Reading Bodies Multilingual Network

Celebrating Disability History Month 2025 To mark Disability History Month in the UK, we’ve collated a reading list from our books and journals that engage with ideas and narratives of disability, particularly our leading journal, Th…

To celebrate #DisabilityHistoryMonth, browse the LUP reading list and enjoy free access to selected disability studies journal articles across the next month.
bit.ly/DisHisMonth25 📖
@davidbolt13.bsky.social

@katharinemurphy.bsky.social and I are very grateful to @cforsdick.bsky.social for wrapping up our takeover of @the-polyphony.bsky.social and for his generous words about the @readingbodies.bsky.social project 💙

My post is up! Thanks to the editors of The Polyphony and to @katharinemurphy.bsky.social and @oliviaglaze.bsky.social for providing a space to discuss how past cultural narratives are shaping our present.

Languages, Medical Humanities and Policy: Intersections in Research and Practice In Part 2 of the Reading Bodies takeover, Olivia Glaze considers the policy and impact potential of research on languages, identity and culture within the medical humanities.

In Part 2 of the @readingbodies.bsky.social takeover, @oliviaglaze.bsky.social considers the policy and impact potential of research on languages, identity and culture within the medical humanities.
thepolyphony.org/2025/10/21/l...

The Biomedical Sciences and the Spanish Avant-Garde In Part 3 of the Reading Bodies takeover, Nicolás Fernández-Medina examines the Spanish avant-garde’s response to the biomedical sciences through the lens of Ramón Gómez de la Serna’s pioneering av…

In Part 3 of the @readingbodies.bsky.social takeover, Nicolás Fernández-Medina examines the Spanish avant-garde’s response to the biomedical sciences through the lens of Ramón Gómez de la Serna’s pioneering avant-gardism.
thepolyphony.org/2025/10/22/b...

Historical Narratives of Illness in the Multilingual Medical Humanities Katharine Murphy introduces the Reading Bodies takeover and discusses what historical discourses of illness in European literatures and cultures contribute to the medical humanities.

@katharinemurphy.bsky.social introduces the @readingbodies.bsky.social takeover and discusses what historical discourses of illness in European literatures and cultures contribute to the medical humanities.
thepolyphony.org/2025/10/20/h...

Languages, Medical Humanities and Policy: Intersections in Research and Practice In Part 2 of the Reading Bodies takeover, Olivia Glaze considers the policy and impact potential of research on languages, identity and culture within the medical humanities.

Happy to share that my piece - 'Languages, Medical Humanities and Policy: Intersections in Research and Practice’ - is out today on @the-polyphony.bsky.social as part of this week's @readingbodies.bsky.social takeover! thepolyphony.org/2025/10/21/l...

Hot off the press! So happy to share our extended special issue of JRS on 'Reading bodies: narrating illness in European literatures and cultures (1870s to 1960s and beyond)'. 🩺📖 @profstevenwilson.bsky.social @ryanlor.bsky.social @nicolasfmedina.bsky.social @ilcs.bsky.social

As part of our Special Issue, I wrote my first article engaging with Disability Studies & crip theory (eek) and discovered the brilliant work of @sunaura.bsky.social, Élaina Gauthier-Mamaril & @kirstyliddiard1.bsky.social, among others. I couldn’t recommend their work more!
🔗 tinyurl.com/2emhnz7w

Contents | Journal of Romance Studies 25, 3 This article was published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

Thrilled that @katharinemurphy.bsky.social and my co-edited Special Issue is now out in the Journal of Romance Studies! 🎉 Huge thanks to our contributors across French, Spanish, Italian & Portuguese studies—showing the value of a multilingual approach to the Medical Humanities: tinyurl.com/mrxmznsm

A poster advertising the webinar. Text reads: "Why are women's symptoms so often dismissed, misdiagnosed, or disbelieved? This webinar explores the intersection of chronic illness, gender bias, and the credibility gap in healthcare. Drawing on research from her upcoming book, Dr Eilidh Galbraith examines how structural inequalities and medical misogyny shape diagnostic practices, clinical listening, and the ethics of care. Through shared lived experience with panelists Charli Clement, author of "All tangled up in autism and chronic illness," Natalie Busari, founder of "the Nerve of my MS" and Tanya Marlow, speaker and author of "Those who Wait" (2017), this session invites participants to reflect on what it means to be heard and to be believed in a system that too often fails those in pain."

"Incredible Women: Chronic Pain, Credibility, and Gender Bias"

📆 Wednesday 17th Sept, 6.30pm on MS Teams

📢 Dr Eilidh Galbraith discusses the findings of her @abdndivinity.bsky.social @leverhulme.ac.uk research project with a panel of guests.

🔗 DM me for event link or see poster for details!

Language scholars produce illustrated health booklet on burnout An illustrated booklet designed to help people talk about burnout and related feelings of stress and fatigue has been published by modern language scholars. The Burnout Booklet: A Health Resource for ...

