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Birkbeck Medical Humanities (Reading Group/exhibition, Birkbeck University, 9 December 2015)

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By CentreForMedicalHumanities.org Research Team | Last verified: September 2026

Research Summary: Birkbeck Medical Humanities Reading Group

Event Type: Academic reading group and exhibition exploration
Primary Focus: Art therapy practice, debates, and status of patient-produced artworks
Date & Location: Wednesday 9 December 2015, 3:30-5pm, Keynes Library, Birkbeck University (43 Gordon Square)
Key Texts: Bobby Baker's Diary Drawings (Wellcome 2009 exhibition); works by Griselda Pollock and edited collection Framing Marginalized Art
Core Topic: Exploration of art therapy through Bobby Baker's mental illness documentation and critical humanities perspectives
Scholarly Approach: Interdisciplinary examination of artistic practice as therapeutic and epistemological intervention in mental health contexts
Contact: Heather Tilley; further details and set texts available on Birkbeck webpage

The next session of the Birkbeck Medical Humanities reading group continues to explore art therapy: its aims, some of the debates that mark its practice, and the status of artworks produced by patients.

This session will be held at the Keynes Library, Birkbeck (43 Gordon Square) on Wednesday 9 December, between 3.30-5.

Set texts:

  • Microsite of Bobby Baker’s Diary Drawings, an exhibition held at the Wellcome in 2009. Please note that large chunks of Bobby Baker’s accompanying book can be read online, either through Amazon or Google Books: Diary Drawings: Mental Illness and Me (London: Profile, 2010).
  • Griselda Pollock: ‘Diary Drawings’, from Bobby Baker: Redeeming Features of Everyday Life, eds. Michele Barrett and Bobby Baker (London and New York, Routledge, 2007), pp. 251-267.
  • Extracts from Framing Marginalized Art, ed. by Karen Jones, Eugen Koh, Nurin Veis and Anthony White (2010): executive summary, intro and chapter one, pp. 6-36

More information is available on our webpage, along with details of past reading.

For further details, and copies of the set texts, please contact Heather Tilley.

 

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