Centre For Medical Humanities

Pgrecr Network

Beyond Science Communication: “HumSci Workshop” for PhDs & Early Career Researchers (London, 28-29 May 2013)

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HumSci Workshop for PhDs and ECRs – Tuesday 28th and Wednesday 29th May 2013.

Is it possible to think about the connections between the sciences and humanities which goes beyond science communication (ie how can the ‘soft skills’ of the humanities be used to communicate the ‘hard results’ of science) or the History of Science, and which doesn’t get distracted by ‘The Two Cultures’ discussion?

The idea of the HumSci workshop, funded by the AHRC, is to promote genuine reciprocity between the two disciplines by bringing together PhD students and Early Career Researchers from both the sciences and the humanities to think through issues of method, creativity and uncertainty in research, as well as publishing and communication. Led by expert panels, talking through the similarities and differences in the disciplines will help us critically reflect on the practices of our own discipline, as well as creating fresh research agendas. Have a look at the provisional programme to get more of an idea of how this discussion will be structured, and please pass these details on to anyone you think might be interested.

Workshop Website

Send queries here, or to Julie Hipperson .

Deadline for applications: (Midnight) Friday 5th April 2013

Interdisciplinarity in Practice: Medical Humanities Research Workshop for PGRs (Workshop, Leeds, 7 September 2017)

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We warmly invite participants for a one-day workshop addressing the scholarly challenges and collaborative opportunities surrounding postgraduate research in the medical humanities.

Increasing numbers of postgraduate students from a wide range of disciplines are undertaking work on human health, wellbeing, disease, and the body that entails interdisciplinary approaches. Conducting PhD research across disciplinary boundaries offers significant opportunities for innovative scholarship, but it can also present practical and intellectual challenges for those at the earlier stages of their academic careers.

This workshop, supported by the AHRC, will bring together postgraduate students in the medical humanities for interactive sessions and open discussion on research skills and professional career development in the field. Session leaders include Dr Emily T. Troscianko (Oxford), Dr Victoria Bates (Bristol), Dr Sam Goodman (Bournemouth), Dr James Stark (Leeds) and Dr Catherine Oakley (Leeds), with a keynote address from Professor Jane Macnaughton (Durham).

The workshop takes place on Thursday 7th September, University of Leeds, 11am – 6pm. For more details and the application process, see here. Please address any queries to Dr James Stark.

“Ceaseless is Madame’s fight against the ravages of Old Man Time”: Ageing and Agelessness in Interwar Britain (Talk, Durham, 22 May 2018)

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Associate Professor of Medical Humanities, James Stark (University of Leeds) will be joining the Postgraduate and ECR Network at Durham’s Centre for Medical Humanities, to give a talk on his work for the AHRC-funded Endless Possibilities of Rejuvenation project.

Examining how our attitudes towards ageing and rejuvenation changed in the first half of the twentieth century, Endless Possibilities of Rejuvenation works in partnership with the National Trust, the Thackray Medical Museum and Boots to bring the social, commercial and scientific factors associated with anti-ageing products to a wide audience.

James’ talk ‘“Ceaseless is Madame’s fight against the ravages of Old Man Time”: Ageing and Agelessness in Interwar Britain’ will present findings from the two-year project (to be completed September 2018), and also discuss some of the collaborations and engagement activities the project has inspired.

The talk will take place on Tuesday 22 May 2018, 5.30-6.30pm, at the Collier Room, Hild Bede College, Durham University.

This event is free and refreshments will be provided. All are welcome!

For more information about this event, or the CMH PG and ECR Seminar Series, please contact Natalie Riley.

“Science & Society”: History of Science, Medicine, & Technology Postgrad Conference (Oxford, 7 June 2013)

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The Wellcome Unit for the History Medicine, University of Oxford is pleased to announce the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology Postgraduate Conference 2013

Science and Society will take place on

7 June 2013 at 10:00-17:00

At the History Faculty Lecture Theatre, George Street, Oxford

Science and society have been codependently constructed. The Wellcome Unit’s annual postgraduate conference seeks to explore these conceptual intersection points through panels ranging in subject matter from “Projecting Health and Policy”, “Biology and Society”, to “Science and Medicine in Transition”, and “Madness, Psyche, and War”.

