Media and Epidemics

From Philoctetes to HAL 9000. Acting on the theatre stage against loneliness and exclusion “I have been alone and very wretched, without friend or comrade, suffering a great deal.” Philoctetes Photo by Adrian Lach What do Juan Mann, who offered free hugs to passers-by in Sydn…

Our blog post centres the performance of ‘Philoctetes’ Journey. The Return’, a collaboration between the Polish MEDEP team & Teatr 21 (Centre for Inclusive Art/Theatre 21), which mainly comprises actors with disabilities, and its significance for #disabilitystudies mediaepidemics.com/2026/02/18/f...

An exciting conclusion to my time as Research Fellow on the @mediaandepidemics.bsky.social project! Dr Melissa Dickson & I are co-writing a book ‘A British Literary Contagion: ‘Russian Flu’ and Popular Culture at the Fin de Siècle’ for the @manchesterup.bsky.social @sshmedicine.bsky.social series🦠

Take a look at the latest article from the Media and Epidemics team by @lotysz.bsky.social and Magdalena Zdrodowska on using postage stamps as a tool to raise health awareness for #polio prevention. Take a look at this free access #hstm #medhums article here: ejournals.eu/czasopismo/k...

Flu in five charts - how this year's winter outbreak is different - BBC News NHS England says it's facing a "worst-case scenario" after flu hospital cases jump 55% in a week.

As the UK’s #flu #influenza #superflu season intensifies, it is interesting to see it being personified as ‘unrelenting’, or ecologically as a ‘wave’. Our researchers examine how figurative language & texts have shaped media responses to the flu since the 19th century🤧 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Join Amelia Bonea and Irina Nastasa-Matei online on Thursday 4th December (7pm-8pm CET) to discuss their Manchester University Press book Negotiating Invisibility: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/events/book-...

For example, these government documents (once marked private) at the National Archives show the unfolding of a major influenza pandemic in the 1890s in Britain and Barbados

The private notes and secret documents that tell the inside story of the UK's Covid response The Covid inquiry is set to publish its second set of findings looking in detail at the huge political decisions that had to be made in 2020.

As #Covid19enquiry documents are released, it highlights the themes of secrecy & exposure in the masses of correspondence, manuscripts & media which underpin #pandemic outbreaks. The Media and Epidemics project explores many of these themes from the 19th century to now www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Our Media and Epidemics team is clearly on the same (archival) page with an unplanned encounter in the @wellcomecollection.bsky.social archives! ⬇️

When the @euchanse.bsky.social UK and Polish team bumped into each other in the @wellcomecollection.bsky.social archives! @dremilyvincent.bsky.social was reviewing the Medical Officers of Health records & adverts about the 1890s flu #epidemic and Zuza was researching deaf studies & zine culture 🦠 📖

A grand premiere! The theatre performance Filokteja, created in collaboration with MEDEP and co-directed by Justyna Lipko-Konieczna from the Polish team, will be performed at Centrum Sztuki Włączającej / Teatr 21 on 27 November. Find your tickets here:
trwarszawa.pl/program/filo...

Media and Epidemics (MEDEP) Technologies of Science Communication and Public Health in the 20th and 21st Centuries

Visit our blog page for a range of posts on #medhums #histmed #hstm #litsci topics around technologies of communication and epidemic disease over time: mediaepidemics.com/blog/

You can read our Media and Epidemics @euchanse.bsky.social @ukri.org ‘Story of Change’ which reflects our project’s work on narrative vulnerability during #Covid19 as a result of a collaboration with non-profit organisation Fragile Society. See this and more here: chanse.org/medep/ #hstm #medhums

Epidemics in Word and Imagination: Ukrainian Literature Between Folklore, the Press, and Science “…epidemics are never only about pathogens. They are also filtered through the words of newspapers, proclamations, and popular accounts — words that, like folk tales, provided framework…

We have an insightful new blog post from Dmytro Yesypenko about the role of folklore and epidemics in nineteenth-century #Ukranian literature #hstm #histmed #litsci #medhums: mediaepidemics.com/2025/08/29/e...

