CMH Archive
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.
Applicants should have achieved or be predicted at least high 2:1 in their undergraduate degree, which should be in a humanities or social science discipline. Applicants should indicate the disciplinary area they intend to study at masters level. Applications should include a two page summary of a proposed PhD project idea and should demonstrate clearly how this idea fits with the aims and research clusters of CMH. It would be helpful if candidates were also able to identify a potential supervisor from the staff of CMH. Successful applicants will be expected to use their Masters training to develop these ideas into an application for doctoral funding through the Durham Doctoral Scheme, Wellcome Trust, AHRC, ESRC or other source.
The Centre for Medical Humanities is a vibrant research centre which works across all three faculties of Durham University to explore the relationship between medicine and human flourishing. We are funded by the Wellcome Trust and employ full time staff in medicine, philosophy, English studies and geography. We also engage with a group of over 50 Affiliates from departments across the University and with external collaborators developing a diverse set of projects in the following research clusters:
- Imagination and creativity
- Practice and the practitioner
- Mind/Body/Affect
- Policy, politics and the collective
- Transfigurings
(for more information on CMH and on the research interests of our staff see our website: dur.ac.uk/cmh)
To apply:
Please send a letter of application and project idea to the CMH Administrator, Polly De Giorgi email: polly.degiorgi@durham.ac.uk
To discuss an application, please contact Professor Jane Macnaughton at 0191 334 7008.
Closing date: Friday 11th May 2012
Last Chance...
About Face
Durham Light Infantry Museum 5th May - 24th June 2012
Held in partnership with the Durham Light Infantry Museum Art Gallery this exhibition features 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. Running in conjunction with this exhibition the DLI has an exhibition of the work of award winning photographer Zed Nelson called 'Love Me' which complements the historical development of plastic surgery and the recover of 'beauty' in the Tonks' portraits by exploring a contemporary new form of globalisation in which an increasingly narrow Western beauty ideal is being exported around the world like a crude universal brand (a theme also explored by CMH's Sarah Atkinson link).
The last of three special evening events in connection with the exhibition will be held on Thursday 22nd June. Newcastle University's Anne Whitehead will be discussing 'The Face of War: Figuring Empathy in Pat Barker's Life Class'. The event will take place at the DLI and be followed by a wine reception. All are welcome.
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.
Smoking Interest Group
The Smoking Interest Group (SIG) was established at Durham in October 2010 and aims to use insights from the humanities and social sciences to develop a more nuanced understanding of the experience of smoking and the reality of smokers lives. SIG is located in the Centre for Medical Humanities at Durham University and is led by Professor Jane Macnaughton (School of Medicine and Health) and Dr. Andrew Russell (Anthropology Department).
To view the programme for SIG's recent Symposium please click on the image to the right.
Hearing the Voice
The ‘Hearing the Voice’ Workshop brought together a range of experts by profession and experience for a mutually enlightening examination of the phenomenon of voice-hearing, or auditory verbal hallucinations. Our starting point was a holistic view of voice-hearing which attempts to integrate scientific and humanities approaches to the phenomenon, and participants came from cognitive neuroscience, theology, literary studies, sociology, clinical psychology, philosophy, psychiatry and the medical humanities. We were also delighted to be joined by IAS Fellows Professor Marius Romme and Dr Sandra Escher, world-renowned experts on voice-hearing and founders of the international Intervoice network. This workshop was funded by the Wellcome Trust, the IAS as part of the University-wide “Futures” research programme, and the Centre for Medical Humanities.