Tag: Multilingual Medical Humanities

Reading Bodies ‘takeover’ of The Polyphony

Post author By Katharine Murphy
Post date 20/10/2025
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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.

Tags Decolonialism, Illness and Gender, Illness and Society, Illness Narratives, Medical Humanities, Multilingual Medical Humanities

Events News

Reading Bodies at upcoming conferences

Post author By Katharine Murphy
Post date 12/03/2025
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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).

Tags Illness and Gender, Illness and Society, Illness Narratives, Literary Studies, Multilingual Medical Humanities

Articles News

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

Post author By Katharine Murphy
Post date 25/02/2025
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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!

Tags Decolonialism, Illness and Gender, Literary Studies, Multilingual Medical Humanities, Women's health

Events News

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

Post author By Katharine Murphy
Post date 29/04/2024
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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.

Tags Illness and Gender, Illness Narratives, Literary Studies, Medical Humanities, Multilingual Medical Humanities, Performance Art, Visual Studies