- Home
-
Study
Study
Interested in studying at Northumbria? With 31,500 students, Northumbria is one of the largest universities in the country, offering courses on either a full-time, part-time or distance learning basis.
Discover more-
Undergraduate
- Undergraduate Study
- Undergraduate Events
- Application Guides
- Northumbria University UCAS Exhibitions
- Foundation Years
- Undergraduate Fees & Funding
- School & College Outreach
- Continuing Professional Development
-
Postgraduate
- Postgraduate Study
- Postgraduate Research Degrees
- Postgraduate Open Days and Events
- Postgraduate Fees & Funding
- Flexible Learning
- Thinking about a Masters?
- Continuing Professional Development
- Change Direction
-
Student Life
- The Hub - Student Blog
- Accommodation
- Life in Newcastle
- Support for Students
- Careers
- Information for Parents
- Students' Union
- Northumbria Sport
-
-
International
International
Students from all over the world choose Northumbria University for many reasons; our academic excellence, and that they will benefit from a fantastic student experience.
Discover more-
Applying to Northumbria
- European Union
- Our London Campus
- Our Amsterdam Campus
- Northumbria Pathway
- International Events
- Northumbria and your Country
- Entry Requirements
- Agent Information
-
Northumbria Language Centre
- Faculty Requirements
- Acceptable English Requirements
- Pre-Sessional English and Study Skills
- Academic Language Skills Programmes (ALS)
-
International & EU Fees, Funding & Scholarships
- EU/International Undergraduate Fees
- EU/International Undergraduate Funding
- EU/International Masters Fees
- EU/International Masters Funding
- EU/International Postgraduate Research Fees
- EU/International Postgraduate Research Funding
- International Money Matters
-
Life at Northumbria
- International student support
- The Hub - Student Blog
- Careers
-
Study Abroad Erasmus and Exchange
- Study Abroad, Exchange and Erasmus
- Incoming Students
- Europe (Erasmus +) - including staff mobility
-
-
Business
Business
The world is changing faster than ever before. The future is there to be won by organisations who find ways to turn today's possibilities into tomorrows competitive edge. In a connected world, collaboration can be the key to success.
Discover more -
Research
Research
Northumbria is a research-rich, business-focused, professional university with a global reputation for academic quality. We conduct ground-breaking research that is responsive to the science & technology, health & well being, economic and social and arts & cultural needs for the communities
Discover more -
About Us
About Us
Northumbria University is based in the heart of Newcastle upon Tyne, which is regularly voted the best place in the UK for students who are attracted by our excellent academic reputation, our top 10 graduate employment record and our outstanding campus and sports facilities.
Discover more-
About Northumbria
- Our Vision
- Our Staff
- Our Partners
- Student Profiles
- Alumni Profiles
- Leadership & Governance
- Academic Departments
- University Services
- History of Northumbria
- Contact us
- Online Shop
-
-
Alumni
Alumni
Northumbria University Alumni Association ensures our graduates stay in touch with news from the University and fellow alumni. With membership of over 222,000 graduates in 176 countries worldwide; it doesn’t matter where you are located or what you are doing, YOU are our global alumni family. It's free to join for graduates of Northumbria University and our constituent colleges.
Discover more - Work For Us

The perception of truth is almost as simple a feeling as the perception of beauty; and the genius of Newton, of Shakespeare, of Michael Angelo, and of Handel, are not very remote in character from each other. Imagination, as well as reason, is necessary to perfection in the philosophical mind. A rapidity of combination, a power of perceiving analogies, and of comparing them by facts, is the creative source of discovery. Humphry Davy (1805)
Northumbria’s Medicine, Health and Wellbeing in the Humanities Research Group reflects the University’s dedication to cross-disciplinary working to engage with some of the most important subjects to our society. With a chronological coverage from the early modern period to the present day, members of this group hold a variety of specialist interests in both physical and mental health, as well as the wider cultural management of the body. Our research has been supported by a range of funders such as the Leverhulme Trust, Wellcome Trust, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), along with the Engineering and Physical Space Research Council (EPSRC), the Northern Bridge Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership (AHRC), and the European Commission (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Research Fellowship Programme).
Our Research Group collaborates with other regional, national and international institutions and we are keen to test the boundaries and shape the future of medical and health humanities and its surrounding cultures. Examples of this type of work include the Wellcome Trust-funded ‘Thinking Through Things: Object Encounters in the Medical Humanities’ and AHRC-EPSRC-funded ‘Memoryscapes’ projects. Members of the group also work within and lead a range of learned societies including the Northern Network for Medical Humanities (NNMH), British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (BSECS), International Laurence Sterne Foundation, North American Society for the Study of Romanticism (NASSR), Contemporary Studies Network and the British Association for Contemporary Literary Studies.
We enjoy working with the public and making positive contributions to contemporary problem-solving. We have worked with a variety of organisations including The National Trust, New Writing North, and Durham Book Festival. Exhibitions of members’ work have taken place at SNGMA, Edinburgh; Beaux Arts (ENSBA), Paris, Shandy Hall, Yorkshire; the Royal Society of Medicine, London and the Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon. Our researchers also engage with UK Parliament and its processes for creating change. New members from across the University are always welcome, as is contact from organisations or prospective research students who might be interested in working with us. For further information follow us on Twitter: @HealthHumsNorth or email to our Research Group Lead Dr Ashleigh Blackwood.
