Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities
Title of project:
Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities
Name and institution of principle investigators:
Dr. Gavin Miller, University of Glasgow
Names and institutions of co-investigators/ collaborators:
n/a
Funding sources:
The Wellcome Trust (Seed Award)
Summary of research:
The project investigates the significance of science fiction for the medical humanities, and is intended to pathfind for a future, large-scale research project.
Science fiction isn’t confined to novels, short stories, and cinema; it also gives us a style and substance for our visions of medical progress. This project doesn’t investigate only the familiar genre elements of narrative fiction, cinema and TV. It also explores the so-called ‘technoscientific imaginary’, and its imagining of future possibilities enabled by biomedical progress.
The project’s activities include:
A series of themed workshops, and a concluding conference, consolidating a network of interested researchers, clinicians, and writers.
An online database of primary and secondary resources to aid future research.
A themed special issue of BMJ Medical Humanities on ‘Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities’
A creative writing competition, with successful entrants appearing in a competition anthology.
Project website/webpage:
http://scifimedhums.glasgow.
Anticipated time frame of project:
September 2015 to August 2016
Anticipated audiences:
Those involved in the medical humanities, literary studies, bioethics, science studies and film studies.
Would be interested in hearing from…
Academics, clinicians, creative writers
Tagged as:
science fiction, technoscience