In tune with COMET celebrating in 2027 its 25th year of ‘being’, the COMET Masterclass with the broad title “Engaging Qualitatively with Healthcare Communication” will be offered in two parts over 2 separate days. The Pre-COMET Masterclass, on 21 June 2027, is titled “Healthcare Communication Research: Conceptual Paradigms and Thematic Trajectories”. The Post-COMET Masterclass, on 25 June 2027, is titled “Healthcare Communication Research: Methodological Pragmatism and Analytical Affordances”. Below is a brief blurb, followed by the provisional programme.

Language/communication-based healthcare studies – concerned with talk, text and other semiotic modalities (discourse, more generally) – have been carried out over the past decades, both within quantitative and qualitative research paradigms. Thematically, a profiling of the key areas of healthcare communication research vis-à-vis the two dominant paradigms – evidence/technology based medicine and humanities/narrative based medicine – will be outlined, and then extended to suggest an integrated framework of communication based medicine to address the core themes in healthcare delivery.

Within the qualitative tradition, in addressing a range of themes, researchers adopt different methodological and analytical perspectives when engaging with talk data (e.g., clinical encounters, telephone helplines, research interviews) and text data (e.g., websites, emails, text messages, chat rooms, media representations, illness narratives). One of the challenges in healthcare communication research is to optimize synergy between areas of thematic interest and available analytical frameworks mediated by datasets.

Against this backdrop, within what can be broadly labelled as theme-oriented discourse analysis, the discussion will be primarily devoted to ‘activity analysis’ which is distinctive in at least three ways: mapping of structural, interactional and thematic trajectories; relationality concerning focal themes and analytic themes; and role performance vis-à-vis participation structure. Additionally, attention will be given to ‘account analysis’, which orients to the rhetorical properties of language/communication data.

Each Masterclass will comprise two lectures, group discussions and a sharing of concerns arising from participants’ own research experiences.

The Masterclasses are targeted at both early career and experienced healthcare communication researchers across disciplinary boundaries with an interest in qualitative inquiry. Participants are encouraged to register for both days; however, single day registration is possible. Note that the Pre-COMET Masterclass is not a prerequisite for the Post-COMET Masterclass. Each day should be considered as a self-contained unit, not requiring any prior knowledge of the subject matter.

The information on the website will be updated on a regular basis. For further enquiries, contact comet2027@konferanser.ntnu.no

COURSE LEADER: SRIKANT SARANGI

Srikant Sarangi is Adjunct Professor at Aalborg University, Denmark, where he was Professor in Humanities and Medicine and the Director of the Danish Institute of Humanities and Medicine (DIHM) between 2013 and 2021. He is also Emeritus Professor at Cardiff University, UK, where he was Professor in Language and Communication and Director of the Health Communication Research Centre between 1993 and 2013. More recently, during 2024-2025, he was Adjunct Professor at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia; and during 2022-2023, he served as Visiting Chair Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Adjunct Professor at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Over the years, he has been Adjunct Professor at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway (2017-2021); Visiting Professor at University of Jyväskylä, Finland (2017-2020); Visiting Professor at the College of Medicine, Qatar University (2017-2020); Visiting Professor under the Academic Icon scheme at University of Malay, Malaysia (2013-2015); Visiting Research Professor, Centre for the Humanities and Medicine, The University of Hong Kong (2013-2016); Adjunct Professor at NTNU, Norway (2009-2013); and Honorary Professor at Aalborg University, Denmark (2009-2014).

In 2012, he was awarded the title of ‘Fellow’ by the Academy of Social Sciences, UK. In 2015, he was elected as a ‘Foreign Member’ of The Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters (Societas Scientiarum Fennica).

His research interests include institutional and professional discourse from an applied linguistics perspective (e.g., health, social welfare, bureaucracy, education etc.); communication in genetic counselling, HIV/AIDS, telemedicine, primary care and palliative care; communication ethics; teaching and assessment of consulting and communication skills; language and identity in public life; intercultural pragmatics. He has held several project grants to study various aspects of health communication.

He is author and editor of twelve books, guest-editor of eleven journal special issues and has published more than 250 journal articles and book chapters. In addition, he has presented more than 1200 papers (including plenaries, keynotes, masterclasses and workshops) at international conferences and other forums. Since 1998 he is the editor of TEXT & TALK: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Language, Discourse and Communication Studies (formerly TEXT) as well as the founding editor, since 2004, of both Communication & Medicine and Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice (formerly Journal of Applied Linguistics). He is also general editor of the book series Studies in Communication in Organisations and Professions (SCOPE). He serves as an editorial board member for other journals and book series[es], and as a consulting advisor at many national and international levels.

Over the last twenty years, he has held visiting academic attachments in many parts of the world including: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Italy, Malaysia, Nepal, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, UK and USA.