Bringing together a variety of explorations of the histories of science, medicine, and their broader influences, the conference seeks engaging and enthusiastic participants in a rousing and challenging discussion.

The event is free but please register your interest by 30 May 2013 by emailing Belinda Michaelides.

Understanding Human Flourishing (A Postgraduate Medical Humanities Conference, Durham, 16 – 17 May 2013)

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New! To see tweets from this conference, View the story “Understanding Human Flourishing” on Storify

This two-day conference will bring together postgraduate researchers from a wide array of disciplines in order to explore interdisciplinary perspectives on, and ways of researching, health, illness and human flourishing. Papers range from philosophical explorations of concept of illness to explorations of creative engagements with health and flourishing. A full programme can now be found online.

The conference will be framed by a keynote by Professor Stuart Murray on ‘Medical Humanities, Disabled Difference, and Human Flourishing’ and will close with a panel discussion on ‘The Future of Medical Humanities’, bringing together academics from medicine, cultural studies, social science and literature. A panel on academic publishing will provide crucial information and advice for researchers at the beginning of a career in medical humanities.

This conference offers postgraduates an opportunity to present their work to a wider medical humanities audience and to build networks and collaborative relationships for the future. Please register here by Friday 3 May.

We look forward to welcoming you to Durham.
Dr Naomi Marklew and Rebecca Bitenc

‘Prosthetics and the Prosthetic Metaphor’ – Next Meeting of Durham’s Postgraduate & Early Career Researcher Network (CfP Seminar, Durham, 27th November, 2 – 3.30pm)

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Prosthetics and the Prosthetic Metaphor
Thursday 27th November 2014, 2 pm – 3:30 pm
Collier Room, Hild and Bede College, Durham University

The first meeting of the CMH/Wolfson Postgraduate and Early Career Medical Humanities Network for the 2014/2015 academic year is coming up. Our new network convener is Dr. Luna Dolezal, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Philosophy ([email protected]). This first meeting is a discussion/reading group and will explore the theme of prosthetics and the prosthetic metaphor.

The trope of the prosthesis has become commonplace in philosophy, cultural theory, posthuman discourse and across the social sciences, utilized by scholars who are concerned with the human body’s porous and malleable nature when it comes to its interaction with tools and technology. Surpassing its meaning in the contexts of disability and medicine of an artificial limb or implement which is attached to the body in order to restore or replace a bodily lack due to illness, defect or accident, prosthesis has come to signify augmentation, enhancement and a fascination with cyborg bodies. Prosthesis, invoked in this manner, is a metaphor for the technological extension of human capacities to overcome the limitations inherent to the ‘natural’ human body.

This meeting of the postgrad/ECR medical humanities discussion group will examine the theme of the prosthetic metaphor and its role within the medical humanities and related disciplines. Topics may include but are not limited to: disability, technology, the posthuman, limb-loss, cognitive prosthetics, tools, enhancement.

Indicative questions may include, but again are not limited to:

  • Is the prosthetic metaphor useful? Or does it dangerously obscure the realities of disability and limb-loss?
  • How are developments in prosthetic technologies transforming and/or destabilizing the concepts of disability and impairment?
  • Is it reasonable or useful to consider any tool or technology a prosthesis?
  • Is there such a thing as the ‘natural’ human body?
  • How do mainstream representations of high profile prostheses users, such as the super-athletes Aimee Mullins and Oscar Pistorius, affect disability politics?
  • What is the conceptual role of cognitive prostheses?
  • Are we close to getting into an ability ‘rat-race’ with the development of prosthetic technologies?
  • What are the experiences of people living with prosthetics and how are these shaped by media/policy/fictional developments?

Once again, we are looking for one or two volunteers to provide an informal opening presentation on an aspect of their research which speaks to the theme of this session (5-8 minutes). Please reply to Luna Dolezal if you are interested in presenting, and also to register your attendance for purposes of cake and tea. We look forward to seeing you in November – new members always welcome!

