Coming Up...

About Face

Durham Light Infantry Museum 5th May - 24th June 2012

We are pleased to announce the opening of an exhibition, 'About Face', held in partnership with the Durham Light Infantry Museum Art Gallery from the 5^th May -24^th June 2012. The exhibition will feature a display of works by the surgeon artist Henry Tonks. Tonks (1862 - 1937) was a qualified surgeon and an artist, practising and teaching medicine but also producing artistic work and teaching at the Slade School of Fine Art, where he was Professor of Drawing. During the First World War, he initially joined the Royal Army Medical Corps but then, from April 1916, worked with Dr Harold Gillies at his plastic surgery unit at the Cambridge Hospital, Aldershot. This work then moved to a specially dedicated unit at the Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup, where Gillies and his team developed pioneering approaches to facial injuries sustained by soldiers at the front. The pastel drawings by Tonks in this exhibition date from this period and starkly document and illustrate these facial injuries and the progress of surgical interventions. Tonks' drawings not only serve as a record of the physical injuries and subsequent medical interventions but, by crossing into the field of portraiture, highlight some of the personal and emotional cost of these wounds and reveal Tonks' skill as an artist. This is the largest loan of his works from the Royal College of Surgeons to date.

There will be three special evening events in connection with the exhibition:

Thursday 10th May A reading by the novelist Pat Barker from her new novel about Henry Tonks

Wednesday 30th May 'Portraiture and Suffering', Ludmilla Jordanova, Professor of Modern History, Kings College, London

Thursday 21st June 'The Face of War: Figuring Empathy in Pat Barker's Life Class',Anne Whitehead, Newcastle University

These events will take place at the DLI and be followed by a wine reception. All are welcome.

MA/MSc Studentships in the Centre for Medical Humanities

Durham University Centre for Medical Humanities wishes to recruit high calibre students for two funded taught MA/MSc studentships in the academic year 2012-13. The studentships are fully funded including a stipend of £12,040 and fees of £5,600. The aim of these studentships is to recruit graduates who intend to pursue doctoral study at Durham in a field related to interdisciplinary medical humanities. We wish to invest in talented undergraduates, providing appropriate training and a secure basis for successful doctoral study. The funding for the studentships is held within the School of Medicine and Health, but the degrees can be taken in any relevant department, particularly Philosophy, English Studies, Geography or Anthropology.

For further details about this opportunity please click here

3 x Professors/Readers in The Engaged Humanities

The Engaged Humanities There are several leading examples at Durham of trans-disciplinary engagement where research in the humanities has the potential to impact upon and transform practice in the social sciences and sciences. Durham University is seeking to appoint three Professors/Readers to build additional critical mass in these critical areas, linked directly with the work of either the Centre for Medical Humanities (CMH) or Narratives, Nature & Society (NNS) and the wider intellectual agenda. Appointees can be in any relevant Department (English, History, Theology, Modern Language and Cultures, Classics or Philosophy)

( Professors/Readers in Medical Humanities: this has been an area of increasing prominence with Durham playing a leading role nationally and internationally through the CMH. The centre has significant funding through the Wellcome Trust. As an example of these activities, the CMH has recently undertaken a major appraisal of historical, theological, literary, social and psychological approaches to voice hearing. Another example, enabled by the University's interdisciplinary Wolfson Institute for Health and Wellbeing, is "Belief, Health and Wellbeing". A strategic area of interest is that of the "critical medical humanities" (e.g critical neuroscience, critical public health).

(b) Professors/Readers in Narratives, Nature and Society (NNS) employs philosophical, anthropological, social and theological methods to understand and inform rhetorics and policy around science and technology. Internationally leading studies of social narratives and understanding of nanotechnology, geo-engineering and genetic modification furnish exemplars.

For further information and to make an application please visit the Durham University Vacancies Page.

The Association for Medical Humanities 2012 Conference

The 2012 conference of the Association for Medical Humanities will take place from July 9th - 11th at University College Cork, Ireland.  The conference theme is 'Medical Identities: patients and professionals'.  For more information on the conference please download the flyer here. 

2012 marks the 10^th Anniversary of the founding of the Association for Medical Humanities. To mark the occasion, the AMH is inaugurating the '10^th Anniversary Prize' for the best essay or essays submitted on any aspect of Medical Humanities.  For further information on the competition and how to enter please click here.