laura cowley

RETHINKING RIGOUR: a two-day symposium on creative-critical research in medical humanities organised by the NNMHR.

Explore method, assessment, and new possibilities for scholar-practitioners.

🗓️ Dec 4–5, Durham + online
🎟️ Free via Eventbrite: nnmh.org.uk/rethinking-r...

Booking is now live for our exciting online workshop Object Stories in Health and Medicine 1700-1900!
See the full programme and grab a ticket here: www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/objec...

A poster for the film club in the the following information: October 1st 15:30-17:00 at Birkbeck Cinema: Mapping Perception (2002) (37 mins). Andrew Kötting. November 5th 15:30-17:00 at Birkbeck Cinema: Art Sex Work (2022) (20 mins). Rachel Garfield. With guest Rachel Garfield. December 3rd 15:30-17:00 at Birkbeck Cinema: Kathi Kathi Kaarana (trans. Tell Tale Travels) (2023) (37 mins). Varun Kurtkoti. With online guest Varun Kurtkoti

The programme for this term!

Four men wearing black gowns and white ruffs gather over a girl wearing a child’s nightdress. She is lying down and seems to be suspended in mid air. The group are lit with high contrast against a black background.

At at Birkbeck Cinema this Wednesday, very excited to screen Andrew Kötting’s Mapping Perception. Book here: www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...

10 days until the #CFP deadline for the online workshop *Object Stories in Health and Medicine 1700-1900*.

We invite proposals for 15-minute talks on a single object related to health or medicine during the 18th & 19th centuries #histmed #histpsych #medhums

www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/objec...

CfP for an online workshop on Object Stories in Health and Medicine, 1700-1900
@annafranjam.bsky.social and I can't wait to hear about your objects!

Colin Burrow · Let custards quake: Satire without the Jokes To think of a satirist as a person who angrily turns against a gale-force wind and sprays liquefied shit at a group of...

‘Satire can be a powerful agent of those wider, slower forms of political and social change, though when measured against the immediate political intentions of its authors it can seem as though it has achieved nothing at all.’

Colin Burrow on satire: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Annual Book Development Prize Competition Rules and Entry Form The Society for the Social History of Medicine (SSHM) invites submissions to its Annual Book Development Award Competition. The Award Two awards of £2000.00 each will be given …

📣Annual Book Development Prize Competition 📣
Submissions are now invited for the 2026 Award, which funds authors to turn a proposal into a book in the Social Histories of Medicine series, published by @manchesterup.bsky.social Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until 16 Jan 2026.
#histmed

Engaged Medical Humanities—A Framework for Knowledge Production in Research Collaborations - Journal of Medical Humanities In the field of medical humanities, there has been a general call to understand biocultural entanglements and to break down rigid distinctions between culture and health, as well as disciplinary bound...

Reflecting on their work in the Copenhagen Centre for Health Research in the Humanities, Folker et al offer real insight into theory-building within and through the dynamics (& difficulties) of engaged critical medical humanities research
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Topic Collection: Visual Medical Humanities | Medical Humanities

New CFP for a Topic Collection on Visual Medical Humanities with @bmj.com Medical Humanities journal.

Reach out if you have any questions! Deadline January 5, 2026.

mh.bmj.com/pages/topic-...

Radical Objects: The Pot and Pan Matthew Kerry explores how the humble pot and pan have become powerful tools for protestors.

As cities across the UK reverberate with the sound of pots and pans to protest the starvation of Palestinian people in Gaza, a piece from the archive on the humble pot and pan as tools for protest by Matthew Kerry:

www.historyworkshop.org.uk/activism-sol...

Insider/Outsider Research in London and South Africa Mercy Nqandeka and Rachel Cummings reflect on their contrasting research cultures and the implications for inquiry in the medical/health humanities. This piece is part of a collection of posts from…

In the latest piece from the 2024 Medical Humanities International Summer School, Mercy Nqandeka and Rachel Cummings reflect on their contrasting research cultures and the implications for inquiry in the medical/health humanities.
thepolyphony.org/2025/07/21/i...

Delighted this is now LIVE! CFP for a Special Issue of ‘Neurodiversity’ - towards a critical turn in neurodiversity studies via arts/humanities/social sciences - we want to hear from you!!

Black and white image of graffiti that reads “KEEP BRITAIN FILTHY” from a 1973 survey of public toilets. Presumably a response to the charity Keep Britain Tidy

Photo of an old library catalogue card for the survey. It reads repetitively: “Council of British Ceramic Sanitaryware Manufacturers. Survey of washing facilities in Public conveniences in Great Britain and also of vandalism in Public Conveniences. Council of British Ceramic sanitaryware manufacturers. 1973”

Today in the archives: surveys of ‘public conveniences’ aka public toilets. This 1973 volume was amusingly concerned about Hull having their loos too close to their statue of Queen Victoria

Screenshot of title page. _Sick jokes: Visual histories of humour, health and the body_ Edited by: Christine Slobogin Katie Snow Laura Cowley Series: Social Histories of Medicine

Draft manuscript IN!

@katiesnow.bsky.social @lauracowley.bsky.social

Donate to Fund Travel for Disabled Museum Workshop Leaders, organized by Wade Berger We’re raising funds to send a cohort of disabled museum educators to the … Wade Berger needs your support for Fund Travel for Disabled Museum Workshop Leaders

I'm currently with Dr Wade Berger trying to get a group of disabled museum educators to the ASTC conference. Both of us are currently jobless due to higher education cuts, but feel it's important to keep advancing this research anyways. Thank you very much for any and all help! gofund.me/54f249fc

The organisers of the UKDHHH outdid themselves today - what a brilliant day of talks, and a masterclass in accessibility

Eeeek this will be good'un! Happy publication day @slobogin.bsky.social ⭐ Essential reading for all medical history/medical humanities visual culture people.

Another brilliant article I would add to this list is this collaborative piece on oral history and Section 28 - several of its contributors highlight the parallels between the demonisation of LGBTQ+ people in the 1980s and 90s and the relentless persecution of the trans community today.

Art and the Critical Medical Humanities This agenda-setting edited volume makes a forceful case for the contribution that art – its practices and its histories – can make to debates and developments i…

So exciting seeing this book up on the Bloomsbury website! It'll be out at the end of this year.

I co-wrote a piece on visual medical humor with @katiesnow.bsky.social and @lauracowley.bsky.social 🎭

www.bloomsbury.com/us/art-and-t...

IMH newsletter: September 2023 News & updates from the Institute for Medical Humanities, Durham University.

Super excited for this year’s IMH seminar series on “hidden experience” - on queer theory, memory, trauma, disability studies, sugar, politics and more! mailchi.mp/dbab179fbcc9...

#AddGardener 🙏

Image description: A snail out for a stroll thinking ‘Oh, will I qualify council tax relief?’ The piece is an example of digital painting from the early 1990s. The thought bubble is pink. The background is a photograph of a tree lined street. The snail is digitally painted in yellows and browns

Introducing my research with this recent delight from the archive. By the UK Disability Movement artist Steve Cribb:

Thank you so much for organising all this! I will also contribute codes as soon as I can