International Health Humanities Network Membership

I am an Irish academic. I am currently teaching English in England. I am looking to further my research interests in literary theory, literature and mental health. I wrote my PhD thesis on schizophrenia and I have also written a book on the subject which will be released shortly. It is entitled "The Deconstructive Owl of Minerva: An Examination of Schizophrenia through Philosophy, Psychoanalysis and Postmodernism." As well as theory I am also very interested in theatre, art appreciation and music in the area of mental health.

https://www.brookes.ac.uk/nursing/about/staff/?wid=nursing staff directory&op=full&uid=p0033922

I currently work for the Mental Health Research network but will be moving on shortly to new pastures. I am a service user with a lot of experience of Research around Mental Health. Being involved in all sorts of areas

• I am also a classically trained Soprano, singing in Nottingham and other areas

Jessica P. Bytautas is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Public Health at the University of Helsinki. Ms. Bytautas holds degrees in philosophy from McMaster University (BA with honours, 2010) and health services research from the University of Toronto (MSc, 2015). Currently, she serves as Research Consultant at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto and Editorial Assistant at the European Journal of Humour Research. Ms. Bytautas’ PhD research explores palliative care patients’ and physicians' experiences of humour using an arts-based research approach.

My background is in Cultural Psychology, although in my PhD I worked with an interdisciplinary approach that included Critical Theory and Literature, and I have taught courses in Medical Anthropology. My interest is in narratives as ways of constructing perceptions on reality, and on the self. I have worked with the diaries of Virginia Woolf, and Frida Kahlo, and with the autobiography of Natalie Sarraute. Presently I am part of the organising board of the 5th International Health Humanities Conference (Seville, Spain). 

Barbara has a background in historical research with a BA(Hons) and PhD in social and cultural history and has worked in the heritage industry. She is currently a Senior Research Associate in the Centre for Academic Primary Care at the University of Bristol. Here she works on projects relating to medicines and prescribing, telephone consultations and the collection, storage, and reuse of research data. In parallel, she is developing a programme of interdisciplinary research focusing on the history of primary care and everyday health.

Linda Cadier is a PhD student at the University of Southampton about to complete a thesis exploring translocality and super-diversity implications amongst medical interpreters at Southampton’s maternity hospital. She has given conference papers on her research, as well as being invited to give many presentations to community groups in Southampton.

Verusca Calabria's research interests are oral history theory and practice, shared authority, participatory action research and mental health. She has worked as a professional Oral Historian in the education and voluntary sectors for the last 10 years. She has led 20 community-based oral history projects, and taught oral history theory and practice in community settings and in universities.

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Verusca is a trustee of the Oral History Society (www.ohs.org.uk) and an Oral History Networker for the Nottinghamshire area, providing support and advice in the field of oral history to individuals and groups in the region.

Verusca is currently undertaking a PhD in the oral history of the Nottingham asylums. Her research project aims to capture the voices of older mental health service users who lived in mental hospitals and those of the staff that provided care, before these personal narratives are lost.

Felicity is an interdisciplinary scholar.

Paul is a clinical health psychologist with an interest in arts and health. He is director of research in the Dept of Applied Psychology, Canterbury Christ Church University, Salomons campus, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, UK. Much of his recent research has been in community-based settings and in particulular, museums and art galleries. He is co-founding executive editor of Arts & Health: An International Journal for Research, Policy and Practice, published by Routledge and sponsored by the Society for Arts in Healthcare. He is also a member of the Material Objects Research Group (MORG) www.morg.org.uk and a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health and the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA).