The Durham Centre for Medical Humanities has been awarded £1m from the Wellcome Trust in recognition of its prominence and leadership in medical humanities research.
This Discretionary Award will enable the Centre to take forward ambitious new research projects in four key strands focusing on different aspects of human experience: ‘Embodied Symptoms’, ‘Thinking, Feeling, Imagining’, ‘Neurosocial Explorations’, and ‘Everyday Possibilities’. These new initiatives will link to current research on voice-hearing, breathing and breathlessness, mind-wandering and community well-being. Early career researcher development and support, and career diversification, will also continue to be a key focus of activities.
The co-applicant team represents the Centre’s strengths across the University with academics from all three faculties: Jane Macnaughton, Sarah Atkinson from Social Sciences and Health, Corinne Saunders and Angela Woods from Arts and Humanities, and Charles Fernyhough from Science. Felicity Callard, now at the Birkbeck Institute for Social Research, is also a member of the team.
The announcement comes just as the Centre hosted the first annual congress of the Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research on 14th-15th September.