Humanities faculty help lead international effort advancing person-centered vaccine research
Penn State College of Medicine faculty in the Department of Humanities are helping to shape a new international initiative that reframes vaccine research and policy through their participation in the Forum for Vaccine Social Science (FoVaS), a global network of scholars spanning 16 countries.
FoVaS brings together social scientists, historians, ethicists and health scholars to challenge prevailing approaches to vaccine research that focus narrowly on “vaccine hesitancy.” Instead, the group calls for a broader, more human-centered understanding of how social, cultural, political and economic conditions shape vaccine access, trust and use, particularly in historically underserved and marginalized communities.
This approach closely aligns with the mission of Penn State College of Medicine’s Department of Humanities, whose scholarship emphasizes ethical reflection, person-centered understanding and social accountability as essential components of high-quality health care. By engaging with FoVaS, Penn State faculty are contributing a humanities-informed perspective that centers around lived experience, structural inequities and community context as critical drivers of health outcomes.
“Person-centered care requires us to understand not only biomedical evidence, but also the realities of people’s lives,” said Bernice Hausman, PhD, chair, Department of Humanities, and a FoVaS participant. “The humanities help illuminate how trust, history, policy and power shape people’s relationships with medicine and public health.”
Home to the first Department of Humanities within a college of medicine throughout the United States, Penn State College of Medicine is a leader in integrating humanities into medical education and clinical practice. As demonstrated through this partnership, interdisciplinary collaboration and global engagement, humanities scholars at the College of Medicine continue to show how person-centered inquiry strengthens public trust, informs policy and ultimately improves health outcomes across diverse communities.
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