Congratulations to @drfijohnstone.bsky.social & colleagues! 📕🎉 @durhamimh.bsky.social @languagesdurham.bsky.social #TransformativeHumanities

Facilitating the Queer Methodologies in Medical Humanities PhD School with David Woodhead was one of my highlights on 2025. I was so impressed by the students' commitment to doing this important work - have a look at the collection, and I am sure you will be too!

Thrilled to finally be holding a physical copy of Art and the Critical Medical Humanities 📘 Co-edited with Allison Morehead and Imogen Wiltshire, this book has been a true labour of love.

RETHINKING RIGOUR: a two-day symposium on creative-critical research in medical humanities organised by the NNMHR. Explore method, assessment, and new possibilities for scholar-practitioners. 🗓️ Dec 4–5, Durham + online 🎟️ Free via Eventbrite: nnmh.org.uk/rethinking-r...

10 days until the #CFP deadline for the online workshop *Object Stories in Health and Medicine 1700-1900*. We invite proposals for 15-minute talks on a single object related to health or medicine during the 18th & 19th centuries #histmed #histpsych #medhums www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/objec...

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...

Delighted to welcome the University of Stirling and @npapadogian.bsky.social to the Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research Steering Group. We're looking forward to collaborating with you and your colleagues! nnmh.org.uk/university-o...

CfP for an online workshop on Object Stories in Health and Medicine, 1700-1900 @annafranjam.bsky.social and I can't wait to hear about your objects!

Extremely pleased to be joining @durhamimh.bsky.social's Visual & Material Lab in Sept to explore materialities of reproductive healthcare, specifically around donor conception - can't wait to get started!

Proofs! (always good to receive book proofs a few hours before going on annual leave...)

"The quilt offers us a way to think. It is, somehow, a kind of methodology." @davidwoodhead.bsky.social gives a moving & thought-provoking account of (re)visiting the UK AIDS Quilt, on display @tate.bsky.social last month. thepolyphony.org/2025/07/02/q...

Two postdoc positions are available on the Wellcome-funded project "Between Deception and Dissent: regulating unproven, disproven and misleading health-related claims". www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs/118725-...

Having an end-of-term office clean out and have discovered two spare editors’ copies of Anti-Portraiture (2020). Would be very happy to post them to good homes, if there are any takers on here? www.bloomsbury.com/uk/antiportr...

Gutted that I can't be at RAP2025 at The Clark in Massachusetts as originally planned today. I was invited to speak on a panel on "Case Histories" convened by Suzanne Hudson and Victoria Papa, but have sadly been unable to fly out due to circs beyond my control. www.clarkart.edu/research-aca...

Great day today at our Critical Neurodiversity Studies Conference! Highlights included a keynote from Lisa Johnson and Liorah Hoek & Sanne van Driel’s workshop on what understanding experiences of plural identities can bring to critical neurodiversity studies. The Sensory Den was also a real hit!

Are you working in #VisualMedicalHumanities with a specific focus on art, anatomy and medicine? The BMJ Medical Humanities has just released this CFP for articles on "visuality in medical practice and history". Looking forward to seeing how this moves the field forward! mh.bmj.com/pages/topic-...

This week we're profiling our new Medical Humanities in Practice Research Fellows. First up it's a written interview with Estelle Verdi about her research on Muslim women's experiences of baby loss. medhumsplatform.org/introducing-...

Continuing our interviews with the new Medical Humanities in Practice Research Fellows, today we catch up with Phil Samba. Read on to find out about Phil's research on the barriers and opportunities of long acting injectable PrEP for Black Queer Men. medhumsplatform.org/introducing-...

An appropriately gothic setting for the “Blood, Myth and Media” symposium today at Liverpool John Moores, convened by @beehughes.bsky.social and Stella Gaynor. Some great interdisciplinary papers on blood in horror, health, forensics, fashion and more.

Today!

I'm excited to have had a paper accepted for the Artefacts conference (assoc of STEM and medicine museums) in Oslo in Oct. I'll be talking about object attachment & extreme repair in relation to this curious object, a prosthetic leg in the @sciencemuseum.org.uk collections. [more in thread]

Such a pleasure to present on how creativity is central to the work of @durhamimh.bsky.social at "Creativity in Research" hosted by South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust yesterday. A great day with some fascinating reflections on what 'creativity' signifies in an NHS context.

Really delighted to share this paper drawing on data from my PhD to explore the relation between care, texts, & self-harm. Particularly, I draw out how my participants engaged in active, creative, & relational viewing/reading practices to enable care for self-harm: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

If you're an ECR and interested in ethics, photography, zines, medicine and creativity in general, this event organised by The Ethics of Medical Photography is for you! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/exposing-t... 11 June at Wellcome Collection, FREE!!!

London based? This Birkbeck event on Lived Experience Writing and Medical Humanities on 17th June looks really excellent: www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...

