Gender and Genre: Medical Humanities and the Moving Image

Based at Durham University, we are the UK's first Institute for Medical Humanities. Our research explores human experiences of health and ill-health using an interdisciplinary arts and humanities approach.

Institute for Medical Humanities

An exciting one-day symposium at Durham University celebrating the latest work on moving images in the Medical Humanities.

Tom Percival Annexe

Hosted jointly by the <a href="https://medhumsplatform.org/labs/narrative-practices/" title="https://medhumsplatform.org/labs/narrative-practices/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Narrative Practices Lab</a> and the <a href="https://medhumsplatform.org/labs/visual-and-material/" title="https://medhumsplatform.org/labs/visual-and-material/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Visual and Material Lab</a> in Durham University’s <a href="https://medhumsplatform.org/" title="https://medhumsplatform.org/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities</a> and Linköping University’s <a href="https://liu.se/en/organisation/liu/tema/temag" title="https://liu.se/en/organisation/liu/tema/temag" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Division of Gender Studies</a>, <a href="https://liu.se/en/organisation/liu/tema" title="https://liu.se/en/organisation/liu/tema" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Department of Thematic Studies</a>, the day will be themed around the intersection of genre and gender, exploring ideas at the cutting edge of Literary Studies, Art History and Visual Studies, Film Studies, Critical Theory, Feminist Philosophy, Queer and Trans Theory, and Medical Humanities. We invite presentations on any aspect of the moving image: from visual social media content to moving image artworks to film and television, and anything in between or beyond.We look forward to exploring how gender and genre are co-constituted, and how their inter-relations shapes ideas and experiences of health and illness. We hope to hear about how the visual and the narrative inter-relate, how genre can both limit and enable the depiction of experiences of illness, and how stories, visual forms, physical experiences, and aesthetic modes can be gendered, and can shape our experiences of gender. The day will explore the moving image as method in the medical humanities, foregrounding the ways that the visual can open up what it’s possible to know, to experience, to express. The symposium brings together themes of embodiment, power, art, story, meaning, knowledge, and history to tie conceptual questions about the nature and politics of visual representation to tangible examples in our lives, our bodies, and our experiences of illness and disability.The day will bring together scholars from a range of disciplines, offering opportunities for connection and the possibility of future collaboration. We look forward to exploring together the future of the moving image in Medical Humanities, and to considering new horizons for this field of work.The panels will be as follows:Panel 1Supernatural Horror, Illness, and Narrative Practices - <a href="https://liu.se/en/employee/edyju08" title="https://liu.se/en/employee/edyju08" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Edyta Just</a>Involuntary childlessness and reframing failure in gynaehorror - <a href="https://x.com/SallyCampbells" title="https://x.com/SallyCampbells" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Sally Campbell</a>The Hybrid Artistic Nudes of the Frankensteinian ‘Mad Scientists’: Organ Transplantation and Gender Performativity in contemporary cinema - <a href="http://www.culturaldreamstudies.eu/index.php/members/9-members/37-sara-damiani" title="http://www.culturaldreamstudies.eu/index.php/members/9-members/37-sara-damiani" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Sara Damiani</a>Missed Periods: Abortion Access, Bodies, and Cinematographic Uses of the Past in Period Drama - <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/english/people/melissaoliver-powell/" title="https://www.york.ac.uk/english/people/melissaoliver-powell/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Melissa Oliver-Powell</a>Panel 2Voicing Objects - <a href="https://olivia-turner.com/" title="https://olivia-turner.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Olivia Turner</a>Fluid Borders: Creative Collaboration and Collective Care in Moving Image Practice - <a href="https://www.eca.ed.ac.uk/profile/emily-beaney" title="https://www.eca.ed.ac.uk/profile/emily-beaney" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Emily Beaney</a>Genrecripping human/non-human collaborations: the role of queerness and disability in Abi Palmer Invents the Weather - <a href="https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/medical-humanities/about-us/news/visiting-phd-student/" title="https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/medical-humanities/about-us/news/visiting-phd-student/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Cat Chong</a>Labour as Labour: reading pregnancy and birth as professional practice in Lyndsay Mann’s As You Were - <a href="https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/fiona-r-johnstone/" title="https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/fiona-r-johnstone/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Fiona Johnstone</a>Panel 3Genre and Gender in Representations of Dementia in Contemporary Cinema - <a href="https://x.com/gosia_bugaj?lang=en" title="https://x.com/gosia_bugaj?lang=en" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Malgorzata Bugaj</a>Hair Loss, Gendered Trauma, and the Politics of Representation: A Feminist Analysis of Cancer Narratives in Malayalam Cinema - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anjana_Menon" title="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anjana_Menon" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Anjana Menon</a>The New Good Doctor: White Masculinity and the Post-Obamacare Medical Drama - <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/cinema/faculty/profile.html?id=kloutens" title="https://www.binghamton.edu/cinema/faculty/profile.html?id=kloutens" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Kristen Loutensock</a>Moving Slowly: Drawing Attention to Slow Violence in the Domestic Everyday in Bhopal - <a href="https://x.com/lynnw1982" title="https://x.com/lynnw1982" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Lynn Wray</a>Uncertain Surfaces: Running, Writing, Experimental Filmmaking and Parkinson’s - <a href="https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/janice-howard" title="https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/janice-howard" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Janice Howard</a>Panel 4Letters from the “brain hospital”: visualizing illness in Lotta Petronella’s film Själö: Island of Souls - <a href="https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/medical-humanities/about-us/news/new-marie-skodowska-curie-postdoctoral-fellow-to-join-imh/" title="https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/medical-humanities/about-us/news/new-marie-skodowska-curie-postdoctoral-fellow-to-join-imh/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Marta Cenedese</a>Visual representations of diet culture and generational conflict in the #almondmom trend on TikTok - <a href="https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/hester-r-hockin-boyers/" title="https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/hester-r-hockin-boyers/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Hester Hockin-Boyers</a>Male Mental Health and Suicide in Contemporary Drama Film - <a href="https://x.com/stinaface?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" title="https://x.com/stinaface?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Christina Wilkins</a>“I’m telling you, it actually happened”: Madness, Unreal Realism &amp; Speculative TV - <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/institute-of-mental-health-research/events/2023/neuro-queernowexploringmadandaffectiveknowledge/" title="https://www.york.ac.uk/institute-of-mental-health-research/events/2023/neuro-queernowexploringmadandaffectiveknowledge/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">The Mad Feeling Collective</a>The symposium is convened by the <a href="https://medhumsplatform.org/labs/narrative-practices/" title="https://medhumsplatform.org/labs/narrative-practices/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Narrative Practices Lab</a> co-led by <a href="https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/veronica-heney/" title="https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/veronica-heney/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Veronica Heney</a>, the <a href="https://medhumsplatform.org/labs/visual-and-material/" title="https://medhumsplatform.org/labs/visual-and-material/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Visual and Material Lab</a> led by <a href="https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/fiona-r-johnstone/" title="https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/fiona-r-johnstone/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Fiona Johnstone</a>, and <a href="https://liu.se/en/employee/edyju08" title="https://liu.se/en/employee/edyju08" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Edyta Just</a> from Linköping University.This event is free to attend.

Agenda

Panel 1: Unspeakability, Horror, and Gendered Embodiment

Coffee

Panel 2: Objects, Borders, Bodies: Artists' Moving Image

Lunch

Panel 3: Illness, Experience, and Storytelling

Panel 4: Spaces, Norms, and Imaginaries of Madness and Mental Wellbeing

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