The PI of our Polish team Sławomir Łotysz has just published an open-access article, "The Fear of AIDS in Late Socialist Poland," in Balkanistic Worlds #hstm #histmed: balkanistica.com/current-issu...

Fascinating hearing about the highly gendered visual and textual marketing and media representations of the Polidin vaccine in Romania (first marketed as an influenza cure, then a panacea) where female scientists were depicted as industrious yet unnamed #hstm #histsci #histmed #medhums

Gendered media representations depicted women scientists in photographs as industrious innovators yet their names remained invisible in texts, whereas male scientists were named and celebrated in texts marketing the vaccine. We look forward to reading the published research soon!

Today’s research seminar was presented by Irina Nastasa-Matei (our Romanian team PI) about the portrayal of the Polidin vaccine in Romanian media. Polidin was first marketed as a specialist cure for influenza and later as a panacea for a range of illnesses #hstm #histsci #histmed #medhums

If you’re interested in epidemics and healthcare during the communist era, don’t miss this seminar tomorrow at 10am (Central European Time)/ 9am (UK) - all are welcome & scan QR code below for Zoom link ⬇️ #hstm #medhums

Scan QR below for our seminar on Tues Sept 16 on Zoom! Irina Nastasa-Matei will discuss the public management of flu epidemics & the reorganization of Romania's healthcare system, medical infrastructure, & pharmaceutical industry during the communist era, citing the Polidin vaccine ⬇️

The Media and Epidemics team and @dremilyvincent.bsky.social really enjoyed presenting at the @euchanse.bsky.social #WeAreCHANSE conference, meeting humanities & social sciences researchers from across Europe to see how digital culture has (& continues to) transform over time @horizoneu.bsky.social

Our project was represented by @dremilyvincent.bsky.social who focused on the necessary diversity of our sources (from historic newspapers, to postage stamps) for examining the range of lived #pandemic experiences and how our research of the past can prepare us for pandemic futures #hstm #medhums

I’ll be presenting our team’s findings later this afternoon 🎉 🇵🇱

The Media and Epidemics (MEDEP) team have heard a great keynote about the necessity of the humanities and social sciences in the digital age for combating disinformation and ethical concerns across Europe and on a global scale @euchanse.bsky.social #WeAreCHANSE

The Media and Epidemics (MEDEP) team have arrived in Kraków for the @euchanse.bsky.social #WeAreCHANSE conference. We’re looking forward to sharing our findings and meeting the rest of the CHANSE projects!

I’m looking forward to presenting our findings on historic epidemics and technologies of communication on behalf of @mediaandepidemics.bsky.social at the @euchanse.bsky.social conference in Kraków on Monday! 🇵🇱 #hstm #histsci #litsci #epidemics #pandemic #medhums

The Media and Epidemics team are excited to present an overview of our research activities (from archival research to creative writing workshops) & key outputs (books, journal articles, an international conference & more) @euchanse.bsky.social Final Conference in Kraków on Monday! 🇵🇱

Our research into historical #pandemics and literature has just been published on the medical humanities platform @the-polyphony.bsky.social - find it here ⬇️ #medhums #hstm #histsci #litsi

Me and Melissa Dickson will be co-presenting research from our forthcoming @mediaandepidemics.bsky.social book to the Sydney Uni Interdisciplinary 19C Study Group on Thursday 21st on Zoom. I’ll be looking at how influenza epidemics were represented in spiritualist fiction and periodicals 📰 📖 👻

An edited collection from MEDEP team members Amelia Bonea and Irina Nastasă-Matei on women, science, engineering and medicine in the twentieth century is out today: www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781...

On Thursday at the @bavs-uk.bsky.social conference I’ll be on the Wilde panel discussing ‘moral pestilence’, miasma, contagion, the 1890s influenza epidemic, and immorality as an ‘Aesthetic condition’ for Wilde, Thomas Mann, and Arthur Symons! Part of the @mediaandepidemics.bsky.social project 🦠😷📖📰