Tomorrow's Geosciences Colloquium Explores 'Reimagining Social Medicine'

Photo Submitted

Abigail Neely, associate professor in the Department of Geography of Dartmouth College.

Abigail Neely, associate professor in the Department of Geography of Dartmouth College, will present a colloquium at the U of A in the Department of Geosicenes titled, "Reimagining Social Medicine," at 3:05 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21, in GEAR 026. 

There has been a recent uptick in interest in social medicine — the combination of clinical care and an attention to the social determinants of health — worldwide. In this talk, Neely asks what we can learn about the possibilities and limitations of social medicine from the people who lived in the catchments of one of its most important origin sites, Pholela, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. 

By understanding social medicine from Pholela, Neely opens up important questions about what constitutes both medicine and social life in Pholela and beyond. The result is a story of multiple actors — people, microbes, political-economy and ancestors, to name a few — working together to shape both community health and the scientific practices developed to address it. 

In telling this story of social medicine, Neely challenges global health practitioners to recognize the multiple realities their patients live in and to make space for healing beyond scientific social medicine.