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Centre for Medical Humanities

  • About CMH

    About CMH

  • Research

    Research

    • Hearing the Voice

      ‘Hearing the Voice’ continues innovative work in exploring the experience of voice hearing through unique insights from the humanities and social sciences.

    • Hubbub

      Hubbub aims to explore the dynamics of rest, noise, tumult, activity and work, as they operate in mental health, neuroscience, the arts and the everyday.

    • Life of Breath

      Studying the unexplored richness of breath in culture and then bringing this richness to the clinic.

    • New Generations

      Interdisciplinary skills development for medical humanities

    • Wandering Minds

      Mind wandering is today positioned as key to understanding many aspects of human cognition and psychological wellbeing.

    • What Works Centre for Wellbeing

      Sarah Atkinson leads the Durham partnership.

  • Resources

    Resources

Welcome to the Centre for Medical Humanities

The critical medical humanities explores the entanglement of science with humanities and social science, situating the social, cultural and political problematics of health within a long cultural perspective. Durham’s Centre for Medical Humanities (CMH) is at the forefront of this field. Founded in 2000, the CMH supports three large-scale interdisciplinary research projects - Hearing the Voice, Life of Breath, and Hubbub - funded by the Wellcome Trust. Our work draws on a vibrant cross-faculty community of established and emerging researchers, and a strong network of partners beyond the academy, including the World Health Organisation, the Medical Royal Colleges, NHS Trusts, health charities, service users, activist groups, arts in health practitioners, and national arts organisations.

We welcome inquiries from postgraduate students interested in the Medical Humanities. Please visit the profiles of our Academic Staff for research interest and contact them directly.

Hearing the Voice

Hubbub

Life of Breath

Wandering Minds

News and events:

News

Hubbub's Rest Test results revealed!

Our colleagues and their research at Hubbub are highlighted in a post by Durham University following the unveiling of the rest test results during BBC Radio 4’s programme The Anatomy of Rest. Read More.

The Restless Compendium

Hubbub's forthcoming publication will be launched on Thursday 29th September, 18.00-21.00 at Mile End Art Pavilion in London. This interdisciplinary book contains 22 essays and interventions on rest and restlessness, silence and noise, relaxation and work. Read more.

Edinburgh Companion to the Critical Medical Humanities - out now!

This new volume is co-edited by members of CMH's directorial team, and prominently features research by a number of CMH colleagues and affiliates. Read more.

Research Highlights

Feelings of Presence: A Survey

Hearing the Voice is conducting a survey on felt presences. Participate today! Read more.

CMH/WRI Small Grants Awards

CMH has been delighted to make four awards this year. Details of the research that was funded, including a post-award report from Andrew Russell and Megan Wainwright from this year's WHO annual World Health Assembly, are available here.Read more.

Wandering Minds - a new Medical Humanities funded research project

Congratulations to the team for being awarded funding for the 'Wandering Minds: Interdisciplinary Experiments on Self-Generated Thought' project. Read More.

Events

Rest and its Discontents: free Hubbub exhibition

This exhibition draws on Hubbub’s research during its two-year residency, led by Durham University, at Wellcome Collection in London. It explores the art, science and culture of rest, stress, noise and mind-wandering. It runs from 30 September - 30 October 2016 at Mile End Art Pavilion. Read more.

Hubbub's "The Anatomy of Rest" - BBC R4 3-part broadcast

Hubbub’s interdisciplinary research on rest has been brought together in a three-part series -“The Anatomy of Rest” - on BBC Radio 4. The episodes were aired on 13, 20 and 27 September and are available through BBC iPlayer. The programmes are presented by Hubbub Associate Director Claudia Hammond, and feature Hubbub Director Felicity Callard, Associate Directors Charles Fernyhough and James Wilkes and several other collaborators. Read more.

Contact Details

Centre for Medical Humanities
Caedmon Building
Leazes Road
Durham
DH1 1SZ

Tel: +44 (0)191 33 48277
Email: mail.cmh@durham.ac.uk