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

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

Research Groups

• Geographies of Life

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

• Atkinson, Sarah Commentary: Wellbeing, Space and Society. Wellbeing, Space and Society. 2021;1:100015.
• Atkinson, S., Bagnall, A-M., Corcoran, R., South, J. & Curtis, S. Being well together: individual subjective and community wellbeing. Journal of Happiness Studies. 2020;21:1903-1921.
• Tupper, E, Atkinson, S & Pollard, TM Doing more with movement: constituting healthy publics in a movement volunteering programme. Palgrave Communications. 2020;6:94.
• Atkinson, Sarah The Toxic Effects of Subjective Wellbeing and Potential Tonics. Social Science & Medicine. 2020;113098.
• Coyle, L.A. & Atkinson, S. Vulnerability as practice in diagnosing multiple conditions. Medical Humanities. 2019;45:278-287.
• de Leeuw, Sarah, Donovan, Courtney, Schafenacker, Nicole, Kearns, Robin, Neuwelt, Pat, Squier, Susan Merill, McGeachan, Cheryl, Parr, Hester, Frank, Arthur W., Coyle, Lindsay-Ann, Atkinson, Sarah, El-Hadi, Nehal, Shklanka, Karen, Shooner, Caroline, Beljaars, Diana & Anderson, Jon Geographies of Medical and Health Humanities: A Cross-Disciplinary Conversation. GeoHumanities. 2018;4:285-334.
• 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.

Edited book

• Atkinson, S. & Hunt, R. Geohumanities and Health. Switzerland: Springer; 2019.
• 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.

Chapter in book

• Atkinson, S Art Spaces. In: Andrews, G., Crooks, V., Pearce, J. & Messina. J. COVID-19 and Similar Futures: Geographical perspectives, issues and agendas. Springer; 2021.
• Atkinson, S. Resilience. In: Botha, M. & Waugh, P. Future Theory: A Bloomsbury Handbook to Critical Concepts. London: Bloomsbury; 2021.
• Hunt, R. & Atkinson, S. GeoHumanities and Health. In: Atkinson, S. & Hunt, R. GeoHumanities and Health. Springer; 2019:1-19.
• Tan, M.K.B. & Atkinson, S. Multiplicity and Encounters of Cultures of Care in Advanced Ageing. In: Atkinson, S. & Hunt, R. Geohumanities and Health. Cham: Springer; 2019:241-259.
• Atkinson, S. Wellbeing and the Wild, Blue 21st-Century Citizen. In: Foley, R., Kearns, R., Kistemann, T. & Wheeler, B. Blue Space, Health and Wellbeing: Hydrophilia Unbounded. Abingdon, Oxon: Taylor & Francis; 2019:190-204.
• 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.

Newspaper/Magazine Article

• Coyle, L.A. & Atkinson, S. “I sometimes refer to myself as having OCD and sometimes refer to myself as having an eating disorder.”. thebmjopinion. 2017.

Report

• Curtis, Sarah, Congdon, Peter, Atkinson, Sarah, Corcoran, Rhiannon, MaGuire, Rosie & Peasgood, Tessa Individual and local area factors associated with self-reported wellbeing, perceived social cohesion and sense of attachment to one’s community: analysis of the Understanding Society Survey. 2019.
• Atkinson, S., Bagnall, A.M., Corcoran, R. & South, J. What is Community Wellbeing? Conceptual Review. 2017.

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Related Links

• Arts, health and wellbeing ESRC seminar series
• Centre for Medical Humanities, Durham University
• Pioneer Projects (Celebratory Arts) Ltd, Bentham, North Yorks
• Politics of Wellbeing ESRC seminar series
• The What Works Centre for Wellbeing
• Wellcome Trust

Selected Grants

Supervises

• Ms Emily Tupper