Running (to/from) Work

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

A webinar by Professor Alex Mold and Dr Simon Cook exploring one of the most popular sports and pastimes in the UK - Running.

<a href="https://medhumsplatform.org/labs/moving-bodies/" title="https://medhumsplatform.org/labs/moving-bodies/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">The Moving Bodies Lab</a> in the <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> invites you to an online webinar presented by Professor Alex Mold (London School of Hygiene &amp; Tropical Medicine) and Dr Simon Cook (Birmingham City University) exploring one of the most popular sports and pastimes in the UK - Running.Running and fun in the 1970s and 1980s Professor Alex Mold During the 1970s and 1980s, a growing number of people took up running. By 1978, it was estimated that there were at least one million runners in Britain. Many of these new participants were inspired by books and guides to running that proclaimed the sport to be ‘fun’. In this paper I will take a closer look at a selection of these books to demonstrate that beneath the fun exterior, a set of more serious concerns were at work. Running was put forward as a way to get fit and improve health, but also as a solution to deeper individual and collective malaise. This chimed with, and worked against, broader changes in society in this period. Run-commuting: back to the future? Dr Simon Cook This talk will explore the recent rise of run-commuting – the act of running to/from work – and consider what it means for the role of running in people’s lives and in society more widely. Focussing on why people run-commute and what it feels like to do so, highlights how the functions, meanings and experiences of running differ when used for transport. This not only reflects the contemporary condition of running practices but offers threads to both the history of running and its possible futures. About the speakers <a href="https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/aboutus/people/mold.alex" title="https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/aboutus/people/mold.alex" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Alex Mold</a> is Professor of Public Health History at the <a href="https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/" title="https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">London School of Hygiene &amp; Tropical Medicine</a>. Her research focuses on the history of public health in Britain since 1945. Alex has worked on the history of patient consumerism, voluntary organisations and health and the history of health education. She is currently a Co-Investigator on a <a href="https://wellcome.org/grant-funding/people-and-projects/grants-awarded/kicking-habit-historicising-addictive-sport" title="https://wellcome.org/grant-funding/people-and-projects/grants-awarded/kicking-habit-historicising-addictive-sport" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Wellcome Trust Discovery Award project entitled ‘Kicking the habit’</a>, which examines the history of ‘addictive’ sports sponsorship in Britain since 1965. <a href="https://www.bcu.ac.uk/health-education-and-life-sciences/staff/health-professions/simon-cook" title="https://www.bcu.ac.uk/health-education-and-life-sciences/staff/health-professions/simon-cook" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Dr Simon Cook</a> is a human geographer at<a href="https://www.bcu.ac.uk/" title="https://www.bcu.ac.uk/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"> Birmingham City University</a>. His research concerns everyday active practices: the ways in which they happen, how they change, and what they can tell us about societies and spaces. He is currently researching long-distance walking, post-collision cycling, and run-commuting practices as well of thinking about the possibilities for sport mobilities and active travel beyond walking and cycling. He tweets @SimonIanCook and blogs at https://jographies.wordpress.com/. Zoom link will be circulated closer to the event.This event is free to attend.

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Running (to/from) Work

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Running (to/from) Work

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