Month: November 2015

Medicine in Arts Society Launch Event

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The new Medicine in Arts students Society, MIAS, are inviting us to attend their launch night on Thursday, 26 November at the Whitworth Art Gallery: an evening of live art, music, performance and presentations.

MIA Flyer-01

MIAS is a brand new student society at the University of Manchester that aims to bridge the gap between the arts and medicine by exploring medical themes in literature, film, art and music.

By providing a platform to share knowledge and skills between the faculties of humanities and medicine MIAS aims to enhance students’ understanding of the patientsʼ narratives and the humane aspects of healthcare.

Through their socially responsible arts projects they intend to develop empathy, reflective practices and observation skills as well as promote well-being through creativity.

Register your attendance here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/medicine-in-arts-launch-night-tickets-19231506955

Public Workshop: From Coal Mining to Data Mining

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Join us for a collaborative experiment in Science/Art/History

Friday, 27 November 2015, 10:00-12:30
Room 2.823, Stopford Building, The University of Manchester
(Building 79 on the campus map)

From Coal Mining to Data Mining - FLYER

The Arthritis Research UK Centre for Epidemiology was established at the University of Manchester in 1954. It has remained an internationally leading centre for the study of musculoskeletal disease throughout the last 60 years, during which time its methodology has evolved from field surveys to analyzing electronic health data from thousands of patients. Artist Nicola Dale is currently undertaking a residency within the Centre. Her focus is on the Centre’s x-ray archive, a visually stunning resource that has unique local historical interest.

Between 1950-1952, John Lawrence (the first Director of the Centre) studied the effects of physical labour on the incidence and severity of arthritis. He collected x-rays from miners at the Bedford Colliery (Wood End Pit) in Leigh, Lancashire, and compared these to x-rays of Salford dockers and road workers. Demonstrating that miners had more degenerative spinal disease, the study links the history of medicine and the experience of pain to an important chapter in the regional history of Lancashire and other coalmining areas in the UK. Funded by a Wellcome Trust ISSF Public Engagement Grant, our project brings together epidemiology, medical history and illness experiences with Nicola Dale’s sculptures, in a creative experiment around stories of work and illness, and the visual heritage of medical research. Join us on Friday, 27 November to find out more!

Speakers:

Dr Will Dixon, Director, Arthritis Research Centre for Epidemiology
Dr Carsten Timmermann, Senior Lecturer, Centre for the History of Science, Technology & Medicine
Nicola Dale, Artist in Residence, Arthritis Research UK Centre for Epidemiology

RSVP: email Andrew.D.Smith@manchester.ac.uk

All welcome!

Project News: Stroke – Stories of Self through Art and Science

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Medical Humanities Lab member and CHSTM research fellow Dr Stephanie Snow, working in collaboration with the Stroke Association and visual artist Elisa Artesero, has been curating a pop-up exhibition at Manchester Museum to commemorate World Stroke Day on 29 October 2015. The exhibition featured creative work produced by a group of stroke survivors, based on their experiences of adapting to life after stroke and inspired by Manchester Museum’s extensive mask collection.

The exhibition, titled Stroke: Stories of the self through art and science, is running as part of the Manchester Science Festival. It is the first output of a larger project that brings together stroke survivors, patient groups, artists, clinicians, scientists, researchers and students from across the University and beyond in order to explore the life-changing aspects of stroke.

Photograph of Nancy Rothwell with stroke survivors at the exhibition

University of Manchester President and Vice Chancellor Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell visiting the exhibition

Stephanie’s collaboration with the Stroke Association and stroke survivors is ongoing and will result in a major exhibition of creative work and engagement events at the 2016 Manchester European City of Science festival.

Here is a short YouTube film about the workshops:

Further information about the event

Project News: Children and War

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We’re happy to pass along some news coverage, including a short film, of a project involving Medical Humanities Lab member Professor Rachel Calam (Psychology).

Sky News have covered the project, showing how children who have come to Manchester talk about their experience of war in Syria and the psychological changes that come as a result of experiencing conflict.

A child's drawing dealing with the experience of war in Syria

A child’s drawing dealing with the experience of war in Syria

About the project and its findings

Parental support and family cohesion is protective against mental health problems in children in situations of armed conflict and following displacement by war. Aala El-Khani, Rachel Calam, Kim Cartwright and the Parenting and Families Research Group at The University of Manchester are working to understand the challenges parents and caregivers face and the best ways of providing information and psychological support through displacement and resettlement.

The latest media coverage exemplifies the experiences that children carry with them from conflict zone to resettlement in a place of safety.

Find out more about the Parenting and Families Research Group and its work

Launch Event

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Invitation to the Medical Humanities Laboratory Launch Event
Thursday 19 November, 5:30 pm, Whitworth Art Gallery

Are you a humanities scholar whose research or teaching considers the meaning and experience of health, health care and biomedicine?

Are you a biomedical researcher interested in how the arts and humanities can add dimension and impact to your work?

Are you an arts practitioner or member of a community group whose work engages with biomedicine and healthcare?

Are you a healthcare practitioner looking for new perspectives on the clinical encounter?

Do you teach healthcare professions students, and would you like to use art, literature and the humanities to enrich their learning?

Would you like to have new conversations, meet potential collaborators, and access more funding?

If so, come join us in the Medical Humanities Laboratory, where innovative collaborations are created!

This new University of Manchester network encourages collaboration and exchange amongst those whose work, practice, and interests involve the artistic, humanistic, and human dimensions of medicine and health.

Please join us at our launch, where we’ll kick off this year’s activities with interactive discussions and exchange of ideas.

Thursday 19 November at the Whitworth Art Gallery, Oxford Rd, Manchester

With drinks and nibbles from 5:30 pm, and ‘speed networking’ and discussion from 6 pm

‘Speed networking’ provides an opportunity to meet colleagues and potential collaborators in an informal but productive – and fun — environment.  Please come prepared to tell others about your work, and hear about theirs!

Register here:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/medical-humanities-laboratory-launch-event-with-speed-networking-session-tickets-19370360269