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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, CMH currently supports two large-scale interdisciplinary research projects, Hearing the Voice and Life of Breath, funded by the Wellcome Trust, and has recently completed a third, Hubbub. 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 interests and contact them directly.

Hearing the Voice

Hubbub

Life of Breath

Wandering Minds

News and events:

News

Life of Breath at the Edinburgh Book Festival

The Life of Breath team will be involved in "Taking the Air", a series of events investigating ideas around breath and air, including sighing, singing, poetry, air quality and taking our last breath. Events feature a range of authors including Sam Kean, Imtiaz Dharker, Michael Symmons Roberts and Havi Carel. Read more.

The Restless Compendium

A publication by Hubbub is now available. This interdisciplinary book contains 22 essays and interventions on rest and restlessness, silence and noise, relaxation and work. Read more.

Research Highlights

Edinburgh Companion to the Critical Medical Humanities

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.

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

NNMHR Inaugural Congress

All places for the first research congress of NNMHR, at Van Mildert College on 14-15 Sept, have been taken, so please note registration for this event has now closed. Read more.

Collaboration in the Critical Medical Humanities - Intensive workshop for ECRs

Please note: the deadline for applications from early/mid career researchers for this workshop in Durham (11-13 September) has now passed. 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