International Health Humanities Network Membership
Lynne Seear
Lynne Seear is the Manager of the Arts In Health Program for Children's Health Queensland, and is based at the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital, Queensland's only tertiary paediatric facility. She is Co-Chair of the Queensland Arts and Health Leadersip Group and has a specialist interest in the relationship between culture and well-being. Lynne previously worked at the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, where for ten years she was Deputy Director.
Lynne Seear
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Lynne Seear is the Manager of the Arts in Health Program for Children’s Health Queensland, including the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital. She is a senior curator, writer and arts manager with 30 years’ experience in the sector, including 16 years at the Queensland Art Gallery in management roles. From 2000 to 2010 she was the Queensland Art Gallery’s Deputy Director, Curatorial and Collection Development. In this position she managed curatorial programs that were crucial to the establishment of the Gallery of Modern Art, in particular the growth of the Gallery’s contemporary collections. Lynne was also involved in the development of the Children’s Art Centre and the curation of ground-breaking contemporary programs for children and family-based audiences. For the past seven years she has pursued a specialist research and professional interest in the importance of arts and culture within healthcare settings.
Elena Semino
I work in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University. My training is in the study of literary language. Over time I have developed a number of interests at the interface between language, narrative and health, including:
- Narratives of autism in fiction
- Metaphor and cancer
- Metaphor and depression
- Metaphor, metonymy and the expression chronic pain (including in visual images)
- Metaphor in End-of-Life Care (ESRC-funded project with four Lancaster colleagues: Andrew Hardie, Veronika Koller, Sheila Payne and Paul Rayson)
Sarah Senff
Sarah A. Senff is an artist-eduator-advocate whose work revolves around issues of illness, disability, and resilience. She is a PhD Candidate and Fellow in Theatre & Performance Studies at the University of Missouri with a graduate minor in health advocacy. Her dissertation is "The Performance of Healing: An Autoethnography of Dis/ease and Care in Activist Performance." She has an MA in Theatre from Miami University and holds graduate certificates in Community Processes, in Grantsmanship, and in Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies.
She specializes in applied theatre, using performance methods as therapeutic/ educational/ advocacy tools. She blends Theatre of the Oppressed, psychodrama, storytelling, community-based theatre, and performance ethnography among other applied methods to ensure that her work has specific benefits to those involved.
Sarah also serves as Associate Director of the Center for Applied Theatre and Drama Research, Managing Director of the Troubling Violence Performance Project, and Development Officer of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s Women and Theatre Program.
insaf sensri
I am a teacher at University of badji Mokhtar-Annaba. I am a doctoral Student. my field of interst includes: comparative literature, religious studies, narratology, ethnic literatures and medical humanities.
Luca Settimo
Luca Settimo, Honorary Post-doctoral Fellow (Theology), University of Nottingham
I have a background as a scientist in pharmaceutical sciences and clinical research - in particular, my work in this field led to the publication of several scientific articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, a scientific monograph (my PhD thesis in Structural Bioinformatics and Computational Chemistry), and different patents.
Given my interest in the dialogue between Science and Theology (an interest which was born some years ago while I participated to some student activities on this subject organised by the University of Oxford), I decided to study Theology, and in July 2019 I obtained a MA in Systematic and Philosophical Theology from the University of Nottingham (with distinction). In order to have a strong influence in the dialogue between Science and Theology, following my dissertation in this field, in October 2019 I started to study for a PhD in Theology at the University of Nottingham. In 2022 I successfully completed my doctoral studies in Theology and in December 2022 I was also conferred the title of Honorary Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Department of Theology and Religious Studies.
More information:
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/humanities/departments/theology-and-religious-studies/people/atxls1
Persephone Sextou
Persephone Sextou is Professor in Applied Theatre for Health and Wellbeing at Newman University in Birmingham, UK. She is the leading expert of bedside theatre for children in healthcare. She is also Adjunct Research Fellow at Griffith University in Australia developing pioneering inter-disciplinary research about the role of arts-based immersive technology in children's wellbeing in palliative care.
She is the founder and artistic director of the Community and Applied Drama Laboratory (CADLab) at Newman. CADLab was set it up in 2010 with an Enterpreneurship Award from HEFCE & Unltd. CADLab is a research unit that develops knowledge-transferred projects for young populations in hospitals and hospices. she has received funding from The Lottery Community Fund, BBC Children in Need, NHS Arts and Charities to comtinue her arts-based research projects for children in hospital in partnership with the J.Brindley Academies at Birmingham Children's Hospital NHS. In response to Covid-19, Persephone introduced bespoke Online resources such as animated films, educational packages and activities for hospitalised and isolated children due to the pandemic. https://www.newman.ac.uk/research/cadlab/
She is also the author of "Theatre for Children in Hospital. The Gift of Compassion" published with Intellect (2016) and 3 monographs in Greek. She is currently working on her monograph contracted by Routledge.
To view Professor Persephone Sextou's profile, click here: https://www.newman.ac.uk/staff/dr-persephone-sextou/
Elif Sezen
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Elif Sezen, PhD, MA, BFA, Dip A.Th, is a multidisciplinary artist, bilingual writer/poet and researcher. She was born in Melbourne in 1981: She lives and works in Melbourne. Elif obtained her PhD in Fine Art from Monash University. In her doctoral research she explored various ways of reconceptualising memory traces emerging from trauma and loss. She researched potential new models of constructing the self through visual and poetic images, ranging from various media including artist’s books, painting, sculpture, installation, mixed media, printmedia, photography, digital projection, and poetry.
Her recently published books include Universal Mother (GloriaSMH Press, 2016), and A Little Book of Unspoken History (Puncher&Wattmann, 2018). In her multidisciplinary practice Elif speculates upon reconceptualising memory traces emerging from familial, personal and collective trauma and loss. This explorative process leads her to a restorative and even a celebratory notion of self-construction, desire, longing and a sense of homecoming. Elif is a lecturer at AIST (Australian Institute for Science and Technology), where she is currently preparing courses which she will teach in the fields of Arts in Health & Wellbeing, and Visual Art. Her website: www.elifsezen.com Email: elifszn@yahoo.com
Johanna Shapiro
Johanna Shapiro, Ph.D. is professor of family medicine and director of the Program in Medical Humanities & Arts, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine. As a psychologist and medical educator, she had focused her research and scholarship on the socialization process of medical education, with a special focus on the impact of training on student empathy; and on the doctor-patient relationship, including physician interactions with "difficult," stigmatized, and culturally diverse patient populations. Dr. Shapiro is a poetry co-editor for the e-magazine Pulse, an assistant editor for Family Medicine, and a special editor for Journal for Learning through the Arts. Dr. Shapiro has received numerous teaching awards, including The Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award and the UCI Excellence in Teaching Award. She has authored or co-authored over 130 refereed publications. Her recent book, The Inner World of Medical Students: Listening to Their Voices in Poetry, is a critical analysis of important themes in the socialization process of medical students as expressed through their creative writing.
prateeksha sharma
A classical musician from India, who also works in interdisciplinary research in Mental health, disability, qualitative research