Across our wide array of interests, we have a number of signature themes that highlight just some of our current and developing research, as well as previous actitivies:
The Language and Literature of Medicine
At the core of our work is an active interest in literature, language and medicine. We enjoy exploring themes such as narrative medicine and the linguistics of health communication. Medical manuals, novels, poetry, periodicals, remedy books, manuscripts, comics, memoir, and policy make up just some of the types of writing with which our researchers work. Our current major project funded by the Leverhulme Trust, ‘Writing Doctors: Medical Representation and Personality, ca. 1660-1832’. Our researchers have also been working with the National Trust’s Seaton Delaval Hall and North-East families to provide fun-filled learning on medicine of the past through our performance event Georgians’ Marvellous Medicine.
Mental and Cognitive Health, Illness, and Wellbeing
Mental and cognitive health and wellbeing has been a longstanding interest of Northumbria’s medical and health humanities team. One of our early collaborative research projects, ‘Before Depression’, established this as an interest which has only since grown. Our team engages not only with conceptualisations of mental health and how it has been culturally managed throughout time, but also the range of lifestyle factors to which mental wellbeing is connected. Community and outreach projects with organisations in the heritage sector bring arts and historical resources to health and social care challenges related to ageing. One of our current projects, ‘Writing the Sleep Crisis’, funded by the Wellcome Trust, explores how sleep, and lack thereof, is represented in contemporary writings across fiction, non-fiction, and digital culture. The project involves collaboration with the Northumbria Centre for Sleep Research. As part of the Being Human, the UK’s national festival of the humanities, the project’s Forty Winks Café brought the public into conversation about sleep patterns and health during a time of global pandemic. Find out more on Twitter: @writing_sleep.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for Health and Wellbeing
We engage with themes such as gender, sexuality, professional identity, disability, and education, examining how each affects health culture and experience. In November 2020 we ran our Sex Education Zine Café as part of the Being Human Festival. This event offered an opportunity for our researchers to come together with groups who have been underrepresented in the building and delivery of sex education, notably those who identify as being part of the disabled, queer, trans and women’s communities. Discussions focused on the past, present, and future of learning and how we can keep supporting a more inclusive education. Our team also has specific interests in women’s experience and participation in provision of maternity healthcare, including the hidden histories that influence how we understand and communicate important health messages today. Earlier research has also approached health equalities from a socio-economic perspective, such as our collaborative Leverhulme project ‘Fashionable Diseases: Medicine, Literature and Culture, ca. 1660-1832’.
Allied Health Humanities
We take a special interest in allied health humanities and look to push the boundaries of the field to include nursing and midwifery. Work within our Group looks at inter-professional education, the heritage of allied health professions, and mentoring. Our latest Banner Project, funded by Northumbria’s Institute of Humanities, explores the contribution that humanities might have to make current challenges in midwifery and changes in models of care as outlined in the Better Births National Maternity Review and the more recent Ockenden Report. It is our belief that Humanities subjects have a significant role to play in the advancement of effective and sustainable healthcare and communication for the future.
Membership
Professor Clark Lawlor (English Literature)
Dr Ashleigh Blackwood (English Literature)
Emeritus Professor Allan Ingram (English Literature)
Professor Christine Borland (Arts) (ADSS)
Dr Helen Williams (English Literature)
Laurence Sullivan (Leverhulme Trust PGR English Literature) (ADSS)
Professor Katy Shaw (English Literature)
Dr Diletta De Cristofaro (English Literature) (ADSS)
Dr Kit Heyam (English Literature) (ADSS)
Dr Alison Steven (Nursing and Midwifery) (HLS)
Suzanne Crozier (Midwifery) (HLS)
Emma Croft (Social Work and Community) (HLS)
Ann Creaby-Attwood (Law) (BL)
Dr Katie Aske (English Literature) (ADSS)
Dr Mel Gibson (Social Work and Community) (HLS)
Dr Juliana Thompson (HLS)
Grace Denton (Arts PGR) (ADSS)
Dr Leigh Wetherall Dickson (English Literature) (ADSS)
Beth Brigham (Northern Bridge PGR, English Literature) (ADSS)
Dr Catherine Bailey (Nursing) (HLS)
Dr Mimi Huang (English Language) (ADSS)
Dr Claire Nally (English Literature) (ADSS)
Dr Katherine Butler (Music) (ADSS)
Dr Helena Goodwyn (English Literature) (ADSS)
Tweets by HealthHumsNorth
English Research
- American Studies
- Creative Writing
- Eighteenth-Century and Romantic Studies
- English Language and Linguistics
- Environmental Humanities
- Gendered Subjects
- Medicine, Health and Wellbeing
- Medieval and Early Modern Cultures
- Power and Politics in Language and Literature
- Scholarly Editing and Print Culture
- Postgraduate Study