Institute for Medical Humanities

🎥Due to popular demand, we've released more tickets for our upcoming symposium from the Visual & Material and Narrative Practices Lab! Themed around the intersection of gender and genre, this in-person event will celebrate and explore the latest work on moving images in Medical Humanities.

Registration details below:

Gender and Genre: Medical Humanities and the Moving Image An exciting one-day symposium at Durham University celebrating the latest work on moving images in the Medical Humanities.

Get Involved — ReaderBank EXPERIENCE get involved BIG SOMETHING BE PART OF Each year, the ReaderBank releases new studies, activities, and surveys for readers to participate in. These will normally orientate around a theme. There are many ways of getting involved with ReaderBank! Sign Up to Readerbank In 2023, we investigate...

💡What are the benefits and challenges of working with a working group as part of a humanities PhD?

In their new Project Short - published today on the Working Knowledge website - Veronica Heney, Ashley, Eleanor Higgins, Naomi Salisbury and Sarah-Jayne Hartley reflect on some of the complexities of working in this way, describing both the decision-making processes and how the group shaped the research project.

Read more about "Engagement, experience and power: Working with an advisory group" below:

https://medhumsplatform.org/new-publication-working-with-a-lived-experience-advisory-group-as-part-of-a-phd/

Our summer newsletter has just landed in inboxes! Follow the link below for all the latest news and insights from IMH and the Platform, including:

🌏 how you can get involved our global hashtag and health humanities survey
📚 upcoming ReaderBank activities at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
💡 recent highlights from The Polyphony

Find out what we’ve been up to here:

IMH newsletter: February 2024 News & updates from the Institute for Medical Humanities, Durham University.

🎉Today's the day! Welcome to everyone joining us in Durham for the in-person launch of the Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities.



Explore our Labs & Sites on our brand new website:

The Platform | The Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities Welcome toTHE PLATFORM AboutAboutConnective tissuePartnershipsPeopleSitesThe WellspringThe FestivalThe PracticeLabsNarrative PracticesVisual & MaterialMoving BodiesNarrative & CognitionMeasurementAffective ExperienceMedical HumanitiesWhat is Medical Humanities?Institute for Medical HumanitiesThe Pol...

Collective trauma has had many names. Mass psychogenic illness, mass sociogenic illness, reactive psychological disaster syndrome, mass hysteria and choreomania are some of them. What do these collective illnesses have in common? How can historians make sense of the real psychological and bodily experiences of the collectively afflicted in the absence of pathological causes, normatively conceived? Dr Rob Boddice will discuss this in our forthcoming research seminar. Everyone is welcome!

Wed, 28 Feb 2024, 16:00-18:00, hybrid event

Book your free online or in-person tickets via Eventbrite:

Is there a history of the nocebo effect? Global reflections Dr Rob Boddice puts the case for a history of the nocebo effect and the power of situated belief to cause real and lasting harm.

Save the date for a hybrid seminar with Dr Tanisha Spratt (King’s College London) brought to you by The Black Health and the Humanities Network and the Measurement Lab:

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 16:30 - 18:00 GMT

The presentation will be followed by a facilitated discussion chaired by Dr Arya Thampuran and Dr Coreen McGuire.
This seminar is part of a series of research events exploring issues at the intersection of race, healthcare, and research culture.

Book your online or in-person tickets via eventbrite:

Tanisha Spratt on Self-Identity as Method: Exploring Light-Skin Privilege This hybrid seminar is a collaboration between the Black Health and the Humanities Network and the Measurement Lab.

We are getting ready for the launch of the Affective Experience lab, one of six labs in Durham University’s new Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities.

Wed, 7 Feb 2024 13:00 - 16:00 GMT, Tom Percival Annexe

The lab will experiment with innovative methodologies from across disciplines to generate new insights about the relationship between emotion and health. It is led by Corinne Saunders and Fraser Riddell, from the Department of English Studies at Durham University, alongside an interdisciplinary team from the Institute of Medical Humanities.

Affective Experience Lab: Launch Event An opportunity to shape the work of the Affective Experience Lab by mapping research interests and exploring possible connections.