This is an urgent and incisive post by my wonderful friend and colleague @kacheston.bsky.social, who writes bravely and convincingly about ME/CFS and about the flawed Opinion piece, regrettably published by the BMJ - please do read and share Katharine’s response

Registrations now open for the 2025 NNMHR Congress! Come together online w/ researchers & practitioners from across the globe to explore questions of language & translation in #medhums. 💡 TONGUES: Medical Humanities Across Linguistic & Cultural Frontiers 🗓️ 21-23 May 📍 Online 🔗 nnmh.org.uk/tongues/

In a gloriously sunny Amsterdam for Creative-Critical Approaches to the Health Humanities, organised by Hannah van Hove (Vrije Universiteit Brussel). Programme here: perdu.nl/en/agenda/52...

What a great @aahmhistmed.bsky.social conf! Highlights for me include seeing my @urochestersmd.bsky.social student Bella present her poster, sharing a panel w/ two brilliant art historians (Mary Hunter and @drfijohnstone.bsky.social), and seeing the galley prints of my monograph at the book exhibit!

6 days left to apply for a PDRF in Visual & Material Medical Humanities @durhamimh.bsky.social. Post-holders will conduct a programme of their own research & work collaboratively across the Lab & Platform to take the field in exciting new directions: medhumsplatform.org/were-hiring-...

10 days left to apply for a Bridging Fellowship in Medical Humanities! Find out more about all the job opportunities in the Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities here medhumsplatform.org/work-with-us/

Is anyone able to share their experiences of using epigraphs in academic texts? I'm trying to use a quote by Roland Barthes as an epigraph for a text on photography (that is, unsurprisingly, influenced by Barthes); the publisher is telling me this falls outside 'fair use' and is not permissible.

Art and the Critical Medical Humanities is almost out in the world! Edited by me, Allison Morehead & Imogen Wilshire, & with over 45 contributors, 29 chapters in a variety of formats, and 50 images, this will be available open access from Bloomsbury in December. www.bloomsbury.com/uk/art-and-t...

We are recruiting! 3 Bridging Fellowships of 12 months for recent PhD graduates to develop research, ideas and connections in the @durhamimh.bsky.social Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities. Applications close 25 April durham.taleo.net/careersectio... Please share widely!

Come and work with us! We're seeking 2 x Postdoctoral Research Associates in Visual and Material Medical Humanities. Applications close: 28 April 2025. The 36 month full-time posts will be based in The Visual & Material Lab led by @drfijohnstone.bsky.social Find out more about & apply!

Come and work with me! We are recruiting for 2 x postdocs in Visual and Material Medical Humanities to work with the Lab and on their own projects. We welcome applications from a wide range of disciples; click on link for further details.

The #RatsOfConfluence delighted to sample the zines made by students and tutors of the Queer Methodologies in Medical Humanities PhD School

Back in September 2024, members of @durhamimh.bsky.social travelled to Uppsala for a workshop on curating medical heritage in relation to pressing questions of indigeneity & reconciliation. The workshop was supported by seed funding from @matarikinetwork.bsky.social. Read the full report here!

It was great to run with @sagebrice.bsky.social a workshop on Graphic Research Methods and Queer Medical Humanities! I have learnt so much from the discussion! Many thanks to @durhamimh.bsky.social for making this event a safe space to address sensitive issues.

Looking forward to running today’s workshop on Graphic Research Methods with @npapadogian.bsky.social for the @durhamimh.bsky.social Queer Methodologies PhD School @geogdurham.bsky.social

I've had such a gorgeous time with the amazing radical researchers at @durhamimh.bsky.social Queer Methodologies PhD School. The last few days have been energising, validating, and comforting ❤️

Thrilled to have been participating in @durhamimh.bsky.social ‘Queer Methodologies’ PhD School this week! Some wonderful discussion about queerness in the academy and some great fun experimenting with different methods.

It was a such privilege to have been involved in delivering this PhD School. I was blown away by the students' willingness to be present and open to others participating in the School, and by their passion and dedication to their research. Heartfelt thanks to all who joined & supported us.

What are bodies doing when they are slow or still, and how does that intersect with public health discourse around sedentarism? Fascinating event in Durham on 28th March, organised by @cassie-phoenix.bsky.social and Emily Tupper: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/slowing-st...

‘How can a researcher, when they are part of an institution that is only beginning to embrace interdisciplinary approaches, ensure their work in the medical humanities is interdisciplinary & authentically collaborative?' Some fascinating reflections from Dr. Anastasia Ebele Ugwuanyi:

Dr. Anastasia Ebele Ugwuanyi reflects on her experience at Durham University's Medical Humanities International Summer School for PhD researchers, in collaboration with Linköping University, Sweden, in September 2024. thepolyphony.org/2025/01/29/c...

To all my friends and fellow bluesky thinkers - follow The Polyphony. It's fecking fantastic - accessible, thoughtful, informative, joyous. @literarti.bsky.social @profgillian.bsky.social @jessjallen.bsky.social @drmariad.bsky.social

In London this weekend? Don't miss the "Fertility Fortunes" (Mis)Conceptions exhibition, showcasing art by Anna Burel exploring fertility health, including the Tarot cards photographed here. There's a brilliant programme of events over the next few days: www.misconceptionsproject.org/exhibition

Hello Bluesky! Excited to be co-convening this brilliant event on how contemporary arts practices engage with expert cultures in health and biomedicine. Durham University, 20th February. Free, booking via Eventbrite medhumsplatform.org/event/materi...