Led by Angela Woods (Director) and Ben Alderson-Day (Co-director), the Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities (DRP-MH) will tackle intellectual and practical barriers – of diversity, connection, risk, evidence and scale – faced in medical humanities research.
Through its Sites, Labs, Networks and Training, it will equip and empower researchers to develop novel approaches to intractable questions of health and human experience.
The DRP-MH will reach beyond Durham University to anchor community, clinical and creative partnerships in three physical Sites:
Activity across the Sites will generate new connections, research questions and opportunities for co-production. This will inspire and influence the work of six intersecting Labs focused on methodological innovation:
L1: Narrative Practices – Laura Mazzoli Smith (Education) and Veronica Heney (Sociology)
L2: Visual and Material – Fiona Johnstone (Art History)
L3: Moving Bodies – Cassandra Phoenix (Sport & Exercise Sciences)
L4: Narrative and Cognition – Marco Bernini (English)
L5: Measurement – Alex Broadbent (Philosophy) and Coreen McGuire (History)
L6: Affective Experience – Corinne Saunders and Fraser Riddell (English)
DeepEnd Site Lead – Jesse Proudfoot (Sociology)
Evelyn Tehrani and Akiko Hart will lead a Strategic Engagement Group that will ensure all invitations to participate in Platform activities are done at the earliest stages of planning and in context-appropriate ways that prioritise the needs of our stakeholders.
Mary Robson will direct the Creative Facilitation Unit and Victoria Patton will lead on Digital Development.
The DRP-MH will offer comprehensive training programmes and learning opportunities to enable academics, health and voluntary sector professionals, and experts by experience to become skilled interdisciplinary collaborators and produce ambitious new programmes of research. These are urgently needed to address enduring health challenges and ultimately take forward our understanding of human experience.
The DRP-MH is supported by a Wellcome Discovery Research Platform Award beginning in September 2023.
Wellcome Discovery Research Platform Awards support transformative research environments that enable researchers and teams to overcome specific barriers holding back progress in their field. They seek to develop exciting new tools, technologies, methodologies and knowledge that enhance the broader research ecosystem.
If you would like to find out more about the Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities, please join our mailing list.
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