Health and wellbeing – physical and mental, human and animal, past and present – preoccupies societies. The
expanding discipline of medical humanities seeks to improve health by understanding human experience. In
the College of arts and humanities, an interdisciplinary group explores the social, economic, scientific, political
and geopolitical, environmental and cultural framings of health and wellbeing. We consider how states,
communities, and individuals promote, regulate, and conceptualise health, medicine and wellbeing, and the
intersections with categories such as gender, sexuality, race, religion, and ethnicity.
Our group examines varieties of cultural and linguistic representations of these matters and encourages critical engagement and reflection. Scholars consider research questions on diverse chronological and geographical scales, and in various cultural settings.
Theme Members
Theme Lead:
- Ailise Bulfin
- Lucy Cogan
- Catherine Cox
- Jonathan C. Creasy
- Aude Doody
- Lindsey Earner-Byrne
- Anne Fuchs
- Mary Hatfield
- Clare Hayes-Brady
- Sara Honarmand Ebrahimi
- Claas Kirchhelle
- Tomas McAuley
- Cormac O’Brien
- Michelle O'Connell
- Sandrine Peraldi
- Emilie Pine
- Gillian Pye
- Maria Stuart
- Ashley Taggart
- Alice Mauger
- Gerardine Meaney
- Elizabeth Mullins
- Michael Staunton
- Oisín Wall
- Fionnuala Walsh
Projects, News and Events
Dr Claas Kirchhelle has been awarded a prestigious IRC/AHRC Digital Humanities Initiative award in partnership with Dr Samantha Vanderslott at the Oxford Vaccine Group.
An ambitious digital humanities project on the turbulent history of typhoid control in revolutionary Ireland. The project builds on the multi-award-winning Typhoidland exhibition.Catherine Cox wins UCD 2020 Research Impact Award
Congratulations to Associate Professor Catherine Cox, winner of the UCD 2020 Research Impact Case Study Competition. Her case study, entitled ‘Out of sight, out of mind: changing public perceptions of the mental health crisis in Irish prisons,’ details the significant impact of her project exploring the history of prisoner health.MindReading and RCPI present a unique online event
The seminar on Wednesday 10 March at 5.30pm will explore how literature can help when we experience illness and how literature has reflected the unfortunate recurrence of pandemics throughout human history - ultimately examining how literature can improve communication and foster understanding between medical learners, healthcare providers and service users.Congratulations to UCD’s Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland and Brokentalkers who have won 'Best Production' for ''The Examination' at the Irish Times Theatre Awards.
UCD’s Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland in association with Brokentalkers Theatre Company staged 'The Examination' in 2019.Congratulations to Dr Claas Kirchhelle
UCD School of History is delighted to announce that Dr Claas Kirchhelle has been awarded a prestigious Wellcome Trust University Award in Humanities and Social Sciences.Living Inside Exhibition opens at Kilmainham Gaol
LIVING INSIDE exhibition runs in Kilmainham Gaol from 9 February to 19 May 2019.A story of pain and protest, change and continuity. The exhibition explores the different perspectives of six people whose lives were entangled in the history of prison reform in Ireland.