EncodingDecoding: a response
Poet Jane Hartshorn responds to Darian Goldin Stahl’s artist book EncodingDecoding.
Desiring Objects
Chase Ledin explores the promises, fantasies and social values inscribed in the sexual objects held by Wellcome Collection.
Set Menu (His and Hers)
Artist Dawn Woolley finds inspiration in the work of Audrey Amiss, held by Wellcome Library.
Presence, absence, and a pocket midwifery guide
Why remove the illustrations from a nineteenth century midwifery manual? What might this tell us about how researchers negotiate presence, absence and access in libraries, archives and collections? Rebecca Whiteley, Shreeve Fellow in the History of Medicine at the John Rylands Research Institute, University of Manchester, explores a material history of absence.
In praise of touching
Why is working with museum objects so appealing to researchers? asks Kristin D. Hussey, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Medical Museion, University of Copenhagen.
‘The same day repeating itself’: COVID-19, Time, and Illness Perception
In this essay exploring parallels and distinctions between ‘COVID-19 time’ and ‘tuberculosis time’, Madeline Potter explores the resonances between the temporality of illness and that of lockdown, as well as reflecting on the impact of prolonged
Sculpting Anxious Bodies
How is the relationship between private illness and public spectacle negotiated within the context of contemporary art? Poet Alice Hill Woods and artist Emelia Kerr Beale explore how fine art practices can reshape our engagement with, and understanding of, mental health issues.
Epidemic Encephalitis in the Archive
Kate McAlly discusses her historical approach to a collection of letters written in the 1930s by a patient to her doctor about her chronic illness, epidemic encephalitis. Thinking through how to ethically engage with this material, Mcally analyses the concepts of experience, encounter, exclusion and emotion, and their roles in archival research.
Why Nightingale?
Why Nightingale? Ashleigh Blackwood, Leverhulme Research Fellow in English Literature at Northumbria University, suggests that women’s medical history might help us understand the inequalities revealed by the current health crisis.
On Plague and Pregnancy: Sara Read discusses her debut novel ‘The Gossips’ Choice’
In this post, associate editor Katrina Longhurst asks Sara Read about her debut novel, The Gossips’ Choice, and her experiences of writing fiction based on her research of Early Modern reproductive health.