Dr Luna Dolezal — [email protected]
Department of Philosophy
Network Convenor

Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Skills Workshop on the Medical Humanities (Queen’s University Belfast, 7 November 2013)

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Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Skills Workshop on the Medical Humanities
Queen’s University Belfast
Thursday 7 November 2013

This event is open to MA and Doctoral research students who are interested in or are currently pursuing research in the medical humanities in the UK and Ireland. It brings together a broad range of specialists across different subject areas and institutions who will provide their own personal insights into the opportunities and resources available to students interested in the Medical Humanities across history and literature and ranging from the 17th – 21st centuries, as well as a focus on the development of a range of skills essential for postgraduate development.

The day will begin with a plenary introduction to the resources of the Wellcome Library (Dr Elma Brenner) and opportunities in US libraries and archives (Dr Yarí Pérez Marín). The afternoon will comprise four individual strands – Spanish, French, English, and History, focusing on skills such as: conducting archival research; reading early modern documents; interdisciplinarity; digitisation; ethics; medicine and literature.

Speakers include: Dr Miruna Achim; Dr Marcelo Figueroa; Dr Mauricio Nieto; Prof. Andrew Carpenter; Dr Vike Plock; Dr Steven Wilson; Dr Larry Duffy; Dr Sean Lucey; and Dr Ciara Breathnach.

*There is no attendance fee but registration is required.*

For more details on the event, please contact Ms. Robyn Atcheson or, for a full workshop programme, click here.

Scientific Innovation in the Biosociety: Current Responsibilities, Future Promises (Postgrad forum, Leeds, 24–25 June 2013)

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Scientific Innovation in the Biosociety: Current Responsibilities, Future Promises

Postgraduate Forum on Genetics and Society (PFGS) Colloquium 13

University of Leeds; 24th-25th June 2013

Registration now open! Just a few places left!

Keynote speakers:

Prof. Anne Kerr (University of Leeds)

Prof. Jackie Leach Scully (Newcastle University)

Prof. Paul Martin (University of Sheffield)

Prof. Andy Miah (University of the West of Scotland)

Prof. Bronwyn Parry (King?s College)

The Postgraduate Forum on Genetics and Society, in conjunction with the Leeds Social Sciences Institute and the Leeds University Postgraduate Society, is pleased to invite all postgraduates and early career scholars doing research on the broad theme of scientific innovation and its implications to its 13th Colloquium, to be held at the University of Leeds. PFGS colloquia are a lively mix of keynote speakers, workshops, and paper presentations, set in a friendly and supportive atmosphere with ample time for discussion and networking.

We are an interdisciplinary Forum with members doing research across a broad range of science & technology studies, politics, sociology, anthropology, law, philosophy, history, health and the life sciences.

This year’s colloquium examines the ways in which scientific innovations are projected as reshaping possibilities, redrawing boundaries, and creating a global “biosociety”, as well as generating new forms of democratic scientific governance, new processes of risk assessment and management, and new configurations of “responsible innovation” beyond safety and sustainability. While innovation is central to contemporary science policies, how are the responsibilities and associated promises that accompany it being configured? What are the regulatory and political challenges, the dangers as well as the benefits? The Colloquium will investigate these questions through its four subthemes of: Biomedical innovation; Biocapital and economic growth; War, law and crime; and Responsibility and “Frontier” technologies.

The Colloquium is free to all but you must register here.

Please tick the appropriate boxes if you also wish to be considered for free accommodation and bursaries for travel (up to advance purchase fares within the UK). Both are still available, but these are VERY limited, so book soon — please note that registering does not guarantee accommodation or travel. These will be confirmed separately once your registration has been received.

Funded by the ESRC through the Genomics Forum, the PFGS is now in its 15th year, continuing to explore the new with a critical perspective, and to support networking amongst upcoming scholars from any discipline based on convergent interest in science and technology in society. For more information click here or email us.

‘Making Absence Present’ – Absence & the medical humanities (Durham Postgrad & ECR network event, 15 May 2014)

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Durham Centre for Medical Humanities / Wolfson Post-Graduate & Early Career Research Network
‘MAKING ABSENCE PRESENT’: ABSENCE AND THE MEDICAL HUMANITIES
Thursday 15 May 2014, 2 pm – 3:30 pm
Collier Room, Hild and Bede College, Durham University

It might be said that the absent has never been so present. From interest in the methodological challenges of ‘missing data’ to that growing body of literature that speaks directly to states of human absence (emptiness, sleep, absent-mindedness, lost memories, missed opportunities), problematizing the binary between the present and the not-present and shifting attention from the present to the absent have become intriguing interests in recent health research.

This final medical humanities discussion session continues our themes of evidence and epistemology to ask: how do we respond to/make space for the ‘absent’ in our research, and to what extent must health research inevitably address substantially with themes of absence in its inquiries? As ever we are looking for two or three brief opening presentations (5-8 minutes) which speak to these themes. Please email Jenny ASAP to volunteer.

Starting ideas might include, but are not limited to –

  • The political, epistemic or ethical consequences of absence in research
  • Conceptualising health and illness (as each the absence of the other?)
  • Lived lacunas and manifest absences (absent memories, body parts, relationship, futures)
  • On presenting absence (e.g. in poetry, literature, statistics, film…)
  • Illness as absence (the things you missed while you were sick… )

For the purposes of cake and tea, we would be grateful if you would confirm your presence (or absence!) no later than May 12. Hope to see many of you there – new members always welcome!

Dr Jenny Laws
Network convenor

 

Collaboration in the Critical Medical Humanities (Intensive workshop for ECRs, Durham, 11-13 September 2017)

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This intensive 3-day workshop for early career researchers will take place Monday 11 – Wednesday 13 September 2017 at Durham University, with the support of the British Academy and the Wellcome Trust.

Work in the critical medical humanities brings together scholars from the arts, humanities, social and life sciences, health professionals, patient advocates, carers and experts by experience to pursue a deeper understanding of health and illness. The field is increasingly oriented towards inter- as well as multi-disciplinary practice, and to large-scale collaborations involving multiple stakeholder groups. Much has been written and said about the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of health, broadly conceived. Yet there is surprisingly little discussion of how in practical terms this can and should be achieved, and even less about the roles, responsibilities and opportunities for ECRs in navigating the complexities not just of cross-disciplinary but also of cross-sector working. Particularly where questions of distress, disease, disability and health inequalities are to the fore, the frameworks and practices which bring people together require more than good intentions to be effective.

This three-day intensive workshop will engage early career researchers who have some experience of working collaboratively in the medical humanities, whether in a research, community or public engagement context. Using a range of innovative formats which draw on the expertise of those assembled, we will interrogate what ‘best practice’ in collaborative medical humanities looks and feels like by exploring topics such as:

  • Understanding disciplinary commitments and conflicts
  • Techniques for the creative facilitation of meetings, seminars and workshops
  • Who does the work, who gets the credit?
  • Practical strategies for engaging clinical, patient and activist groups
  • Making sense of awkwardness, ambivalence and failure

As well as giving participants the opportunity to enhance their understanding of and, crucially, practical skills in working collaboratively, we hope that this workshop will help facilitate the creation of a dynamic and ultimately self-sustaining network of researchers working at the critical cutting edge of the field.

Who’s involved?

Collaboration in the Critical Medical Humanities will be led by Dr Angela Woods, School of Medicine, Pharmacy and Health/English Studies, University of Durham, and Mary Robson, Creative Facilitator, with confirmed contributions from:

Practical Details

  • The workshop will run from 11am Monday 11 September – 2pm Wednesday 13 September 2017 at St Chad’s College, University of Durham. A follow-up day will be held at the Wellcome Trust in London on February 19 2018.
  • Applications for a place on the workshop are invited from early career researchers (broadly defined) working in any area of the medical humanities. We anticipate that academic applicants will be between 2-10 years post-PhD. Details about the application process, including a link to the online form, are available below.
  • There is no charge to participants to attend the workshop. Meals and college accommodation will be provided; however, participants must cover their own travel expenses. We will do our very best to accommodate all access requirements within the architectural limitations of Durham.
  • Following the workshop, participants will be encouraged to contribute to Working Knowledge – an online collection of practical resources for anyone interested in embarking on or funding interdisciplinary research.

Application Process

Applications are invited from early career researchers working in any area of the medical humanities or allied fields.

To apply, please complete the CCMH Application Form and send it with a current CV to congress administrator Jane Abel by Saturday 17 June 2017.

Applicants will be selected by a project steering committee on the basis of their demonstrable commitment to collaborative working in the medical humanities and to ensure a mix of disciplines, areas of expertise, and career stages.

This event is supported by the British Academy.