CANCELLED: Ken Kosik's hybrid talks on Fri,1 and 2 Feb 2024

We are really sorry to inform you that the visit and talks by Professor Kosik planned for this Thursday and Friday have to be cancelled due to the speaker falling sick. While we wish Ken a speedy recovery, we will keep you updated once his talks and visit are rescheduled to a later date.

Ken Kosik: A Neuroscience of Disembodiment: Brain Organoids A hybrid Passport Talk brought to you by the Narrative and Cognition Lab

Join us for a hybrid seminar 'Storying Later Life: Key Concepts in a Narrative Perspective on Ageing' by Prof William Randall, Emeritus Professor of Gerontology at St. Thomas University in New Brunswick, Canada.

Tue, 30 January 2024, 12:00–13:30 GMT | Online & In-person

The event will be available on a hybrid basis and include a light lunch for in-person attendees at 12:00. The online talk will start at 12:30. The seminar is organised by the Narrative Practices Lab in the Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities.

Storying Later Life: Key Concepts in a Narrative Perspective on Ageing A hybrid seminar organised by the Narrative Practices Lab in the Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities.

We will kick off 2024 with another event from the Hidden Experience Seminar Series on Wednesday 10 January! 🎊This time we welcome Prof Jon Simons, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge. Prof Simons will consider the latest evidence shedding light on the brain mechanisms responsible for the subjective experience of remembering. Everybody is welcome!

Book your FREE online or in-person ticket via Eventbrite.

Wed, 10 Jan 2024, 16:00 - 18:00 GMT | Online & In-person

The subjective experience of remembering Jon Simons will consider the latest evidence shedding light on the brain mechanisms responsible for the subjective experience of remembering

Book your tickets for the northern book launch for 'Empire of Normality: Neurodiversity and Capitalism' by Robert Chapman! This is the first book to provide a political history of neurodiversity in relation to the rise of capitalism, making the case for a radical anti-capitalist politics of neurodivergence in the twenty-first century.

Wed, 13 Dec 2023 17:30 - 19:00 GMT, Recovery College Collective (ReCoCo), 2nd Floor, in Newcastle upon Tyne

Tickets are free, available via Eventbrite:

Empire of Normality: Neurodiversity and Capitalism The northern book launch for Empire of Normality: Neurodiversity and Capitalism' by Robert Chapman

The human mind seems to have a craving for being deceived... come and find more about Conscious Illusions: Secular Magic, Perception, Narrative and Dreams on Friday 24 November, 5-6.30pm (GMT) in the first hybrid event from the Narrative and Cognition Lab, part of the Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities organised by Marco Bernini. This afternoon seminar will host two talks by leading experts in the narrative representation of secular magic and optical illusions (Dominique Jullien) and narrative and/in dream cognition (Richard Walsh). Join us at dusk, when illusions thrive, and bring your own take, theory, questions, discipline to contribute to this interdisciplinary discussion!

Conscious Illusions: Secular Magic, Perception, Narrative and Dreams A hybrid seminar with Dominique Jullien and Richard Walsh brought to you by the Narrative and Cognition Lab.

Join us on Tuesday 28 November for an evening of conversation and provocation to launch Professor Stuart Murray’s new book In/Disciplines! It is the first book-length examination of the relationship between medical humanities and disability studies, two disciplines at the cutting edge of innovative critical work in the study of health and disability. The first part of the event is a conversation between Stuart and Harriet Cooper about the origins of In/Disciplines. They will then be joined by Anne Whitehead, Anna Stenning and Tom Shakespeare in a roundtable discussion chaired by Angela Woods on the implications of the book for researchers working across the medical humanities and disability studies.
Book your FREE online or in-person ticket via Eventbrite:

Medical Humanities and Disability Studies An evening of conversation and provocation to launch Professor Stuart Murray’s new book "In/Disciplines".

Friday, 17th November, is reserved for a hybrid seminar unpacking the possibilities and challenges of decolonial narrative work in healthcare. This event will bring two academics and artists from the Black Health and the Humanities Network, Dr Yewande Okuleye and Rianna Raymond-Williams, to reflect on the creative methods they engage with for healthcare education and empowerment in Black communities in Britain. Join us for a late afternoon of rich, generative discussion on narrative across different disciplinary positions and practices. All are welcome!
Book your FREE online or in-person ticket via Eventbrite:

Decolonising Narrative: Creative Approaches to Black Healthcare in Britain A two-hour seminar unpacking the possibilities and challenges of decolonial narrative work in healthcare.

