Durham University
Following the recent grant of a Medical Humanities Strategic Award by the Wellcome Trust, the Centre for Medical Humanities at Durham constitutes a new critical mass of researchers both full time and part time working expressly together in the field on an established and shared research programme. This builds upon and expands the work of two of its members (Professor Martin Evans and Doctor Jane Macnaughton)who over the past several years have articulated at Durham University a view of MH as an integrated enquiry that is philosophical in spirit, involving the sustained attempt to understand the human side of medicine, including the individual and his/her experiences arising in relation to health, illness, suffering & disability.
The articulation of this view was part of Evans and Macnaughton’s contribution to the University’s Centre for Arts and Humanities in Health and Medicine (CAHHM), which the new Centre now replaces. CAHHM has provided the bedrock on which the new Centre for Medical Humanities will now build, having established a reputation for research in both medical humanities and arts in health.
The CMH will now carry forward work that will draw philosophically from empirical research that continues in well-established linked projects. Those links will be maintained by the CMH’s Arts/Health Outreach Manager, Mike White, and its Associate Artist, Mary Robson.
Mike and Mary’s current portfolio includes:
Teaching on the new module for medical students ‘Creative Approaches to Health Care’
Developing a multi-sector workforce for community-based arts in health promotion for Gateshead Primary Care Trust’s Workforce Development Innovation Fund.
Developing a new Code of Practice for practitioners of participatory arts in health work in Waterford and Cork.