Humanities Conference will be held on the campus of Sam Houston State University from Thursday, October 2, to Friday, October 3, 2025. Sam Houston State is located in Huntsville, Texas, about one hour north of Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

We invite panel and paper proposals from scholars at all ranks, including graduate students, for topics including but not limited to the following:

Community Health
Health Disparities
Health and the Environment
Health Justice
History of Medicine
Medicalization of Society
Medicine and the Arts and Literature
Medicine and Ethics
Medicine, Globalization, and New Infectious Diseases
Medicine, Health, and Society
Medicine and Public Policy
Medicine: Traditional/Folkloric/Alternative and Contemporary
Medicine and (World) Languages
Nutrition and Wellness
Political Determinates of Decision-Making in Medicine
Medical Education
Public Health and Prevention
AI in Medicine

Oral paper presentations will be twenty minutes in length, with ten minutes for questions and answers.

Please submit a panel or paper proposal of between 300 to 500 words with background, objectives, methods, results, and conclusion. Submissions should be received by February 1, 2025. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Abstract Review Committee and evaluated according to importance of the question and organization and clarity. Receipt of abstract submissions will be acknowledged via e-mail to the submitting author. After the review process is complete, the author will be notified regarding the acceptance or rejection of her or his abstract.

To be included in the official program, participants must register for the (free) conference.

Please send your abstract electronically to

NEH Medical Humanities Conference
Abstract Review Committee
Care of Paul Child, Program Committee Chair: PaulChildSHSU@gmail.com