Reading Closely: Bodies and Environments
Anna Ovaska and Kaisa Kortekallio examine the ways close reading can be used as a method for approaching vulnerable bodies and environments.
SELMA Medical Humanities: “Narratives of Illness” and “Indigenous Narratives of Health”
Marta-Laura Cenedese and Avril Tynan, convenors of the SELMA Medical Humanities Seminar Series at the University of Turku, Finland, reflect on the first season of the series, “Narratives of Illness”, and look ahead to a second season on “Indigenous Narratives of Healthcare”.
‘Biofictions’: Book Review
Can the study of human genetics authoritatively address the subject of race? James Hearing reviews Josie Gill’s new book Biofictions, which won the 2020 British Society for Literature and Science book prize.
Following the Evidence
Gill Partington revisits the collective process of indexing evidence at a recent workshop series. Following the Evidence is a seminar series which has been running during the month of July 2021. The events explored
‘Vaccinating Britain’: Book Review
Georgia Haire reviews Vaccinating Britain: Mass vaccination and the public since the Second World War (Manchester University Press, 2019) by Gareth Millward. Throughout the post-war period, the British public actively accepted, even demanded, vaccines
Review of Jasper Gibson’s “The Octopus Man”
Robyn Thomas reviews Jasper Gibson’s The Octopus Man We are all by now familiar with the three act structure: man is healthy, man becomes mentally ill, man recovers and lives stably ever after. While such
‘Indigenous Bodies, Cells, and Genes’: Book Review
Anna Kemball reviews Joanna Ziarkowska’s Indigenous Bodies, Cells, and Genes: Biomedicalization and Embodied Resistance in Native American Literature (Routledge, 2020). In Indigenous Bodies, Cells, and Genes, Joanna Ziarkowska maps how biomedicine has reshaped and
Shouting Above the Noise: Autistic Life Writing and the Interdisciplinary Autism Research Festival
In this post, Anna Stenning demonstrates how life writing by autistic authors contributes to medical and cultural framings of autism. She also introduces the Interdisciplinary Autism Research Festival, which will take place in May 2021.
On dreaming and narrative sensemaking
This post by Richard Walsh is the fourth in a one-week takeover (Nov 30 – Dec 5 2020) of The Polyphony by Threshold Worlds, an interdisciplinary project exploring the nexus between dreams, narrative and liminal cognition.
Perspectives on Child Loss: Two Case Studies from Eighteenth Century Midwives
Rebecca Simpson offers an alternative perspective on stillbirth and infant-loss, focussing on the writings of two eighteenth century midwives. This is one of a series of essays addressing miscarriage, prematurity, stillbirth and neonatal loss, published by The Polyphony to coincide with Baby Loss Awareness week, which runs 9-15 October every year.