Reading Bodies
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
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
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’.
As part of our Reading Bodies public engagement initiative, Dr Olivia Glaze hosted two creative writing sessions in London which focused on the theme of the body.
The first ‘Writing Bodies’ session took place at the Battersea Arts Centre on 7 November 2024, followed by the second session at St Marylebone Parish Church on 20 February 2025. These events provided a welcoming space for participants to explore or enhance their creative writing skills while fostering a sense of community.
Participants created a variety of writing styles, including fiction, personal essays, poetry, and haikus, focusing on themes such as ageing, illness, and body confidence. They also offered thoughtful feedback on each other’s writing, fostering a supportive and collaborative writing environment.
A heartfelt thank you to everyone who attended and shared their creativity with us! We hope you continue to write and explore your storytelling journey.
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).
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!
We’re delighted to share our Reading Bodies: Burnout, Overload and Resilience creative anthology, published in collaboration with Riptide Journal (2024). You can read the digital version as a flipbook and via our website here.
The volume presents fiction, poetry and artwork inspired by our research themes and explores how creativity can unlock different perspectives on burnout and resilience. For more information about this initiative, please visit our blog post about the creative workshop we held in June 2024.
The Reading Bodies anthology features on the Behavioural and Cultural Insights Hub, a knowledge-sharing platform for healthy practices developed in collaboration with the WHO Regional Office for Europe.
Artist Katharine Howell has illustrated the Reading Bodies collaborative process with Riptide Journal, in preparation for our forthcoming anthology on Burnout, Overload and Resilience. We’re delighted to share her illustration below:
You can find more information about the artist here.
We are looking forward to the third in our series of project workshops for Reading Bodies, hosted by the University of Exeter on 14 June 2024. This creative writing workshop on the theme of Burnout, Overload and Resilience, will be introduced by researchers in Languages, Public Health and Psychology, and led by Dr Sally Flint, a specialist in Creative Writing. A reminder of practical information and what to bring can be found in our flyer below. We invite submissions of writing and illustrations for publication in Riptide Journal.
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.
We’re looking forward to our second international workshop, hosted by the University of Exeter on 23 May 2024. All are welcome to attend – please reserve your place here.
Highlights include speakers across 4 languages, a keynote by Prof. Nicolás Fernández-Medina (Chair of Romance Studies at Boston University), an interdisciplinary Reading Bodies Roundtable, and a Stage Rehearsal of Multilingual Medical Humanities (with Ants!). There will also be a short talk about Bibliotherapy by Exeter City of Literature. For more information about the programme, please visit our events page.