HEALTH HUMANITIES
It provides a platform for discussing and representing interest in the many different manifestations of health, wellbeing, and care-related research across GSA. It is concerned with understanding the experiences and issues of, and contributions from people in Scotland, the wider UK and potentially globally as the basis for research and developing new knowledge.
The themes of enquiry in the cluster are shaped by the research interests of its members:
• Taylor’s interests are in the participatory design, through interdisciplinary approaches, of digital technologies for health and care;
• Macdonald’s interests are in: interdisciplinarity; the use of digital, visual and collaborative methods, particularly relating to the co-design of training interventions; how certain healthcare epistemes dominate, such as those used in infection prevention training (e.g. microbiology and infection prevention knowledge) when complementary approaches from the arts and humanities, such as visual and narrative methods might also be helpful for addressing complex challenges.
• Roan and Keogh’s interests are in the more experiential aspect of healthcare technologies, using feminist narrative analysis from primary qualitative data as an approach to interpreting and discussing women’s experiences of healthcare technologies.
As our cluster membership grows, our portfolio will expand.
Having contributed to GSA’s REF2014 and REF2021 health-related Impact Case Studies, we envisage potential input into the REF2029 Impact Case Study on Health: Wellbeing and Care.
Susan Roan, Communication Design Lecturer
Andrea Taylor, Research Fellow
Project 01. Design-led ageing, health and care-related research
My specialisms are in age, health and care-related research concerned with the interdisciplinary co-development of healthcare interventions. Using design-led, narrative and visual methods, interventions for, e.g., the physical rehabilitation of stroke survivors, monitoring older hospital patients with malnutrition, and staff training for infection prevention and control (IPC), have been co-developed. This title slide for a presentation made at the Design4Health 2024 conference reflects the current stage of a series of UKRI-funded research studies to develop IPC training apps, in collaboration with a number of NHS trusts, industry partners and universities.
Prof Alastair S Macdonald, Senior Researcher, School of Design
https://radar.gsa.ac.uk/profile/197
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9282-6229
a.macdonald@gsa.ac.uk
Project 02. Human Echoes
Working with the sound material we gathered through first-hand interviews for the ‘Ultrasonic Glasgow’ research project, our current practice-based research is rooted in our roles as artist and graphic designer, expanding to explore a range of light-based printing processes; projection, cyanotype and camera-less photography. We continue to reflect on the only recorded accounts of the women in Glasgow in the 1960s, who received the world’s first obstetric ultrasound scans.
Through a feminist voice-centred method of narrative enquiry, we explore ways to visualise the voice on the page to capture the sharing of and listening to experiences of early ultrasound scanning. Through material, light-based processes, typographic and compositional exploration, we are working with the women’s voices, stories, memories and experiences; turning their inner worlds outwards for the first time; bringing light into the dark.
Project 03. Health Humanities Study Group: MOTHERCLUSTER/ Studies in the Maternal
The Mothercluster study group will meet once a semester (in person) to explore a wide variety of aspects of the maternal. Topics will include for example: medicine, culture and maternal bodies; the politics of childbirth; reproductive technologies; philosophies of the maternal; surrogacy; breastfeeding; the emerging concept of matrescence; mother-networks; disability and the politics of care.
Members of the cluster will be invited to select materials for the discussions which may include books, articles, talks, podcasts or films. Our main ambition is to foster a vibrant and supportive community at GSA around the theme of the maternal to nurture possible future collaborations and build bonds across disciplines and academic / non-academic roles.
Membership of the cluster is open to all members of the GSA community to discuss all historical and contemporary areas of the politics of the maternal and welcomes all genders and experiences.
Project 04. On-Organ Sensing
Bowel problems, and particularly bowel incontinence, are prevalent health issues worldwide that can have a devastating effect on an individual’s life. Andrea is part of an interdisciplinary team, led by Heriot-Watt University, developing a system of implantable sensors paired with a smartphone app.
The sensor is designed to attach to the colon, detecting changes in the bowel as stool passes through and transmitting the data to the app in real-time. The aim is to help adults better understand their bowel behaviours, supporting improved bowel management and quality of life.