@miladaskalova
Exploring intersections between literature and psychiatry in the 19th century as a British Academy and LKAS Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Glasgow / Medical Humanities Research Centre. Into literature, the history of medicine, and book history.
Today the British Newspaer Archive reached 100 million pages! What an epic achievement! So many interesting pages to explore. And we’re not stopping there the BL & FMP will continue to digitise, so here’s to the next 100 million!
blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2026/02/16/c...
The British Library’s PhD placement scheme for 26/27 is now open. My team are offering an exciting placement aiming to raise the profile of our illustrated newspaper collection: www.bl.uk/services/res...
Back in August, I ran a poetry workshop for psychiatrists at St Nicholas Hospital in Newcastle. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my academic career, and I hope more will follow.
A special thanks to the History of Psychiatry Special Interest Group of the @rcpsych.bsky.social!
The deadline for the 'Figments' conference has been extended! Send us your proposals by 9 January 2026
Applications for @uofglasgow.bsky.social Special Collections research fellowships are now open. Come work with our collections! Closes Jan 5th. www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...
A few more tickets remain for the poetry reading at the @byleaveswelive.bsky.social on Wednesday, Nov 19, 1.30-3.30pm. We'll talk about the ways in which poets represented their experiences as patients and doctors throughout history.
Gathering proposals for the 'Figments: Madness, Health and Creativity' Conference (University of Glasgow, 15 June 2026). Deadline: 12 December.
More information and submission form here: www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/...
#cfp #medhums #healthhums #madstudies #histmed #histpsych
Great news!
JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month
www.jstor.org/action/showL...
Obviously a lie, since the definition of PhD-level expertise, standard across universities worldwide, is that you can produce original knowledge.
Thank you! Let me know your thoughts 😊
28/10: 'Artist Ian Macintosh delves into place as a compelling subject, exploring how our surroundings have the power to comfort or disturb.'
25/10: 'Join directors Julia Macintosh and Azra Khan as they introduce their work within the context of this year’s Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival theme, Comfort and Disturb.'
#SMHAF
21/10: 'Journaling is a reflective writing practice that offers refuge and solace to the busy mind... Join Julia Macintosh, Director of the Centre for Mad Culture UK, in this workshop which explores the power of the journaling practice.'
18/10: 'In this workshop we will read and discuss several poems about madness from different time periods - some by better known poets, others more obscure. We will end the session by picking up our own pens to create our own madness in verse.'
#madpoets #poetry #histpsych #HealthHums
18/10: 'The history of mad art (also called Outsider Art, or Art Brut) tells a story of human suffering suffused with great talent and creativity. Join artist Ian Macintosh as he explores the history of this artform.'
#outsiderart #madart #madculture #madstudies
Interrupting the madness of reality to share some exciting news: the first Centre for Mad Culture in the UK will be launched in Edinburgh on 17 October! Below I have listed all the other activities planned by the Centre (including my own poetry workshop). Book your free tickets and see you there!
Front page of The Gartnavel Gazette; or Monthly Journal of the Glasgow Royal Lunatic Asylum, Wednesday, July 6, 1853, image courtesy of Wellcome Collection, https://wellcomecollection.org/works/jvk8aued/items?canvas=7. Accompanied by text that says: Mila Daskalova, Passing the Hours: Measuring, Recording and Experiencing Time Through Periodical Publishing in Victorian Asylums, Victorian Periodicals Review, volume 58, number 1, Spring 2025.
Drawing on a transatlantic archive, @miladaskalova.bsky.social explores the experience of time in asylum #periodicals. Learn how these publications served as instruments of both recalibration and resistance in the latest issue of VPR: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... @rs4vp.org
What can periodicals tell us about the experience of time in Victorian asylums? I reflect on that in my article 'Passing the Hours' in the new VPR.
#histmed #MedHums #histpsych #Victorian #madstudies
💫New Workshop #CfP💫
'Object Stories in Health and Medicine, 1700-1900', 5 December, online, organised by the very fabulous @annafranjam.bsky.social & @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social.
#HistMed #HistSTM #HistPsych #DisHist #HistNursing #MatCult #MaterialCulture #MedHums #Skystorians🗃️
Now on the BARS Blog: CfP: 'Sex in the Long Nineteenth Century' - Romance, Revolution and Reform Journal 2026 Conference
See all the details here: www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6071
Please share widely!!
Excited that my short story, 'The Holiday', will be published in New Writing Scotland. I'm grateful to the editors for offering it a home. And now I'm off to the same shores where I started writing it...
Reminder that this event is on Friday! Join us as we talk anonymity, ethics, and medical photography.
For my part, I'll be exploring material and aesthetic anonymities.
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
A few free tickets left for the 'Aesthetics of the Clinic' symposium in Cambridge next week! Proud to be part of such a great programme. I'll be talking about patients' 'rewriting' of mental institutions in asylum periodicals.
Thank you to everyone who has signed our petition, 6,000+! Authors deserve to have a livelihood and compensation from their work, if you haven't signed do so now 👇
The MHRA has transitioned from Twitter/X and will now use Bluesky to communicate our work. We are excited to contribute to establishing Bluesky as a dynamic, inclusive, and engaging platform for academic exchange and collaboration.
To celebrate this new chapter, we are hosting a book giveaway! 👇
If you think your medical history monograph is worth a prize, why not enter it for the EAHMH book prize this year? Details in this link: eahmh.org/prizes/
Applications are open for the 2025-27 Past & Present Fellowships @ihr.bsky.social are open
Applications close on 31st Jan 2025
Fellows appointed will commence on 1st Oct 2025 and be tenable for 24 months
Please share with your network
www.history.ac.uk/fellowships/...
Something to look forward to in the post-holiday lull of early January
The advert for our Research Associate post in Victorian Cultural and Material History is now up on jobs.ac.uk - www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DKS158/r...
Please spread the word!!!!