Staff Profile

Professor Sarah Atkinson, BA Anthropology, MSc Human Nutrition, PhD Anthropology

Researcher ID profile

ORCID profile

Professor in the Department of Geography

Telephone: +44 (0) 191 33 41871

Fax: +44 (0) 191 33 41801

Room number: 408

(email at s.j.atkinson@durham.ac.uk)

Deputy Head of Faculty, Social Science and Health

Professor of Geography and Medical Humanities

Research Groups

Research Interests

Critical Medical Humanities
Spaces and practices of care of the body
Arts, health and wellbeing

Indicators of Esteem

2015: Invited key-note speaker at the International Workshop: Medical humanities: Exploring advantages and disadvantages in an emerging interdisciplinary field, University of Lund, Sweden. :
2014: Invited speaker: The rise of well-being in public health, WHO Copenhagen.:
2014: Invited member: WHO international steering group, the cultural determinants of wellbeing, WHO Copenhagen:
2014: Invited speaker, seminar series on Politics of Wellbeing:
2014: Invited speaker: History, humanities and global health, WHO Geneva.:
2014: Key-note speaker: Annual Conference of the Nordic Network for Health Research within Social Sciences (NNHSH), Helsinki, Finland:

Selected Publications

Journal Article

Coyle, L.A. & Atkinson, S. Imagined Futures in Living with Multiple Conditions: Positivity, Relationality and Hopelessness. Social Science and Medicine. 2018;198:53-60.
Stickley, T., Parr, H., Atkinson, S., Daykin, N., Clift, S., de Nora, T., Hacking, S., Camic, P.M., Joss, T., White, M. & Hogan, S.J. Arts, health & wellbeing: reflections on a national seminar series and building a UK research network. Arts & Health. 2017;9:14-25.
Atkinson, S., Evans, B., Woods, A. & Kearns, R. ‘The Medical’ and ‘health’ in a critical medical humanities. Journal of Medical Humanities. 2015;36:71-81.
Schwanen, T. & Atkinson, S. Geographies of wellbeing: an introduction. Geographical Journal. 2015;181:98-101.
Atkinson, S., Foley, R. & Parr, H. Introduction: Spatial Perspectives and Medical Humanities. Journal of Medical Humanities. 2015;36:1-4.
Atkinson, S.J. & Scott, K.E. Stable and destabilised states of subjective wellbeing: dance and movement as catalysts of transition. Social and Cultural Geography. 2015;16:75-94.
Atkinson, S. Beyond components of wellbeing: the effects of relational and situated assemblage. Topoi. 2013;32:137-144.
Atkinson, S. & White, M. Beyond the Local Agenda: International Perspectives in Community-based Arts and Health (Editorial for Special Issue of six papers). Arts & Health. 2013;5:175-176.
White, M. Atkinson, S. & Meagher, M. Eds. International perspectives on the development of research-guided practice in community-based arts in health. Special Issue of eleven papers and an overview. UNESCO observatory e-journal. 2013;3.
Atkinson, S. & Rubidge, T. Managing the spatialities of arts-based practices with school children: an inter-disciplinary exploration of engagement, movement and well-being. Arts & Health. 2013;5:39-50.
Medeiros, R.L.M. & Atkinson, S. Performance of the local health system and contingent influences in Northeast-Brazil: breaking vicious and virtuous circles. Ciência e Saúde Coletiva. 2013;18:3431-3442.
Atkinson, S. & Robson, M. Arts and health as a practice of liminality: managing the spaces of transformation for social and emotional wellbeing with primary school children. Health & Place. 2012;18:1348-1355.
Swan, P.J. & Atkinson, S. Managing evaluation: a community arts organisation's perspective. Arts & Health. 2012;4:217-229.
Atkinson, S. & Rubinelli, S. Narrative in cancer research and policy: voice, knowledge and context. Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology. 2012;84:S11-S16.
Atkinson, S., Lawson, V. & Wiles, J. Care of the body: spaces of practice. Social and Cultural Geography. 2011;12:563-572.
Atkinson, S. Moves to measure wellbeing must support a social model of health. British Medical Journal. 2011;343:d7323
Atkinson, S. Scales of Care and Responsibility: debating the surgically globalised body. Social and Cultural Geography. 2011;12:623-637.
Atkinson, S. & Joyce, K.E. The place and practices of wellbeing in local governance. Environment and Planning C. 2011;29:133-148.
Atkinson, S, Macnaughton, J, Saunders, C & Evans, M Cool Intimacies of Care for Contemporary Clinical Practice. The Lancet. 2010;376:1732-1733.
Atkinson, S. & Ayers, A. The Potential of the Internet for Alternative Caring Practices for Health. Anthropology and Medicine. 2010;17:75-86.
Atkinson, S. & Medeiros, R. Explanatory models of influences on the construction and expression of user satisfaction. Social Science and Medicine. 2009;68:2089-2096.

Chapter in book

Atkinson, S. Mixing and fixing: managing and imagining the body in a global world. In: Herrick, C. & Reubi, D. Global health and Geographical Imaginaries. London: Routledge; 2017:54-71.
Atkinson, S. Care, kidneys and clones: the distance of space, time and imagination. In: Whitehead, A., Woods, A., Atkinson, S., Macnaughton, J. & Richards, J. The Edinburgh Companion to the Critical Medical Humanities. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press; 2016:611-626.
Atkinson, S. Health and Wellbeing. In: Richardson, D., Castree, N., Goodchild, M., Weidong, L., Kobayashi, A. & Marston, R. The International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technology. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell/AAG; 2016.
Atkinson, S & Vaguet, A. La Mondialisation à la Loupe des Géographes de la Santé. In: Fleuret, S. & Hoyez, A. Santé et Géographie: Nouveaux Regards. Economica, Paris; 2011:15-37.

Edited book

Whitehead, A., Woods, A., Atkinson, S., Macnaughton, J. & Richards, J. The Edinburgh Companion to the Critical Medical Humanities. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press; 2016.
Atkinson, S., Fuller, S. & Painter, J. Wellbeing and place. Farnham: Ashgate; 2012.