Article Summary by Ben Rutter and Rodney Hermeston Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections (2001) is one of the most prominent novels to feature a character with Parkinson’s Disease. In this paper we look at the language used by Franzen to capture Parkinson’s Disease and to describe the protagonist Alfred Lambert. We use linguistic analysis to consider […]
Category: Journal Announcements
‘This Place Is Not for Children Like Her’: Disability, Ambiguous Belonging and the Claiming of Disadvantage in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Article Summary by Michelle Botha and Brian Watermeyer This paper explores ideas about disability, identity and belonging in the context of post-apartheid South Africa. The first author (MB) reflects on the intersection of disability, gender, race and language in her experience. The paper revolves around MB’s recollection of her first year of primary school which […]
Eggs, Sugar, Grated Bones: Colour-Based Food Preferences in Autism, Eating Disorders, and Beyond
Article Summary by Mattias Strand This article explores colour-based food preferences and selective eating, with a focus on autism spectrum disorder and so-called avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID)—an eating disorder characterized by restrictive eating in the absence of body image concerns. As many parents can testify, it is immensely common for children to display patterns […]
What is the Cultural Value of Dying in an Era of Assisted Dying?
Article Summary by Naomi Richards and Marian Krawczyk Assisted dying—the ability to be assisted by a medical professional to end your life at a time of your choosing – is now available in a number of jurisdictions around the world, for those who satisfy the criteria. This paper raises the question of whether dying will […]
Bringing Narratives from Physicians, Patients and Caregivers Together: A Scoping Review of Published Research
Article Summary by Tracy Moniz Article by Tracy Moniz, John Costella, Maryam Golafshani, Chris Watling and Lorelei Lingard What can we learn from research that compares the stories that physicians, patients, and family caregivers write about their illness and care experiences? Our literature review sought to answer this question in hopes that a better understanding […]
Healthcare Providers’ Engagement with Eating Disorder Recovery Narratives: Opening to Complexity and Diversity
Article Summary by Andrea LaMarre and Carla Rice There is very little training around eating disorders across different areas and levels of healthcare. It is even less common to see training that shares the perspectives of people with lived experiences and their supporters with healthcare providers and healthcare provider trainees (HCPs). In this study, we […]
Recognition, Collaboration and Community: Science Fiction Representations of Robot Carers in Robot & Frank, Big Hero 6 and Humans
Article Summary by Yugin Teo This paper is interested in how three science fiction texts that came out in the 2010s explored in distinct ways the relationship between robot carers and their human users: the films Robot & Frank (2012) and Big Hero 6 (2014), and the television series Humans (2015–2019). The paper examines ethical […]
From the December Issue: Pyschosocial Curating
Today we are pleased to preview an article from the December double issue, Vanessa Bartlett’s Psychosocial curating: a theory and practice of exhibition-making at the intersection between health and aesthetics. Read the full article on the Medical Humanities journal website. Dr. Vanessa Bartlett is a curator and McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of […]
From the December Issue: Sarah Orne Jewett’s depictions of women in a changing medical profession
Today, we are pleased to preview an [open access] article from the December issue by Catherine Hand. She is a third year medical student at Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine with degrees in English literature from the University of Dallas and Wichita State University. Her research interests include rural healthcare and the history of medicine, […]
December Issue: current controversy
Here at Medical Humanities, we have published a few pieces–mostly under the heading Current Controversy–regarding chronic fatigue syndrome. Today we present a preview of our final published piece on the subject, which appeared in June online. While the theme is now closed (we are not accepting new articles on CFS), today’s article presents the work […]