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‘Multiple Methods and Unusual Experiences’ (Medical Humanities Postgraduate & ECR Network Event, Durham, Thursday 5 Dec 2013)

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

Research Summary: Medical Humanities Research Seminar

Event Type: Academic Discussion-Based Seminar
Host Institution: Centre for Medical Humanities, Durham University
Date & Time: Thursday, 5 December 2013, 2:00-3:30 pm
Location: CA113 Caedmon Building, Hild and Bede College/School of Education, Durham University
Primary Theme: Methodological pluralism in medical humanities research approaches to “unusual experiences”
Presentation Format: 7-10 minute presentations by selected speakers exploring how different disciplines address unusual experiences through varied methodologies
Example Research Topics: Ecstasy, death, statistical anomaly, epiphanies, hearing voices, rites of passage, unusual methodologies
Presentation Deadline: Sunday, 17 November 2013 (expressions of interest to Jenny Laws)
Attendance Confirmation Deadline: Thursday, 28 November 2013
Amenities: Tea and cakes provided

‘Multiple Methods and Unusual Experiences’
Centre for Medical Humanities Post-Graduate and Early Career Network
Thursday, 5th December, 2-3:30 pm,
CA113 Caedmon Building
(on the Hild and Bede College/ School of Education campus, Durham University)
Tea and cakes provided

What does it mean to be part of a medical humanities community in which comparable themes and empirical phenomena are approached through a multiplicity of methodologies, often to significantly different effects within specific disciplinary traditions? How can we communicate and justify the methods of our ‘home’ disciplines to those unfamiliar with the logics of our own research practices? Is the methodologically multilingual character of the medical humanities something that requires healing (resolution) or does it itself provide a therapeutic space through which to escape the methodological fantasies of discipline-specific research?

This discussion-based session invites us to explore how each of us addresses a particular phenomenon of interest across much of the medical humanities – “Unusual Experiences”. To open the debate, we are looking for a small number of individuals to offer a 7-10 minute presentation on how they address the notion of ‘unusual experiences’ in their research, the methods and methodologies they use for this and an explanation for a non-specialist audience of what such methods (empirical or theoretical) bring to the debate. Examples of unusual experiences: ecstasy, death, statistical anomaly, epiphanies, hearing voices, rites of passage, unusual methodologies themselves, etc.

Please send expressions of interest in presenting at the seminar to Jenny Laws no later than Sunday 17th November (with a few words describing your idea), and confirm your attendance at the session (for purposes of catering) no later than Thursday 28th.

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