Theories and Methods: Literature Science and Medicine

Events

Our Partners

Compass

Event 1 - 4-8 January 2010:

Theories and Methods: Literature, Science, and Medicine (St Deiniol’s Library).

This five-day residential event, held at St Deiniol’s Library in Hawarden, introduced students to the issues involved in interdisciplinary study; included a day trip to the Museum of Science and Industry to examine the surviving laboratory apparatus of John Dalton and to the John Rylands special collections to look at Dalton’s extant papers.

Teaching team: Sharon Ruston (Salford), David Amigoni (Keele), Gowan Dawson (Leicester), Stephanie Snow (Manchester), John Hodgson (JRUL), James Peters (JRUL), Catherine Rushmore (MOSI), Martin Willis (Glamorgan).

Event 2 - 25-27 March 2010:

Day 1: Bibliographic Tools in Literature, Medicine and Science Interdisciplinary Research (Wellcome Library).

Students learned how to use databases and electronic resources specific to this kind of study and the Wellcome Library’s own catalogue of manuscripts, rare books, images and sound archive.

Day 2: Literature, Medicine, and Material Culture (Royal College of Surgeons).

In John Hunter’s Museum at the RCS, students explored how collections of medical objects have affected medical knowledge.

Day 3: How to do Meaningful Interdisciplinary Research Linking Literature and Medicine.

Hosted by clinical and non-clinical members of the Wellcome-funded Centre for the Humanities and Health at King's College, London. Sessions: 1) The fallacy of retrospective diagnosis; 2) How knowledge of medical history might aid literary interpretation; 3) Narrative concepts in literature and medicine; 4) The case history as a genre.

Teaching team: Simon Chaplin (RCS), Brian Hurwitz (KCL), Ross McFarlane (Wellcome Library), Sharon Ruston (Salford), Julianne Simpson (Wellcome), Alannah Tomkins (Keele), Neil Vickers (KCL).

Event 3 - 1-2 July 2010:

Day 1: Using History of Science Archives (Royal Institution of Great Britain).

Sessions included activities involving the manuscript collections of the RI and taught palaeography skills. Students transcribed and edited versions of manuscript texts, taking into account published forms and substantive variants.

Day 2: Exploring Science, Literature and Objects (National Maritime Museum).

This session encouraged students to develop techniques in using and analysing different approaches to the history of voyaging, exploration and navigation. It highlighted the intersections between literary evidence, material culture and geographies of scientific knowledge, and helped students understand how to bring together these different resources in their research. Talks, tours and activities were led by a guest speaker and members of the National Maritime Museum’s curatorial team, with expertise in imperial and maritime studies, history of scientific instruments, history of science and technology, history of travel and exploration, and maritime art.

Teaching team: Richard Dunn (NMM), Rebekah Higgitt (NMM), Frank James (RI), John McAleer (NMM). Guest speakers: Crosbie Smith (Kent) and David Knight (Durham).

Event 4 - 13-14 January 2011:

Day 1: Philosophy and Sociology of Science for Literature and History Students (Centre for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine at the University of Manchester).

Workshops and seminar discussions of key theorists in the philosophy and sociology of science, such as Kuhn, Popper, and Feyerband.

Day 2: Poetry and Science - poetry written by scientists and poetry informed by science from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries. (University of Salford).

Teaching team: Hasok Chang (Cambridge), John Holmes (Reading), Sharon Ruston (Salford), James Sumner (Manchester), Stephanie Snow (Manchester), Michael Whitworth (Merton College, Oxford).

Event 5 - 14-15 April 2011:

Day 1: Science and Film: the Material Culture of Science, Technology and Medicine (Blythe House, Science Museum). Day 2: Image and Object in Art and Science (London Consortium).

This event helped develop an understanding of the visual and material culture of science, and the ways in which artists have responded to scientific issues and questions.

Teaching team: Steven Connor (London Consortium), Peter Morris (Science Museum), Isobel Armstrong (Birkbeck), Esther Leslie (Birkbeck).

Event 6 - 14-15 July 2011:

Day 1: Gender, Science and Medicine (University of Leicester).

Workshop sessions were held on 'Gender and Evolution' and 'Female Surgeons, Males Nurses' to explore how issues of gender are integral to the study of science and medicine and to facilitate critical engagement with recent historiography in this area. Discussion included an opportunity to evaluate the discipline of Medical Humanities and to explore the role of nineteenth-century culture in the formation of Darwin's still controversial theory of Sexual Selection.

Day 2: Constructing a Science of Society (Keele University).

In this event we looked at the issues and skills involved in a major project that catalogues and digitizes materials, and discuss how the Foundations of Sociology (Le Play) Archive links to late nineteenth-century evolution and environmentalism.

Teaching team: David Amigoni (Keele), Claire Brock (Leicester), Gowan Dawson (Leicester), Holly Furneaux (Leicester), Gordon Fyfe (Keele), Chris Renwick (York), Alannah Tompkins (Keele).