This AHRC-funded Fellowship analyses representations of bodies and minds in Spanish and European literatures and cultures, contributing to the rapidly-growing field of Multilingual Medical Humanities. Drawing together specialists in Modern Languages, Medical Humanities, Creative Writing, Public Health and Psychology, the project traces the development of narratives of illness from the 1870s to the 1960s, and their legacy in the present day, with particular attention to gendered representations of psychological and physical conditions. Foregrounding Hispanic Studies alongside French, German, Italian and Portuguese, the project seeks to foster collaboration and shared insights across languages and other academic disciplines. The project analyses the importance of cultural representation for the dissemination, legitimisation and subversion of ideas about health and illness, and the ways in which literary and other cultural texts express social preoccupations, including during periods of upheaval and change.
An extended Reading Bodies special issue of Journal of Romance Studies 25.3 (2025), edited by Katharine Murphy and Olivia Glaze, has recently been published. With an open access Introduction and ten articles on narratives of illness in literature and visual culture across four language areas, the issue aims to show the value of a transcultural, interdisciplinary and multilingual approach to the Medical Humanities.
More information about our research can be found in the Reading Bodies takeover of The Polyphony (Institute for Medical Humanities, Durham University) in October 2025, and Katharine Murphy’s earlier piece on ‘Reading Bodies in European Literatures and Cultures’ (2024) for the Multilingual Medical Humanities series. Other project outputs are listed on our Publications page. We look forward to sharing the results of this project through a series of invited talks in 2026.
Engagement & Impact
We are delighted to launch The Burnout Booklet: A Health Resource for Patients and Practitioners (2025), which presents anonymised examples of language choices about burnout and resilience from our research data. Through illustrated quotations the booklet aims to support communication strategies for both patients and healthcare practitioners: Language scholars produce illustrated health booklet on burnout – News. The Burnout Booklet is featured in the National Centre for Creative Health Research Round-Up 2025.
Our public engagement activities include a creative workshop and anthology on Reading Bodies: Burnout, Overload and Resilience in writing and visual art published in collaboration with Riptide Journal (2024); including a 4-page comic produced for the project by Hannah Berry on burnout in creative industries.
The Reading Bodies project has been selected as one of ten projects to help launch the new University Council for Languages Research Database (Autumn 2025), a platform designed to connect languages research with policymakers. Our project is also featured on the University of Exeter’s Public Engagement with Research blog, and the Behavioural and Cultural Insights into Health Hub.
Thanks to everyone who joined us In Conversation with Sarah Moss to explore the relationship between writing, health and the body on 7 May 2025 (online). You can find out more via the University News – Renowned author Sarah Moss set for public talk on her writing and the human body – News – and watch the recording here.
Acknowledgements
This project is generously funded by an AHRC Research, Development & Engagement Fellowship (AH/X01133X/1), 2023–2025.