Article Summary by Dominique Vervoort, Lina A Elfaki, Maria Servito, Karla Yael Herrera-Morales and Kudzai Kanyepi Around the world, more than six billion people are unable to undergo heart surgery. This is a result of an absence of surgeons and other health workers, insufficient money or health insurance, limited supplies, or a combination of factors. […]
Category: Journal Announcements
“And Then It Spreads”: Contagion and Disease as Metaphors of Sociomoral Contamination in Charles Burns’ Graphic Novel Black Hole
Article Summary by Arindam Nandi and Avishek Parui This article examines how Charles Burns’ graphic novel Black Hole situates states of contagion and disease as metaphors of social and moral contamination. Set in suburban Seattle in the 1970s, Black Hole depicts the lives of a set of teenagers in the midst of navigating a sexually […]
Creative Writing Can Help Improve One’s Health: A South African Study Shows How
Article Summary by Dawn Garisch, Janet Giddy, Giles Griffin and Steve Reid From the beginning of recorded history, people in diverse cultures have embraced the idea that creative expression, including visual art, stories, dance and music, contributes to healing. In recent times the therapeutic benefit of expressive writing has been well researched in the global north, […]
How and Why to Use ‘Vulnerability’: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Disease Risk, Indeterminacy and Normality
Article Summary by Andrea Ford In recent years, you hear a lot about ’vulnerability’—for example, during the COVID-19 lockdowns in the UK the idea that some people are more vulnerable than others and should therefore be treated differently came up often. We thought it was interesting how vulnerability seemed to be used interchangeably with risk […]
They Are Not All Wolves: Menstruation, Young Adult Fiction and Nuancing the Teenage Boy
Article Summary by Jemma Walton Literary depictions of menstruation are scarce, despite the fierce interest which accompanied the 1970 publication of Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret; a Young Adult novel that ends with the young female protagonist thanking God for the arrival of her first period. However, an intensification in menstrual activism across […]
Creating Comics, Songs and Poems
Article Summary by Muna Al-Jawad, Neil Singh and Gaurish Chawla Decolonising is now a commonly used buzzword in higher education, but what does it feel like in practice? This paper captures the reflections – both analytical and creative – of three healthcare workers and academics in medical education in the UK. We hope to make […]
Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis: Interdisciplinary Creative Art Practice and Nature Connections
Article Summary by Catherine Baker, Nina Morris, Athanasios Tsirikos, Olga Fotakopoulou and Flora Parrott Whilst Scoliosis isn’t rare, very few people had heard of it and therefore, don’t understand the impact that it can have on the lives of those diagnosed and the people they share their lives with. Most cases affect children and young […]
Narrative Medicine Theory and Practice: The Double Helix Model
Article Summary by Liam Butchart and Shabnam Parsa In the medical humanities, narrative medicine—the academic field that uses the study of patient and provider stories to better understand illness experiences and to heal—has become a dominant school of thought. “Narrative Medicine Theory and Practice: The Double Helix Model” critically examines this approach. Whereas the current […]
Illness and (Hyper)Masculinity in ‘HIMM’ Ccomics from the USA
Article Summary by Paul Mitchell In “Illness and (Hyper)Masculinity in HIMM Comics from the USA”, I explore how three cartoonists graphically depict their personal experiences of illness. The texts that I analyse, My Degeneration (Peter Dunlap-Shohl), Relatively Indolent but Relentless (Matt Freedman) and The Hospital Suite (John Porcellino) deal with diverse health problems, from Parkinson’s […]
Hanna Rion and The Weekly Dispatch’s Twilight Sleep Crusade
Article Summary by Eleanor Taylor 1847 was a momentous year in the history obstetric anaesthetic, as well as the history of medicine, with James Young Simpson’s discovery of the anaesthetic properties of chloroform. For the next fifty years, chloroform was the anaesthetic of choice. However, in the early 1900s, a new method of obstetric pain […]