PluriMed
Medical Pluralism in Highland Asia
Advancing critical inquiry into therapeutic ecologies and health knowledge systems
Entangled Medical Futures in Highland Asia
8–10 October 2025, Edinburgh
Conference Dates
8–10 October 2025
Location
University of Edinburgh, Centre for South Asian Studies & Edinburgh Centre for Medical Anthropology
Organizers
Highland Institute in partnership with the British Academy
The Highland Institute, in partnership with the British Academy, co-organised and co-sponsored the international conference "Entangled Medical Futures: Plural Medicine, Climate-Altered Worlds, and More-Than-Human Care in Highland Asia", held from 8 to 10 October 2025 at the University of Edinburgh. Hosted by the Centre for South Asian Studies and the Edinburgh Centre for Medical Anthropology, the event brought together leading researchers, clinicians, and students from across Bhutan, Nepal, India, Europe, and North America.
Over three days of presentations and discussions, participants explored how healing is practiced and understood within the culturally diverse and ecologically dynamic highlands of Asia. The conference examined themes central to the PluriMed network: the coexistence of multiple medical systems, the impact of environmental change on health and healing, and the complex relations among humans, spirits, landscapes, and institutions.
Speakers highlighted how Indigenous healers, community health workers, biomedical practitioners, and ritual specialists navigate fractured infrastructures, shifting ecologies, and diverse forms of therapeutic authority. Discussions ranged from Bon-Buddhist understandings of illness in Bhutan and Amchi practice in Dolpo to plural mental health strategies in South Asia, solastalgia among Nepali youth, and changing Sowa Rigpa practices in Kathmandu. Additional sessions focused on antimicrobial resistance, cross-border health-seeking, and the lived realities of medical pluralism across highland communities.
The conference fostered a collaborative space for comparative and interdisciplinary exchange and marked an important step in building the PluriMed Network.
Outcomes & Publications
Two major outcomes are now underway:
- A special journal issue featuring selected conference papers
- An edited volume designed for graduate and postgraduate students, synthesising key debates on plural medicine, ecology, and care in Highland Asia
The Highland Institute is grateful to all partners and participants who contributed to this rich and wide-ranging event.
For more information:
About PluriMed
The PluriMed Research Group is an interdisciplinary collective based at the Highland Institute, dedicated to advancing critical inquiry into medical pluralism, therapeutic ecologies, and the intersections of formal and informal health knowledge systems.
Anchored in rigorous ethnographic research and grounded in the lived realities of communities across Highland Asia, the group serves as both a research hub and an intellectual companion to PluriMed, the Highland Institute's open access journal published through Highlander Press.
PluriMed operates at the convergence of medical anthropology, global health, environmental humanities, and speculative biomedicine. The group's work is shaped by a commitment to epistemic plurality and postcolonial critique.
Current Research Areas
Neglected infections in Northeast India and Himalayan borderlands
Local healing systems in relation to biomedical and public health frameworks
Links between environmental change and emergent pathologies
Ethnographic approaches to therapeutic decision-making
Our Approach
The PluriMed Research Group engages scholars, practitioners, and independent researchers who seek to rethink prevailing assumptions about disease, diagnosis, healing, and evidence.
- Epistemic Plurality: Valuing multiple knowledge systems and ways of knowing
- Postcolonial Critique: Challenging Western-centric medical paradigms
- Field-Based Research: Grounded in lived realities of highland communities
- Collaborative Scholarship: Workshops, colloquia, and joint writing projects
Global Collaborations
The PluriMed Research Group collaborates with institutional and community partners across multiple regions:
South & Southeast Asia
United Kingdom
United States
Norway
PluriMed Journal
PluriMed is the Highland Institute's open access journal published through Highlander Press, featuring rigorous scholarship on medical pluralism, therapeutic ecologies, and health knowledge systems.
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