Tag: Illness and Gender

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Reading Bodies ‘takeover’ of The Polyphony

We are excited to launch the Reading Bodies ‘takeover’ of The Polyphony, ‘a web platform that aims to stimulate, catalyse, provoke, expand and intensify conversations in the critical medical humanities’, hosted by the Institute for Medical Humanities at Durham University.

In the opening piece today, Katharine Murphy introduces the Reading Bodies takeover and discusses what historical discourses of illness in European literatures and cultures contribute to the medical humanities: Historical Narratives of Illness in the Multilingual Medical Humanities – the polyphony

The ‘takeover’ presents five connected pieces, each of which will be published on consecutive days this week (20th to 24th October 2025), and is edited by Jordan McCullough. We invite you to follow the series!

More information is available on our Publications page.

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Reading Bodies at Faculty Research Celebration

Picture by Jim Wileman – Research Celebration, Reed Hall.

The Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Research Celebration took place at Reed Hall, University of Exeter on 16 October 2025. Project Lead Katharine Murphy presented the Reading Bodies project in conversation with historian Dr Ljubica Spaskovska on research intersections between medical humanities narratives and histories of medical care.

Our project poster, designed by Olivia Glaze, was on display for the Gender and Sexuality thematic stand. Thanks to the HASS leadership and all the organisers for such an enjoyable event!

Reading-Bodies-Project-Poster for HASSDownload
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Reading Bodies special issue published

A collection of articles by the project research network for an extended special issue of Journal of Romance Studies 25.3 (2025), 293-530 on ‘Reading bodies: Narrating illness in European literatures and cultures (1870s to 1960s and beyond)’, edited by Katharine Murphy and Olivia Glaze, is now published! For more information about project outputs, please visit our Publications page.

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Reading Bodies News Item

We are delighted to share a news feature on how public engagement activity for Reading Bodies underscores the contemporary relevance of our project research on late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century European literature:

Renowned author Sarah Moss set for public talk on her writing and the human body – News

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Writing Bodies: In Conversation with acclaimed author Sarah Moss – 7 May 2025

Join us for a discussion with author Sarah Moss as we explore the relationship between writing, health, and the human body. This free event takes place online and is open to the public – all welcome!

Read more information about the event here: Renowned author Sarah Moss set for public talk on her writing and the human body – News

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Sarah told us about her interest in the Reading Bodies project: ‘I’ve been writing and thinking about literature and the body since my PhD on 18th-century travel writing, and especially in recent fiction and life writing as I explore what bodies say without and/or against words, and how literature can almost literally shape our bodies, especially in relation to girls’ reading and eating. My interest in writing, food and bodies wanders from 18th-century ships to modern and historical kitchens, from human remains in museums to ghosts on the mountains’.

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Reading Bodies at upcoming conferences

Prof. Katharine Murphy and Dr Olivia Glaze will be presenting research relating to the Reading Bodies project at the forthcoming Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland 70th Annual Conference in Edinburgh, 7-8 April 2025. Our papers are part of a panel on ‘Cultural Portrayals of Illnesses and Disabilities in the Modern Luso-Hispanic World’, in collaboration with academics in Hispanic and Portuguese Studies at the University of Leeds.

Our research findings for Reading Bodies will also be presented at TONGUES: Medical Humanities across linguistic and cultural frontiers, the Northern Network for Medical Humanities Congress, 21-23 May 2025 (online).

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Reading Bodies Special Issue with Journal of Romance Studies (in preparation)

Our forthcoming Special Issue on ‘Reading Bodies: Narrating Illness in European Literatures and Cultures (1870s to 1970s)’, guest edited by Katharine Murphy and Olivia Glaze, is scheduled for publication by the Journal of Romance Studies later in 2025. This extended volume seeks to contribute to the rapidly emerging field of Multilingual Medical Humanities and will include articles on illness narratives in Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian cultural texts. Watch this space for updates!

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Reading Bodies Workshop II, University of Exeter, 23 May 2024

Thanks to all our wonderful speakers from the Universities of Belfast, Boston (USA), Cambridge, Exeter, Kent, London and Sheffield, for our second international Reading Bodies workshop, hosted by the University of Exeter on 23 May 2024. The workshop was organised by Prof. Katharine Murphy (Principal Investigator for Reading Bodies) and Dr Olivia Glaze (AHRC Postdoctoral Researcher). Prof. Nicolás Fernández-Medina (Chair of Romance Studies at Boston University) delivered a brilliant keynote on Health, Disease, and Society in the Early Ramón Gómez de la Serna. The programme included specialists in Spanish, Portuguese, English, French and German, and a hybrid Roundtable on interdisciplinary approaches to Reading Bodies in Literatures and Cultures.

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Reading Bodies Workshop at the ILCS, Senate House, 26 April 2024

Thanks to all our fantastic speakers, chairs, and Dr Patricia Novillo-Corvalán (University of Kent) for a wonderful keynote lecture. Thanks also to members of the research network and all attendees who came along on 26 April 2024 to support our first academic workshop, contributing to stimulating conversations about Reading Bodies: Narrating Illness in Spanish and European Literatures and Cultures (1870s to 1960s). The workshop was organised by Prof. Katharine Murphy (Principal Investigator for Reading Bodies) and Dr Olivia Glaze (AHRC Postdoctoral Researcher). A recording of selected papers from the workshop is available on the ILCS website.

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Reading Bodies Workshop 2 – University of Exeter – 23 May 2024

The second academic workshop for this project will be held at the University of Exeter on 23 May 2024. All are welcome to attend – please reserve your place here. For more information about the programme, visit our events page.