Humanities Research for Health in Asia Network
The Humanities Research for Health in Asia Network, (HRHA) network, is jointly coordinated by The Australian National University and the Inner Mongolia University for the Nationalities. We welcome affiliations with researchers, who are engaging with humanities or social science-based projects relating to cross-cultural approaches to medicine, health, and wellbeing within local settings across Asia. The cross-cultural research may be examining Ayurvedic medicine, Tibetan medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Mongolian medicine, shamanic practices, or a pluralistic approach, including modern biomedicine and veterinary medicine with more traditional medical approaches. Many of the philosophies towards health and medicine are inter-linked across the Eurasian continent. Mongolian medicine, for example, has integrated aspects of Chinese, Tibetan, and Ayurvedic medical traditions. Research may be based in field locations across Asia, including Central Asia, Inner Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Southern Asia.
The HRHA Network will host a bi-annual conference or symposium, as well as hosting eminent invited speakers focussing on health in Asia. This year a symposium and an official opening of this research initiative will be hosted at The Australian National University.
International Research Network Members
Li Narangoa is a specialist in Mongolian history and culture. She is interested in the history and socio-political aspects of Mongolian medicine across Inner Asia (Mongolia Institute, The Australian National University).
Ao Wuliji is a pharmacologist and Director of the College of Mongolian Medicine and Pharmacy. He has been instrumental in the integration of Mongolian medicine within the hospital system in Inner Mongolia in China (Inner Mongolia University for the Nationalities, China).
Dr Natasha Fijn is an expert in multispecies ethnography and visual anthropology. Her multi-species medicine focus is on the skills of medical practitioners in the treatment of both herders and herd animals in rural communities in the Khangai region of Mongolia (The Australian National University, Australia).
Robert Cumming is a professor of epidemiology and geriatric medicine with experience in the health of the elderly in Mongolia (University of Sydney, Australia).
Prof. Benedikte Lindskog is a medical anthropologist with expertise in maternal health, recent impacts of the zoonotic Zika virus, and the influence of environmental factors, such as harsh winters on herding communities in Mongolia. (University of Oslo, Norway).
Bagenna is a pharmacologist and Provost of the University (Inner Mongolia University for the Nationalities, China).
Saijirahu specialises in the history of Mongolian folk medicine (Inner Mongolia University for the Nationalities, China).
Dr Fu Minghai, conducted research in Queensland Australia (Inner Mongolia University for the Nationalities, China).
Enkhoyun Tulgaa, veterinary medicine, specializing in Mongolian medicine, Mongolian State Agricultural University, Mongolia (Veterinary Medicine).
Tserentsodnom, scholar in traditional Mongolian medicine, Head of the Museum of Traditional Mongolian Medicine, Mongolia (Traditonal Mongolian Medicine).
Geoffrey Samuel, specializes in history and philosophy of Asia medicines, University of Sydney (Anthropology and Asian Studies in traditional medicine).
Current Research
ARC Discovery Project: Mongolian Medicine: the transfer of different modes of medicinal knowledge.
Collaborating researchers: Prof. Narangoa; Prof. Wuliji; Dr Fijn; Prof. Cumming; Assoc. Prof. Lindskog. Read more