Julie Wouwenaar Tovgaard Medical Museion receives new research funding from the Carlsberg Foundation
Professor Adam Bencard has received a 3-year grant of 4.2 million Danish kroner from the Carlsberg Foundation for the project Health Matters – complexity and materiality in the medical museum. The project is based on new research about health and disease, asking: How can we improve our understanding and discussion of complexity?
Most disease conditions today are complex. They involve interactions of biological, social, psychological, and economic processes in ways that are constantly changing and therefore unpredictable. This calls for new methods and approaches in health research but also poses a challenge: How can we discuss health and disease in ways that don’t simplify but rather allow room for uncertainty, nuances, and doubt?
Health Matters suggests that medical museums possess a set of tools uniquely suited for discussing the complexity of health: historical artifacts, the museum’s social spaces, and expertise. Health Matters explores how encounters with objects from medical history can contribute to a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the intertwined relationship between our health, bodies, and environments.
The grant falls under the Carlsberg Foundation’s program called Semper Ardens: Accelerate, which aims to support tenured associate professors in establishing an independent research group or environment.
