📣 Applications are open for our 2026-27 Medical Humanities in Practice Research Fellowship scheme! The scheme supports professionals and researchers from health or voluntary and community sectors to develop research within the medical humanities. Apply by 30 Jan:

“Am I Queer Enough?” @davidwoodhead.bsky.social reflects on visibility, ethics, and contradictions as a a middle-aged gay man in recovery and a mental health researcher. Read more in the journal from @durhamimh.bsky.social 👇 thepolyphony.org/2025/11/24/am-i-queer-enough/

"The point is how do we navigate the gap between how we live and how we theorise, how we enact our identities and the sensibilities we bring to research?" Brilliant post by @davidwoodhead.bsky.social on lived experience, queer experience and theory thepolyphony.org/2025/11/24/a...

“The report recommended a training course on “core scientific concepts” for politicians that could be provided at the outset of an emergency.” …or just mandated before they’re allowed anywhere near evidence based decision making? www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

“We talk about “funding” as if it’s a favour. It’s not. It’s investment in imagination, in shared experience and in our national story.” www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

It was worth braving the crowds at the last ever Lumiere

💃🎶 Last week's Research Cabaret led by @louisecreechan.bsky.social and @maryrobbo.bsky.social was a resounding success! Catch up on what we got up to as part of @beinghumanfest.bsky.social 👇 tinyurl.com/yntr9362

Tricks and treats with the #RatsOfConfluence

📅 Join us on Monday 24 November for an online interdisciplinary symposium on Tourette Syndrome, imagining a future of Tourettic Studies that is looking beyond the syndrome, featuring Bridging Fellow @danielpjones.bsky.social. Find out more & register here 👇 medhumsplatform.org/event/toward...

@cforsdick.bsky.social concludes the @readingbodies.bsky.social takeover and discusses how this project contributes to rethinking the medical humanities in ways that are simultaneously multilingual, transnational and translational. thepolyphony.org/2025/10/24/m...

We're hiring 3 new editors! 2 general and 1 for reviews! thepolyphony.org/2025/10/27/w...

The 'schedule send' function in outlook is now taking it upon itself to suggest by default a Monday morning weeks into the future. I shudder to think that this is the algorithm saying something about my average response times.

Delighted that Rosa Ritunnano passed her viva without corrections! Her PhD on delusions is a marvel of interdisciplinary research. My favourite paper by Rosa so far is the one on Harry, the happiest man in the world. www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #philsky #philpsy #womeninphilosophy

The Big Survey is now live! It has been such a privilege to get to work on this with such a wonderful, inspiring team at @actionforme.bsky.social, including our brilliant Patient and Public Involvement Group, made up of people with lived experience of ME and Long Covid.

🎉 We are delighted to launch this year’s Big Survey in collaboration with @actionforme.bsky.social! If you are in the UK living with ME or Long Covid with ME symptoms, we want to hear from you! tinyurl.com/2s4dbrkx 🧵

Resplendent

Join us on 6th November for our annual Research Cabaret! An evening of live music 🎶 poetry 💬 dance 🕺💃 and chaos 🎉 exploring what it means to live between the lines. Featuring Durham IMH researchers and local performers! Reserve your FREE ticket here 🎟️👇 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/between-th...

It’s been that kind of a weekend

Welcome to @tamarinnorwood.bsky.social, who joins us as a Honorary Fellow in the Visual & Material Lab 🥳 We're looking forward to working with you! medhumsplatform.org/welcome-to-t...

Ten years on from publication - this big lad hits 1000 citations. Congrats @cfernyhough.bsky.social! Probably the longest paper we will ever write. If you get to the end you get a badge and a certificate. And hopefully you will learn something about inner speech. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26011789/

Delighted to see this latest book in the Series now in print, and with a great endorsement from @literarti.bsky.social: 'As compassionate as it is razor-sharp, Writing Contested Illness will reshape our understanding of what illness narratives can be and achieve.'

Today we welcome seven postdocs to new roles in the @durhamimh.bsky.social Discovery Research Platform

Putting on my infrastructure studies hat to boost this just-published book: The Humanities Laboratory: From Design to Archaeology, edited by Aleksandra Kil-Matlak, Jacek Małczyński, & Dorota Wolska. www.peterlang.com/document/161...

Tuning in to the final event of the discontinued @theturing.bsky.social Humanities & Data Science Interest Group and @melissaterras.bsky.social is absolutely smashing it. Power & politics cannot be purged from this conversation digitalscholarship.web.ox.ac.uk/event/networ...

We are very pleased to welcome @harrietbarratt.bsky.social 🎉 Harriet joins us as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Visual & Material Lab. Read about Harriet and her work in this interview: 👇 medhumsplatform.org/introducing-...

We are pleased to welcome Xiao Ge, joining our Discovery Research Platform as a Bridging Fellow in the Narrative Practices Lab and @languagesdurham.bsky.social 🤩 Read more about Xiao's work on reframing postpartum well-being in this interview 👇 medhumsplatform.org/introducing-...