Join us for a cosy seminar with Professor Karen Throsby (University of Leeds) on 15 November 23', 16:00-18:00! Drawing on self-help literature and newspaper “hidden sugar shock” stories, Prof Throsby will argue that - within the self-help domain - the act of giving up sugar is never simply a benign health intervention. Rather, it is also a normative act of self-making without end that not only renders social inequalities invisible, but also actively exacerbates them.

Book your FREE online or in-person ticket via Eventbrite:

The biopedagogies of sugar Professor Karen Throsby explores how - within the self-help domain - giving up sugar is never simply a benign health intervention.

We are delighted to announce the first event of the Hidden Experience Seminar Series, taking place next week on 19 October 2023, 16:00 - 18:00! Join us for a late afternoon with Professor Felicity Callard (Glasgow) to explore what q***r theory might teach us about interdisciplinary collaboration.

Book your FREE online or in-person ticket via Eventbrite:

What q***r theory might teach us about interdisciplinary collaboration Professor Felicity Callard explores how her long-standing engagement with q***r theory affects her thoughts on interdisciplinarity.

📣 Explore hidden experiences of health & illness with our new seminar series!

This hybrid series celebrates the work of the six interdisciplinary research strands – embodied symptoms, thinking, feeling, imagining, fringe cognition, everyday environments, the science of human experience, and critical concepts – that have underpinned our seven-year Wellcome Development Award (2017-2024).

Exploring invisible, marginalised, difficult, unspeakable or unacknowledged experiences of health and illness, the series is both a culmination of the Development Award and a herald of things to come as we begin work on the DRP-MH.

Find out more here: https://t.co/mO5vRlxXhd

Confirmed speakers below 👇

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What q***r theory might teach us about interdisciplinary collaboration
19 October 2023 (4-6PM BST) | IMH Durham and online

Join Professor Felicity Callard as she considers how her long-standing engagement with q***r theory affects her thoughts on - and practice of - interdisciplinarity, with a focus on specific overlapping problematics.

Hosted by Critical Concepts.

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The biopedagogies of sugar: Self-knowledge, intervention and the fantasy of liberation
15 November 2023 (4-6PM GMT) | IMH Durham and online

Drawing on self-help literature and newspaper “hidden sugar shock” stories, Professor Karen Throsby explores how - within the self-help domain - giving up sugar is never simply a benign health intervention, but also an act which both renders invisible and actively exacerbates social inequalities.

Hosted by Embodied Symptoms.

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Medical Humanities and Disability Studies
28 November 2023 (4.30-6PM GMT) | Durham University Business School and online

An evening of conversation and provocation to launch Professor Stuart Murray’s new book In/Disciplines, a landmark examination of the relationship between medical humanities and disability studies.

Hosted by Critical Concepts.

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The subjective experience of remembering
10 January 2024 (4-6PM GMT) | IMH Durham and online

Taking inspiration from philosophers and novelists, Professor Jon Simons considers the latest evidence on remembering from functional neuroimaging and studies of patients with neurological and psychiatric conditions.

Hosted by Science of Human Experience.

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Is there a history of the nocebo effect? Global reflections
28 February 2024 (4-6PM GMT) | IMH Durham and online

How can historians make sense of collective traumas like mass sociogenic illness or reactive psychological disaster syndrome? Dr Rob Boddice puts the case for a history of the nocebo effect and the power of situated belief to cause real and lasting harm.

Hosted by Thinking, Feeling, Imagining.

Announcing new IMH Hidden Experience Seminar Series - Durham University These are just some of the topics to be explored in the latest series of hybrid seminars from IMH, which will run from October 2023 to June 2024. 

📣Online seminar alert!

Excited to be teaming up with the Durham University's Centre for Neurodiversity and Development to explore the co-occurrence of and with the amazing Dr Katie Chisholm (September 18, 1.15-2.15PM).

