International Health Humanities Network Membership

Christy Tharenos, MD, MSPH is a practicing academic family physician who is passionate about incorporating arts and humanities into her work. She is a former fellow at Georgetown University in Medical Arts and Humanities. She is passionate about using arts based research both on a formal and informal basis in her teaching and practice. She has worked internationally in Uganda and Mexico using Photovoice as a research methodology to explore concepts of physical activity with youth. She also has used the concepts digital self portraits to explore resident physician experiences and perspectives as new doctors. Her background in the arts is centered in the visual arts and computer graphics. 

Soon-to-be graduate student of Psychology in the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, who is currently applying for Health Psychology masters in UK universities. She has been involved as an entrepreneur in start-up companies (Workenter.gr and Open Crete) and as a volunteer in NGOs (AIESEC, Smile of the Child, TEDx). 

I am a Senior Research Fellow on the Cultural Contexts of Health, and a Senior Research Fellow in the Medical School at Exeter University.

After working for several years in the international development sector, I pursued doctoral research on the impacts of HIV and AIDS on rural livelihoods and social support networks in southern Africa. More recently, my work has focused on understanding and addressing the social and cultural factors that perpetuate health inequalities.

Drawing primarily on narrative, ethnographic and participatory approaches, my research examines the ways that people experience health and illness and make decisions over treatment use. I am particularly interested in understanding how certain health 'conditions' become medicalised, and the ways that this inter-relates with poverty, disadvantage and health-related inequalities. My current ESRC-funded project, DeStress (http://destressproject.org.uk) is concerned with understanding how moral narratives relating to responsibility and welfare reform influence the medicalisation of distress and the uptake of antidepressants and talking therapies in low-income communities in the UK.

My work has focused on the health and well-being of low-income communities, migrants and families with complex needs; sexual health and HIV; environment-related health inequities; and the promotion of healthy schools.

I am co-director (with Professor Mark Jackson) of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Culture and Health and work closely with the WHO Regional Office for Europe project on the Cultural Contexts of Health (http://euro.who.int/en/data-and-evidence/cultural-contexs-of-health).

I am a senior researcher for the McPin Foundation and have worked on a number of evaluations that explore the impact of community interventions (e.g. peer support) on mental health. I am also currently involved in developing evaluations that look at the impact of performance and arts therapies on mental health.  During my PhD I explored how narratives and stories may have an impact on attitudes. I also have a personal visual arts practice, have made a number short digital story style films and am exploring more ways of bringing my creative practice and research work together in a more coherent fashion. I am particularly interested in developing projects using verbatim theatre to explore the experience mental health.

Received my MA in Cultural Heritage Studies looking at medical museums and what kinds of emotiona processing may happen there, looking to pursue a PhD analysing how medical museums do or may contribute to broader social health and wellbeing. I also have a longstanding interest in medical humanities and public health.

Reg. Nurse

Master of Arts in Arthistory

Artist

I am a Professor of Archaeology and the History of Art at Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey. I teach courses in Heritage and Museum Studies and am currently conducting research in medical humanities and the history of art, and the hospital as a space for art. 

I am a psychologist and curator. My research interests focus on the use of visual arts in the care of people with dementia. I curated the international exhibition 'art in the asylum' at the Djanogly gallery Nottingham (sept-nov 2013). 

I'm an Anthropologist interested in Health seeking behavior. Final year Ph.D. candidate in Public Health investigating the health-seeking behavior towards the use of medicines (antibiotics).

I'm From Maputo,  Mozambique where I teach and research Health anthropology and health sciences at a university.

MA U of Edinburgh

PhD U of Pennsylvania 

English Professor Lafayette College, PA

Fellow, College of Physicians of Philadelphia

Clinical Ethics Fellow

Foundational/Advanced training in Narrative Medicine, Columbia U, NYC

Consultant-Director, Narrative Professionalism Program, U of Pennsylvania-Health System