Excited to welcome @danielpjones.bsky.social, who joins us as a Bridging Fellow in the Moving Bodies Lab and @dusportexsci.bsky.social. Find out more about Daniel's work on embodied experiences of Tourette Syndrome & the development of creative, inclusive research methods 🤩

A warm welcome to Michelle Reeve, who joins our Discovery Research Platform as the Digital and Communications Officer! We're looking forward to working with you, Michelle! medhumsplatform.org/welcome-to-m...

Grateful for a rich few days in Oslo with the Curating Cultural Heritage for the Medical & Health Humanities project (MNU). Highlights: inspiring sessions at Norsk Teknisk Museum & MUNCH, deep dives into art, ethics & medicine—and a sauna swim to wrap it all up! medhumsplatform.org/curating-cul...

Really enjoying the opportunity to spend time learning from and being inspired by the @dismatters.bsky.social project. All the formal presentations are available online along with links to the project's many fantastic resources

'“The humanities are where people learn to think critically, to analyse systems, to question authority,” @desfitzgerald.bsky.social says. “What happens if that disappears? What happens if you can simulate critical thinking without actually engaging in it?”'

I spoke to the Irish Times for this very good and rounded piece on the real-world effects of C***GPT in the humanities classroom: www.irishtimes.com/ireland/educ...

A warm welcome to Emily Davis, who joins our Discovery Research Platform as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Moving Bodies Lab and @dusportexsci.bsky.social. We look forward to working with you, Emily! 🤩 medhumsplatform.org/introducing-...

There's lots I could say about the wrongheaded banishment of humanities projects, people and groups from @theturing.bsky.social - what is AI if you don't think about its deployment and how it affects society, eh? Interdisciplinarity is key to building a better future. Pfffft to yer defence silos.

So @theturing.bsky.social has decided they no longer need Humanities (!) - so the The Alan Turing Institute’s Humanities and Data Science Interest Group are having one final event: "Network power: the humanities and data science in collaboration" In person and online, Oxford, 25th Sept. Pls share!

Job klaxon: full time, permanent lectureship in Liberal Arts at the University of Glasgow: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOM506/l...

Rice University is seeking to appoint a ✅Tenure-track ✅Assistant or Associate Prof of #MedicalHumanities 💻Specializing in narrative and/or digital humanities approaches to medicine & health in the 20th-21st centuries Apply by 31 Oct to work with this amazing group! apply.interfolio.com/172836

Reflecting on their work in the Copenhagen Centre for Health Research in the Humanities, Folker et al offer real insight into theory-building within and through the dynamics (& difficulties) of engaged critical medical humanities research link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Just out! Article with Elsher Lawson-Boyd on safe care and holding space with people who live with suicidality, and especially chronic suicidality. Message me if you don't have access. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Our lead researcher @aldersonday.bsky.social joins @jennykleeman.bsky.social and Emily Postan to talk about mental health and the use of digital technologies like AI for treatment. In this shifting landscape, what considerations and safeguards are needed to embed these treatments in the mainstream?

New from @durhamimh.bsky.social - the first @thereaderbank.bsky.social paper! We identify 4 factors in a new scale of reading imagery, the ReaderBank Imagination Quiz. Well done 1st author @georgiapunton.bsky.social & thanks to our partners at @edbookfest.bsky.social Cc @durhampsych.bsky.social

#Readerbank is back at @edbookfest.bsky.social! Excited to support our fantastic team, led by @aldersonday.bsky.social, run an invitation-only event for publishers, agents & writers. Professor in Practice @nickbarley.bsky.social begins with the big question: what happens in our minds when we read?

HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY TO US!! So excited for this to be out in the world! @annastenning.bsky.social @bergenmar.bsky.social @ainokash.bsky.social @alicehagopian.bsky.social and everyone not on BSky!

⏳ Don't forget that today is the last day that you can take part in our survey on the use of lived experience in research! If you're a researcher working in mental health, we'd love to hear your views...

How is subjective experience used in #mentalhealth research? We’re looking for researchers (especially neuroscientists, geneticists, big data scientists, and biomedical researchers, and non-UK researchers) to take part in a short survey, as part of the SUNRISE study. www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/774USE/

Academics! Have you worked in open plan environments? I'm curious to hear about your experiences & to understand more of the evidence base around how evolving space on campus can support the broader aims of interdisciplinary research teams. Insights, anecdotes, cautions, links gratefully received 🙏🏻

I love this

Today w dozens of colleagues, friends & strangers I stood in the sun outside a full crematorium to celebrate the life of Simon James www.simonjjamesfuneral.com Reserved though Britons typically are at funerals, Simon's invitation to wear bright colours & patterns licensed the joy love & wit to flow

For reasons I don’t fully understand the UK #AIDS quilt was displayed recently at @tatemodern.bsky.social for only three days. My friend and colleague @davidwoodhead.bsky.social writes in this incredible piece about his encounter there w materiality and/as memory thepolyphony.org/2025/07/02/q...