More details in the link and flyer below 👇

http://eventbrite.co.uk/e/714455213777

Interested in questions of race and space within medical and literary-publishing landscapes? Free on June 19, 4.30-6? Then consider joining us online or in-person for our upcoming seminar with the amazing Dr Ike Anya!

Sign up👉 https://tinyurl.com/imhiaseminar

Collaboration with with the Black Health and Humanities Network and Durham University's Philosophy Department.

We are excited to host another hybrid seminar on 22 June! This time, we welcome Professor Ericka Johnson (Linköping University) who will discuss the joys and tribulations of participating in an interdisciplinary project about the prostate and present results of her research. The seminar is free to attend, although we ask that you reserve your virtual or in-person space via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/539369969097

Want to know what it'd be like to be a student on our programmes? Then come along to one of our "Progress to PG" events on June 14 (10-10:45) and June 15 (4-4:45), ft. Q&A sessions and taster lectures from our amazing team!

Sign-up using the link below:

Academic Taster - Medical Humanities Taught Programmes - Durham University You are warmly invited to attend our virtual "Progress to PG" events and find out more about the new postgraduate programmes at IMH.

Announcing the Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities

We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded a £9 million grant from the Wellcome Trust to develop a new Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities (DRP-MH).

The award is the largest grant ever made by Wellcome for humanities research.

Led by Angela Woods (Director) and Ben Alderson-Day (Co-director), the Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities will empower humanities and social science researchers, experts by experience, and health, creative and voluntary sector professionals to co-develop new and experimental approaches to tackling health challenges, including mental health and health inequalities.

Find out more:

Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities (DRP-MH) - Durham University Led by Angela Woods (Director) and Ben Alderson-Day (Co-director), the Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities (DRP-MH) will tackle intellectual and practical barriers – of diversity, connection, risk, evidence and scale – faced in medical humanities research.  

Thrilled to announce that Dr Xine Yao will be speaking at our next online seminar! Join us on May 18 (4.30-6pm) as Xine explores the racial and sexual politics of unfeeling in medicine.

Register here:

Anaesthesia, Frigidity and Dispassionate Objectivity "Anaesthesia, Frigidity and Dispassionate Objectivity: On the Racial and Sexual Politics of Unfeeling in Medicine" with Dr Xine Yao

And we’re off! Don’t miss out on your chance to attend CRITICAL, a three-day online conference (19-21 April), co-hosted by the Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research (NNMHR) and the Institute for Medical Humanities, Durham University.

Researchers and practitioners from across the globe are coming together to explore the nature of critical medical humanities - and you could be one of them!

Attendance is free! Register here: https://whova.com/portal/registration/nnmhr_202302/

The New Networks in Critical Medical Humanities Funding Scheme 2023 is now open! The NNMHR invites applications for grants of up to £2500 to support networking activities for up to two years (2023-2025). Find more info and links on IMH websites: https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/medical-humanities/about-us/news/new-networks-in-critical-medical-humanities-funding-scheme/

Join us online or in Durham on March 9 (4.30-6pm) for the first event in our new seminar series!

In this hybrid talk, Dr Robert Chapman will be considering the emergence of ‘neurotypical’ as a concept and why it's been so widely adopted.

Register here 👉 https://tinyurl.com/imhrcseminar

How do people respond to complex gut issues that are poorly served by clinical medicine? To find out, join us for another Confabulations event on March 7! Curator Vanessa Bartlett, artists Kathy High, and Lindsay Kelley will explore creative collaborations with guts as new ways of understanding human-gut relations across clinical, domestic and artistic spaces. Reserve your spot here: https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/medical-humanities/events/confabulations-stomach-ache/?fbclid=IwAR20PIM-j4itkWaffwA5Si1dFc8MlgBikd4AmobsEVYts_qlNLkqiAvIi7g

We warmly invite you to join us for the launch of Anne Whitehead's "Relating Su***de" on Feb 2 (5.30-7) at Hatfield College, Durham University, ft. introductions from Linda Anderson and our very own IMH Director Angela Woods, followed by conversation between Anne and Pat Waugh.

Sign-up link below:

Relating Su***de: A Personal and Critical Perspective An in-person event to mark the publication of Anne Whitehead’s Relating Su***de: A Personal and Critical Perspective.