2nd Joint GOTH-Health & Wellbeing NetWorkshop and Reading Group

10.30 - 12.00

GOTH Critical Reading Group 3

Pavel Drábek (Hull): The Enigma of the English Essay.

The English critical essay is unlike any other. This academic genre has developed out of a tradition of experiment and the cultivation of empirical knowledge. In this seminar, we will borrow Foucault’s approach and look at the archeology of the critical essay as a genre stemming from the philosophy of the Royal Society of London. Established shortly after the Stuart Restoration, it put into practice a project to consolidate a reliable, stable foundation of knowledge. In so doing, the Royal Society vetted the English language and adopted specific methods of experiment and documentation, which have ossified in the critical essay as its prominent genre. The seminar will start with a short talk setting the context, followed by a discussion of the implications and the two readings.

12:00 - 12:45

Lunch break

12:45 - 1:35

Chair’s introduction & introductory lightning networking session

1:35 - 1:45

Catherine Pestano (WELS, OU): New Research interest group - Menopause

Menopause is a growing area of inclusion which hits several protected characteristics (sex, disability, age) and affects many OU colleagues and students. The topic is at the start of its lifecycle in terms of policy and potential future funding. Menopause activist and collaboration-seeking researcher Catherine Pestano summarizes what the OU is up to across a range of disciplines.

1:45 - 2:15

Siobhan Campbell (English and Creative Writing, OU): ‘Communities of Practice and the writer-activist: Meaning, Practice, Community and Identity humanities’

Siobhan Campbell will talk about her work that led up to the AHRC funded project she has just begun with her Lebanese NGO partners. She will explore the creation of a ‘community of practice’, the implications for humanities-based activism, and the development of frameworks for ethical engagement.

2:15 - 2:45

Naomi Barker (Music, OU): ‘To lighten the cares resulting from the misery of human misfortune’: Music, medicine and religion at the Ospedale di Santo Spirito in Sassia

Musical activity at the Ospedale di Santo Spirito and its collegiate church in the early modern period has long been recognised. However, there has been little attempt to interpret the archival evidence alongside musical sources in the light of the intellectual activity – religious, scientific, medical and musical - for which the hospital supplied a locus. This paper presents some results of a research project that aims to synthesise evidence from various archival sources relating to music, medicine and concepts of healing in the Ospedale during the seventeenth century. Focussing on musical and archival sources from the period 1620-1650, this presentation will offer a glimpse of the complex interrelations between the religious and secular activities within the institution. 

2:45 - 3:00

Tea break

3:00 - 4:00

Impact Panel: moderator, Gemma Allen (FASS)

Panellists: Sally Blackburn-Daniels (FASS), Esther Brown (Impact, Knowledge Exchange, FASS), and Lesley Hoggart (Deputy Associate Dean Research, WELS).

Impact is an increasingly important and accepted part of research culture and this roundtable will bring together three panellists that will share their experiences of what makes a good impact narrative, discussing issues such as the design of impact case studies, the generation of appropriate evidence and the relationship between underpinning research and impact.