“Experiences of illness and death: learning from the discourses of realities and fictions” (Workshop, Open University Campus Milton Keynes, 28 November 2016)

Research Summary: Experiences of Illness and Death Workshop

Event Type: Interdisciplinary academic workshop on narrative approaches to illness and death

Host Institution: The Open University, Faculty of Well-being, Education and Language Studies, Milton Keynes

Date & Duration: 28 November 2016, full-day workshop

Organizing Body: British Association of Applied Linguistics (BAAL) Health & Science Communication SIG

Primary Focus: Lived experiences and narrative dimensions of illness and dying across disciplinary perspectives including history, sociology, literature, visual arts, and linguistics

Target Audience: Researchers examining patient, carer, and healthcare professional accounts to improve patient-centered care, clinical training, and empathy

Keynote Speakers: Dr Julie Ellis (University of Sheffield) and Dr Jonathan Tomlinson (NHS The Lawson Practice)

Core Objective: Unite researchers from diverse backgrounds to discuss methodologies and applications for extracting evidence from illness narratives to advance medical humanities scholarship

Registration: Tickets available via Eventbrite registration site

British Association of Applied Linguistics (BAAL) Health & Science Communication SIG

Hosted by the Faculty of Well-being, Education and Language Studies of The Open University, Milton Keynes

“Any serious illness is a medical event, but it is lived in narrative terms” wrote Andrew Solomon in a recent article for The Guardian.

This all-day workshop will focus on these ‘lived’ and ‘narrative’ aspects of the experience of illness and death from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Accounts of illness and dying by patients, carers and healthcare professionals have been at the heart the medical humanities for several decades. They have been called upon to better understand patients and to enable patient-centered care, to improve training and empathy in healthcare professionals and to begin to assist those who informally support and care for the ill. They have been investigated from the perspectives of history, sociology, literature, the visual arts and, more recently, linguistics. At the same time, these disparate approaches and applications have tended to leave the field somewhat fragmented. The aim of this workshop is to bring together researchers of different backgrounds who examine and use experiences of illness and death to discuss and explore the methods and applications that allow us to get the most out of these rich and powerful sources of evidence.

Confirmed keynote speakers:

Dr Julie Ellis, University of Sheffield
Dr Jonathon Tomlinson, NHS The Lawson Practice

For the full programme, and to purchase tickets, please visit the registration site at Eventbrite.