From October 27-28, 2017, this two-day academic conference at the Berlin Museum of Medical History at the Charité examines the ways in which knowledge and experience of illness and disability circulate within the realms of medicine, art, the personal and the cultural. We invite papers that address this question from a variety of different perspectives, including literary scholarship, comics studies, media studies, disability studies, and health humanities/ sociology/ geography. Keynote speaker: Leigh Gilmore (Wellesley College), Author of The Limits of Autobiography: Trauma and Testimony (2001) and Tainted Witness: Why we doubt what women say about their lives (2017). The PathoGraphics … [Read more...] about Stories of Illness / Disability in Literature and Comics – Berlin, October 27-28 2017
Wild bodies
Robert Macfarlane is currently one of the UK's best-loved non-fiction authors. His recent book Landmarks is a tour de force of physical and metaphorical walks through the landscape - literal and linguistic - of Britain's ancient physical language. In Landscapes Macfarlane writes about the word hoard that surrounds the 'islands, rivers, strands, fells, lochs, cities, towns, corries, hedgerows, fields and edgelands uneasily known as the British Isles.” (Link to The Guardian book review). I love Macfarlane's writing, not least because it's so physical. Reading a Macfarlane book is like an exploration into the language of the body and its interaction with the natural world. There are a … [Read more...] about Wild bodies
New: humanities
Although it’s going to be hard to accept, particularly by those people currently striving to make a difference in the profession, but it probably won’t be this generation of physiotherapists that bring about the radical change necessary to prepare the profession for the new world of 21st century health care. There are any number of reasons for this: Physiotherapists are, by and large, a relatively conservative bunch, who don’t instigate radical change Physiotherapy is highly respected and well patronised, so there are few indicators that we need to change much Most people in positions of authority have received a traditional training, and tend to like things the way that they are, … [Read more...] about New: humanities
Children and disability
This message was posted this week on the H-Disability network page. You can contact Kate by clicking on her name at the bottom of the post: I'm posting for a colleague, whose MA student is beginning research on children, disability and British/American literature. I've already suggested The Secret Garden, and would be grateful for the link or ref for a recent journal special issue or book of essays on this subject. I'm sure I saw announcements about such a thing in the last 2 months, but cannot find it on online searches. Many thanks, Kate Macdonald. … [Read more...] about Children and disability