Mapping the Medical Legacies of British Colonialism

Reflecting on her recent fellowship at Art HX, researcher Shelley Angelie Saggar traces how objects and photographs recall the medical legacies of British colonialism, as well as her own family history.  

Read More

Nature’s Medicine: Could Green Prescribing Shape the Future of our Health?

Shauna Walker contextualises the UK government's recent investment in 'green social prescribing.'

Read More

From Menstruation to the Menopause: Book Review

Jemma Walton reviews From Menstruation to the Menopause: The Female Fertility Cycle in Contemporary Women’s Writing in French, by Maria Kathryn Tomlinson (Liverpool University Press, 2021).

Read More

Sensitive Subjects Pt. 2: Creative Practice and Ethics in Times of Loss

Olivia Turner reflects on the Sensitive Subjects: Creative Practice and Ethics workshop she organised at Newcastle University, turning to issues around bereavement and grief.

Read More

Recent Posts

A collage image of a kitchen showing a large window with flowing white curtains, shelves covered in crockery, a table with cooking bowls and a pan on it, and various cutout images of plates of food.

In the Zine House: The Kitchen

We explore zines that centre food in part four of Lea Cooper’s series about the study of zines in the medical humanities.

Pink triangle with pills inside against black background. Green text says "Silence = AIDS".

HIV/AIDS since the 1980s Conference

Co-organisers Nikolaos Papadogiannis and Rachel Love report back on the August 2022 conference on transnational and comparative histories of HIV/AIDS. The ‘Reactions to HIV/AIDS since the 1980s: Transnational and comparative history perspectives’ conference, which

Two Diabetes Cases in 1920s China

Xiao-Yang Gu explores the tension between two different diagnosis methods of diabetes in 1920s China and the consequent changes in the power dynamics in the clinical context.

A red and pink ribbon against a rainbow of colours and a quotation from Mother Jones to pray for the dead and fight for the living; with an advertisement by the Syracuse Cultural Workers.

Studying Persuasion in Health and Medical Contexts

Hillary A. Ash explains the importance of the study of rhetoric in the medical humanities as part of our ‘MedHums 101’ series.

Rock carving of four Chinese characters from antiquity

Narrative Medicine & Hospice Doulas in China

Nicole Xuan Chen and Xiao-lin Yang explore the importance of narrative medicine and hospice doula care for experiences of death and dying.

A collage image of a bathroom showing a sink, bath, striped wallpaper, a table covered with a flowery cloth piled with books, a candle and some flowers, flowery wall tiles, plus various items suggesting luxurious self-care. There is also an image of a covid test.

In the Zine House: The Bathroom

In Part Three of Lea Cooper’s series about zines in the medical humanities, we move from the living room to the bathroom, containing zines around (Self-)Care.

Revenge of the Real by Benjamin Bratton against a textured background

‘Revenge of the Real’: A Review

Des Fitzgerald reviews Revenge of the Real: Politics for a Post-Pandemic World by Benjamin Bratton (Verso, 2022). Since mid-2020, a small library’s worth of books on the Covid pandemic has appeared. We have had

A collage of a living room featuring cut outs of various pieces of living room furniture including a sofa, coffee table, four vases and two bookshelves.

In the Zine House: The Living Room

In part two of Lea Cooper’s series about zines in the medical humanities, we encounter zines about trauma and memory in the living room.

Copy of Wang Xizhi’s “Letter about Sandalwood and Walnuts” (“Zhan ji hu tao tie” 旃罽胡桃帖)

Illness Narratives in a Fourth-Century Chinese Correspondence

Antje Richter explores the illness narratives in the informal correspondences of Wang Xizhi, the most celebrated of Chinese calligraphers. This essay is adapted from her journal article "The Trouble with Wang Xizhi, Illness and Healing in a Fourth-Century Chinese Correspondence", co-written with Charles Chace and originally published in T'oung Pao.