About Us
At the University of Oslo the Medical Humanities: Anthropology and History Research Group is part of the Institute of Health and Society (Helsam). We are currently six permanent faculty members and more than 20 PhDs and Postdocs. Growing out of projects in medical history by Øivind Larsen and medical anthropology by Benedicte Ingstad the research group has become a thriving center for interdisciplinary research at the intersection of ethnography and archival studies. We provide teaching throughout the Medical Faculty, including the Medical School, the Master’s Programme International Community Health (ICH), and the medical PhD programme. We collaborate with humanities, sciences, and social sciences across UiO and a series of international partners.
Research Areas
As medical anthropologist and medical historians we critically explore/address/investigate relevant questions within these research areas:
Ecology and health: AMR, microbes, food systems, soil, toxicity
Epidemics: infectious diseases, NCDs, mental health
Gender, sexuality, and reproduction
- Drugs, pharmaceuticals, and traditional medicines
Social medicine and global health: health systems, migration, inequities
Biomedicalization, laboratories, technology
Get in touch:
We invite students at all levels interested in interdisciplinary approaches to health and society and wish to engage with Global Health, social medicine, history, and social anthropology. If you are interested in one of the topics above, please get in touch with one of our faculty members. Our offices are located at Frederik Holsts hus (map).
Each semester, we run the Medical Anthropology and Medical History (MAH) Seminar Series which features guest researchers and our own research. If you wish to get regular updates about our activities, please sign up here to receive regular invitations.
Events
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Predatory Anthropology: U.S. Colonial Knowledge Production in the Philippines around 1900 Dec. 8, 2026
Guest Speaker: Christa Wirth, Institute for Religion, Philosophy, and History, UiA
News
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Ketil Slagstad forsker på en marginalisert gruppe. — Jeg tenker meg om før jeg ytrer meg Jan. 9, 2025
Fint intervju i Khrono med Ketil Slagstad, forhenværende stipendiat i BIO-prosjektet, om å forske på marginaliserte grupper.
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Nuuk, Greenland: Project Focuses on Parents of Children with Eczema Jan. 9, 2025
Changing staff, Greenlandic herbal medicine, and growing frustrations. An ongoing research project investigates how parents experience the management of their children’s eczema.
Cooperation
- School of Public Health and Social Sciences at MUHAS in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
- Research Networking Programme of the European Science Foundation: Standard drugs and drugs standard