Workshop 1: Durham University, IAS (Institute of Advanced Studies)
Introduction: Interdisciplinary research and methods in the Medical Humanities. September 25 and 26, 2014.
This introductory session will be led by the Director of New Generations, Professor Jane Macnaughton, and members of the CMH research team, including researchers on ‘Hearing the Voice’ (HtV), an interdisciplinary project involving researchers in psychology and neuroscience working alongside those in literary studies and philosophy. The workshop will begin with an overview of the medical humanities, the rationale for and outline of the course. The focus will be on interdisciplinary methods, introduced by the Director of Durham University’s Institute of Advanced Study (IAS), Prof. Veronica Strang. The nature, role and importance of social science methods will be highlighted. Participants will participate in a simulated HtV research team ‘Voice Club’ meeting facilitated by Mary Robson.
Workshop 2: Glasgow University
Digital developments in the Medical Humanities. December 10th and 11th 2014.
This workshop, which will focus on harnessing digital technology for research in the medical humanities, will be delivered by the Medical Humanities Research Centre (MHRC) based in the School of Critical Studies (with the technical support of HATTI, the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute). In particular it will draw upon expertise gained on the major AHRC funded, collaborative digital editing project, ‘The Consultation Letters of Dr William Cullen at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh’. Themes covered to include: grant capture, entering into a collaboration, creating and managing large data-sets, developing in-built project management systems, legacy, knowledge transfer and impact.
For many years Glasgow University has played a leading, international role in the development of both the medical and digital humanities and as a consequence is in a unique position to provide expert, cross-disciplinary, post-graduate training in these combined areas.
Workshop 3: Wellcome Trust
Public engagement: simulation and innovation in the Medical Humanities. February 10th, 2015.
This workshop will be led by Dr Lisa Jamieson, Head of Engaging Science at the Wellcome Trust and Prof. Roger Kneebone, Professor of Surgical Education at Imperial College. Dr Jamieson and her team will discuss the Trust’s programme for grantholders, ‘Public engagement with Research Provision’, and the potential ways in which participants might capture the public imagination in research dissemination.
Prof. Kneebone will host a medical simulation at the Trust in the afternoon. The simulation will demonstrate how to turn engagement into participation, creating a space in which participants share perspectives and provide reciprocal illumination.
Workshop 4: Wellcome Trust
Broadening horizons: funding, publishing and careers options. February 11th, 2015.
Dr Dan O’Connor, Head of Medical Humanities and Lauren Couch, Medical Humanities Advisor, will present a workshop that will cover funding options, the fast-moving opportunities for publishing and dissemination of research, and career opportunities in the medical humanities and related fields. Speakers will include representatives from the business sector who will discuss the applications of medical humanities research and training in non-academic contexts, such as broadcasting, museums, policy-making and the library and research resource management sectors.
Workshop 5: Wellcome Library
The changing landscape of library provision. February 12th, 2015.
Dr Simon Chaplin and his team at the Wellcome Library will lead a workshop on the changing face of libraries in medical humanities research. How is digitisation transforming the practice of traditional libraries? What next for the humble library catalogue? And what will archives – and archivists – look like in the future? Speakers will be invited from major London libraries and archives to report on current projects.
Workshop 6: Kings College London
Narrative medicine and the Medical Humanities. February 13th, 2015.
This workshop will focus on research questions at the interface of clinical care and the humanities. Clinical practice daily encompasses patient experience in its cultural contexts. But biomedical science essentially focuses on causes, mechanisms and treatments, and accounts for human experiences only partially and schematically. As long as the meaning of illness to individuals, families and to society falls outside the purview of biomedical science, biomedical science alone will offer less than a full foundation for clinical practice.
The Centre for the Humanities and Health at King’s London aims to create in the UK a world leader in research in the Medical Humanities through a multi-stranded programme of research on “The Boundaries of Illness”. It engages scholars from arts, Humanities and health disciplines nationally and internationally (from Literature, Philosophy, History, the Visual Arts, Film Studies, Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry, Medicine and Nursing) all of whom will support the development of a new Master’s programme in the Medical Humanities, and extend the College’s existing capacity in Medical Humanities at masters, doctoral, post-doctoral and international levels.
Workshop 7: Leeds University
The material culture of medicine: applications in the Medical Humanities. April 2015.
This workshop will focus on the ways in which the material culture of medicine can be fruitfully incorporated into medical humanities teaching and research. Morning sessions will explore material culture as a research methodology and assess the ways in which objects can be interrogated for information. The morning part of the workshop will also focus on the ways in which healthcare both is represented in and employs art and objects. The afternoon session will provide a tour of the museum and its exhibition, a discussion of career options in museums and heritage for medical humanities scholars and a practical element where participants curate their own exhibition using artefacts from the Museum’s collections. Since 2007, the Museum of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at the University of Leeds has safeguarded the material scientific and medical heritage of the University, the city and the region. It continues to develop innovative programmes of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, to make accessible core source materials to researchers and to deliver exciting public engagement events.
Provision Programme: 10am – 4pm [30-45 min sessions with time for questions/discussion]
- Introduction: Object interrogation and Research Methodology
- Things, Meanings and Cultural History
- Interpreting healthcare: the practical application of art
- Lunch
- Campus Collections Tour
- Careers
- Curating an exhibition
Workshop 8: TBD by participants
Title and venue to be decided by the participants. June 2015.
Participating ECRs will have the opportunity to determine programme content to provide a session that is responsive to their needs and to any new developments in the medical humanities that may arise before mid-2015. We will gather views of participants and develop this session in response.
Workshop 9: Durham University
Dealing with the media, + wrap up, evaluation, review and sustainability. September 2015.
The final workshop of the programme will bring the participants back to Durham for a practical session on media interview skills and dealing with the media, delivered by Mr Paul Ging and Ms Dionne Hamil of the Durham University Media and Communications Office. Following this session, the PI and Mary Robson will lead a session on evaluation and review of the course.