Delighted to share a news story about our Reading Bodies health resource, The Burnout Booklet, created with @oliviaglaze.bsky.social and illustrated by Hannah Mumby.
@readingbodies.bsky.social

news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-h...

So excited to share this open-access resource, shaped by real stories of burnout from our creative writing workshops & anthology. Hoping it shows how languages research can make a difference in healthcare spaces!

🚨JOB KLAXON🚨

We are recruiting five 5-year postdoctoral fellows to work with us. Each post will be attached to a specific case study on the project (Abortion Care, AI, Physician Associates and/or LGBTQ+ Health Activism).

At:University of Edinburgh
Starting: April 2026
Deadline: 2 October 2025

Publishing today - Feeling blue by @victoriabates.bsky.social 💙

The first book-length history of colour in modern hospitals, thinking expansively about the role of colour in shaping how hospitals felt.

Now #OpenAccess on manchesterhive.com 🔓 - from our @sshmedicine.bsky.social series.

#histmed

🎙️ Elena Semino, Distinguished Professor of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University joins host Dr. Joe Bianco to discuss the subtle and surprising ways that language 🗣️ and humor 😂 shape health experiences 💙.

Fantastic to have MADE For Health back on Lancaster University campus this week as part of the Social Enterprise in Residence scheme!

MADE For Health are a company whose mission is to transform hospital architecture by putting patients and clinicians at the heart of the design process 🏥❤️

Join us at the British Academy on Tue 24 – Wed 25 June, for a conference exploring ethical and political issues that can arise in the context of communicating about health and health care, bringing together experts in philosophical ethics and health practice.

Book your ticket: buff.ly/NsoFDd6

'It opened up something in me': Why people are turning to bibliotherapy "Bibliotherapy" has been soaring in popularity as a means of improving people's wellbeing. But getting it right depends on the book, and the person.

When times are hard
Reading helps
www.bbc.com/future/artic...

Join us next month in Fribourg for our conference Medical Spaces in Cultural Studies, Architecture, Literature: Transdisciplinary Perspectives, generously funded by the @snf-fns.ch. With presentations by @annmarieadams.bsky.social, @marcakeller.bsky.social, and many more!

A copy of the book The Edinburgh Companion to Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities

I just received my copy of The Edinburgh Companion to Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities, feat. a lengthy introduction my @drgavinmiller.bsky.social and I, and a chapter on pregnancy from me. #medicalhumanities #sf #sciencefiction #disabilitystudies

...in a coupla weeks time...

Toward Multilingual Narrative Medicine How could narrative medicine support healthcare professionals’ linguistic skills and sense of social belonging? Anna Ovaska, Sonja Sulkava, Viola Parente-Čapková and Riitta Jytilä share their exper…

How could narrative medicine support healthcare professionals’ linguistic skills and sense of social belonging? Anna Ovaska and colleagues share their experiences of developing a new narrative medicine reading group model in Finland.
thepolyphony.org/2025/05/29/m...

*Interdisciplinary Disease and Narrative Workshop!* Register below for this in-person event @unibirmingham.bsky.social in Arts 103 on Weds 18th June (5.00-7.15pm) hosted by @mediaandepidemics.bsky.social & 19CC Bham to explore sensational tales of disease:

Thank you so much to everyone who attended this event last week, and in particular Sarah Moss, @katharinemurphy.bsky.social and @laurasalisbury.bsky.social. If you couldn’t attend - fear not! - you can find a recording of the conversation on our website: readingbodies.exeter.ac.uk/2025/05/16/w...

@okhromeychuk.bsky.social 'We Are War: On Bearing Witness and Sharing Pain' talk @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social 4 June, 5-5pm + reception and book signing

@exetercityoflit.bsky.social
@ukrinstitute.bsky.social

@okhromeychuk.bsky.social 'Trigger Warning: A Workshop on Writing Pain' @exeterphoenix.bsky.social 3 June 5-6.30pm

@exetercityoflit.bsky.social
@uniofexeterhass.bsky.social
@ukrinstitute.bsky.social

The conference logo. On the right is a matrix of interconnected black lines with a mixture of orange, teal and pink circles marking the insertions. On the left is the text 'Critical Neurodiversity Studies: Directions, Intersections, Contradictions'.

Registration for the Critical Neurodiversity Studies Conference: Directions/Intersections/Contradictions is now open!

🗓️ 24-26 June 2025 (single day tickets available)

📍In-person at Durham University, or online

🔗 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/critical-n...

For those very few remaining people who are not yet sick of listening me to talk about my book, I’ve sent in the final revised manuscript!!

📖Catherine Malabou and Contemporary French Literature and Film: Witnessing Plasticity📖

FORTHCOMING with Edinburgh University Press early 2026!

Happening next Wednesday - everyone welcome!