My article on PhDs in Theatre Studies was published in The Stage on 9th May. Given that it happened a few days before my birthday I manged to completely miss it! If anyone has any belated comments please feel free to add them here.
In favour of diagnosis? Choosing the right language to talk about mental health
On 16th May I went along to The Reader Organisation’s conference ‘shared reading for healthy communities,’ were there was plenty of thought provoking dialogue to confirm and also challenge some of these beliefs. To recap from my previous post, The Reader are an organisation who run shared reading groups in clinical and community settings, often with individuals who have problems with alcoholism, chronic pain or depression. As part of the first session, reader Jon Greenhalgh testified to the impact that one of these groups had on his own life, by helping him to end a long relationship with alcoholism. Less than one hour in and I was already witnessing powerful testimony about the value of shared reading for personal wellbeing!
We need a new language for mental health. The Reader Organisation conference
The way we use language to talk about mental illness has a significant impact on how society understands specific conditions. Medical terms such as ‘bi-polar’ or ‘depression’ create a framework of symptoms or behaviors that individuals might be expected to exhibit in social situations, leading to common stereotypes and misunderstanding. While medical language is valid for certain purposes, it is necessary to develop a more nuanced lexicon to enable suffers to express the complexity of their own subjective experiences and to enrich social understandings of mental health issues.
I got really excited this week, when I came across The Reader Organisation’s annual conference titled “We need a new language for mental health”. This call to arms seems to acknowledge the importance of language in defining mental crisis. The title fired my imagination and got me asking, what might a new language for talking about mental health sound like? What kinds of words might be most adequate for reflecting the complexity of emotions such as fear, anxiety and anger?
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Should British Universities abolish PhDs in Theatre Studies? Seeking opinions from potential PhDs
Philippa Strandberg; a potential PhD student in theatre who I have interviewed for my article, teaching her BA students at Italia Conti
This week I am finishing a piece of writing for The Stage with a working title of “Should British Universities abolish PhDs in Theatre Studies?” The title is intentionally provocative and is devised in response to an article that was published in The Chronicle of Higher Education in America earlier this year. Written by a disenfranchised PhD in Theatre, this article attacked the PhD qualification as being worthless in the context of a shrinking American academic job market.
Web Archiving and the production of Art History: a talk at The Arnolfini
Performance Re-enactment Society, After Yoko Ono, Grapefruit (1964), Arnolfini, 2009, Photo Carl Newland
Have you ever wondered what happens to a website after people stop using it? When technology develops and pages are redesigned or abandoned, digital content can be lost forever. At a time when some of the best writing around live art, performance and experimental practices now takes place online, we stand to lose vital historical information if these sites are not properly archived.
Technology and Mental Crisis: E-Mental Health at NHS South East and Cinema and Psychosis at The Barbican
From the Buddy App presentation at E-Mental Health: Harnessing the Power of Digital. Photo with thanks to @claireOT
It might feel counterintuitive that technological tools should serve as arbiters of human emotion. Plastic and aluminium may have mouldable ergonomic properties, but they can’t give you a hug at the end of a miserable afternoon.
Last week I attended two consecutive conferences that illustrated the myriad ways that humans do use technology to illustrate and augment feelings of mental distress. Cinema and Psychosis at The Barbican and E-Mental Health, Harnessing the Power of Digital at NHS South East were organised with very different agendas in mind, but in my opinion, both helped to demonstrate how technological tools have become so essential in helping to change perceptions and aid treatment of mental crisis in a rapidly developing technological world.
An unlikely place for performance art? Help me find Birkenhead Dada…
I’ve recently landed an exciting job working for a small organisation called Unfinished Histories. They have a Heritage Lottery Fund grant to record British Alternative Theatre, 1968 -88, through interviews and collecting of archival material. We’re on the look out for preforming artists and directors who were involved with alternative companies that performed in the Camden and Lambeth area during this period. If you were part of this scene, we want to hear from you!
My writing recommended in The Guardian Society daily
Thanks to Guardian journalist Clare Horton for recommending my recent piece for Mind Charity in The Guardian Society daily round up on Tuesday. With only 15 days left before dissertation deadline, its nice to get a nod of approval from my favourite national newspaper!
Mercy podcast for Liverpool Biennial 2012
I’m seriously psyched about the season of podcasts I’ve been commissioned by Mercy to produce for this year’s Liverpool Biennial. Its pretty exciting to be making content that will be featuring each week on the Biennial website and app.
Rules of engagement: Mental health and the Internet. For mental health charity Mind
I wrote a blog post for Mind Charity about my research on the internet and mental health. With less than a month to go before dissertation deadline, its exciting to get feedback on some of my ideas from a public audience! Click below to read the article:
