OxTalks is Changing
OxTalks will soon move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events.' There will be a need for an OxTalks freeze. This was previously planned for Friday 14th November – a new date will be shared as soon as it is available (full details will be available on the Staff Gateway).
In the meantime, the OxTalks site will remain active and events will continue to be published.
If staff have any questions about the Oxford Events launch, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
Selling Healing: Creative Arts and Health Communication in Ghana
The intersections between arts, creativity and health are of significant importance in the humanities and social sciences. Within the arts and health field, for example, the arts have been applied to communicate health crises (such as pandemics), improve psychotherapies for chronic health conditions and deepen engagement in participatory health projects. However, concepts and methods are predominantly informed by Global North research, and critical insights from arts traditions elsewhere remain to be fully integrated into common models.
Ghana offers a unique case study for examining local and global dynamics in arts-based health communication, because of the country’s rich art traditions as well as its place in global history and in the global imagination. Creative arts drive social life and indigenous healing systems. Healing art forms like music and sculpture have evolved through intentional cross-cultural borrowings, as well as through changes imposed through slavery, colonialism and post-colonial political systems.
Selling Healing tells a polyvocal story of how Ghanaian art forms intersect with health, illness and healing, makes an interdisciplinary case for incorporating arts and social creativity into official health promotion, and invites a re-imagining of health communication in global health.
Date:
20 November 2025, 15:30
Venue:
St Antony's College, 62 Woodstock Road OX2 6JF
Venue Details:
Dahrendorf Room
Speaker:
Ama de-Graft Aikins (University of Ghana/London School of Economics and Political Science)
Organising department:
Centre for African Studies
Organisers:
Michael Odijie (University of Oxford),
Dr Miles Tendi (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address:
events@africa.ox.ac.uk
Part of:
African Studies Centre Research Seminars
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Amy Crane
