CMH New Generations

Title of project:

Centre for Medical Humanities New Generations

 

Name and institution of principle investigators:

Professor Jane Macnaughton, Durham University

 

Names and institutions of co investigators/collaborators:

Northern Network Steering Group:

Dr Bethan Evans, University of Liverpool

Dr Alice Hall, University of York

Dr Gavin Miller, University of Glasgow

Professor Stuart Murray, University of Leeds

Professor Ian Sabroe, University of Sheffield

Dr Anne Whitehead, Newcastle University

Dr Angela Woods, Newcastle University

Kings College Centre for Humanities and Health

Colleagues at the Wellcome Trust

 
Funding sources:

The AHRC

 

Summary of research:

Durham University’s Centre for Medical Humanities, in collaboration with the Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research and the Wellcome Trust has set up the New Generations Programme to address an issue surfacing in the medical humanities. Emerging humanities researchers are increasingly engaging with interdisciplinary research but lack contexts in which to learn about and experience how it is done. Supported by a Collaborative Skills Development grant from the AHRC, this unique programme aims to deliver an exciting and innovative skills development package to a group of doctoral students and early career researchers in the medical humanities while facilitating the development of a supportive, interdisciplinary peer group. Additionally, the programme will create career development opportunities by enabling interaction between participants and staff in key centres of the medical humanities while engaging in discussions on the full range of medical humanities career options.

 
Project website/webpage:

https://www.dur.ac.uk/cmh/newgenerations/

 

Anticipated time frame of project:

August 2014 – September 2015

 

Anticipated audiences:

Medical humanities researchers, medical humanities academics

 

Tagged as: 

medical humanities, interdisciplinary research, skills development, career development, early career researchers, doctoral students

 

Interested in hearing from:

Medical humanities institutions and centres

 

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Posted on 22 Apr 2015, under Projects.

Hubbub

Title of project:

Hubbub (at The Hub at The Wellcome Collection)

 

Name and institution of principle investigators:

Dr Felicity Callard, Durham University

 

Names and institutions of co investigators/collaborators:

Professor Charles Fernyhough, Durham University

Ms Claudia Hammond, freelance

Dr Daniel Margulies, Max Planck Institute for Human, Cognitive & Brain Sciences

Dr James Wilkes, Durham University
Funding sources:

The Wellcome Trust

 

Summary of research:

Hubbub is an international team of scientists, humanists, artists, clinicians, public health experts, broadcasters and public engagement professionals. We explore the dynamics of rest, noise, tumult, activity and work, as they operate in mental health, neuroscience, the arts and the everyday. We are based in London as the first residents of The Hub at Wellcome Collection from October 2014 to July 2016.

Our interdisciplinary project was awarded a £1m grant by the Wellcome Trust. The grant-holding institution is Durham University, and the project also draws on the resources of The Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, and the University of York.

The Hub at Wellcome Collection is an exciting new space that will provide resources and a stimulating space for researchers and other creative minds to collaborate on a project that will explore medicine in historical and cultural contexts. The Hub will make a central contribution to the Trust’s vision of improving human and animal health and be a flagship interdisciplinary environment that nurtures this approach.

 
Project website/webpage:

http://hubbubgroup.org/

 

Anticipated time frame of project:

We are residents of The Hub until end of July 2016

 

Anticipated audiences:

Humanities researchers, social scientists, artists, cognitive neuroscientists, members of the public interested in questions of rest, work, noise, tumult, employees of The Wellcome Trust

 

Tagged as: 

rest, noise, work, interdisciplinary

 

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Posted on 17 Apr 2015, under Projects.

Metaphor in End of Life Care

Title of project:

Metaphor in End of Care Life

 

Name and institution of principle investigators:

Professor Elena Semino, Lancaster University

 

Names and institutions of co investigators/collaborators:

Dr Andrew Hardie, Lancaster University

Dr Veronika Koller,Lancaster University

Professor Sheila Payne, Lancaster University

Dr Paul Rayson, Lancaster University

 

Funding sources:

The Economic and Social Research Council

 

Summary of research:

The aim of this project is to investigate the use of metaphor in the experience of end of life care in the UK. We have studied the metaphors used by members of different stakeholder groups (patients, unpaid family carers and healthcare professionals) in a 1.5-million-word corpus consisting of interviews and contributions to online forums. We have addressed the following research questions:

A. How do members of different stakeholders groups (health professionals, patients and unpaid family carers) use metaphor to talk about their experiences, attitudes and expectations of end-of-life care (e.g. palliative treatment, preparations for dying, etc.)?
B. What does the use of metaphor by these stakeholder groups suggest about (a) the experiences and needs of the members of these groups and their mutual relationships, and (b) the nature of metaphor as a linguistic and cognitive phenomenon?

The method we have employed to identify and analyse metaphor in our data is both qualitative and quantitative. Our approach includes the exploitation of an online semantic annotation tool developed by a member of the team, which has enabled us to identify metaphorical expressions more systematically than is possible with other methods for the study of metaphor in large data sets.
Project website/webpage:

http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/melc/index.php

 

Anticipated time frame of project:

2012 – 2014

 

Anticipated audiences:

Linguists, healthcare professionals, charities.

 

Tagged as: 

metaphor, cancer, end of life

 

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Posted on , under Projects.

The Life of Breath

 

Title of project:

The Life of Breath

 

Name and institution of principle investigators:

Professor Jane Macnaughton, Durham University and Professor Havi Carel, University of Bristol

 

Names and institutions of co investigators/collaborators:

Literary/cultural studies (Prof Corinne Saunders, Durham University)

Medical history: Dr Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim (medical historian, Goldsmiths); Prof Tim Cole (history, Bristol)

Medical Anthropology: Dr Andrew Russell (Durham University) Dr Alice Malpass (University of Bristol)

Respiratory clinicians (Prof Ann Millar and Dr Nick Maskell, Academic Respiratory Unit, University of Bristol)

Respiratory neuroscientist: Dr James Dodd (University of Bristol)

Expert interdisciplinary facilitator and arts in health specialist (Mary Robson, Durham)

Patient representation: Bev Wears, Justin Parsons (British Lung Foundation Breathe Easy Groups).

Design and public engagement: Dr David Swann (expert in healthcare design and service transformation, University of Huddersfield).

Primary care research in COPD: Dr Veronika Williams (University of Oxford).

 

Funding sources:

Wellcome Trust Joint Senior Investigator Award

 

Summary of research:

The ‘Life of Breath’ programme (http://www.lifeofbreath.org/) aims to achieve the fullest possible understanding of breath, breathing and breathlessness by drawing on both biomedical information and on cultural, literary, historical and phenomenological research. Our goal is to use an innovative, medical humanities approach to enhance understanding of breathlessness in healthcare contexts and the effectiveness of interventions in diseases such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in which breathlessness is a key symptom. The programme involves researchers in a range of faculties and departments at Durham University and the University of Bristol, along with clinicians and experts-by-experience.
Project website/webpage:

http://www.lifeofbreath.org/

 

Anticipated time frame of project:

5 years : 2015-2019

 

Anticipated audiences:

Medical humanities scholars, literary/cultural scholars of the body, medical anthropologists, clinicians working in respiratory medicine, patients/carers.

 

Tagged as: 

Interdisciplinarity, medical humanities, breath, breathing, breathlessness.

 

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Posted on 13 Apr 2015, under Projects.