culture + environment creating health + wellbeing engaged research
culture + environment creating health + wellbeing engaged research
A new short film has been released by one of our partners, the Exeter City of Literature charity, to celebrate Exeter’s status as a UNESCO-designated City of Literature. Centre members were closely involved in the development of the bid in 2019 which was led by Exeter City Council and brought together people and organisations from across the […]
Continue reading...Following two years of successful collaboration with the World Health Organization, WCCEH are pleased to share that their art exhibition, “embodied”, is now available to view in Exeter City Centre. On display in Positive Light Projects until Saturday 30th September, the exhibition features artwork from five excellent artists who have worked in a variety of […]
Continue reading...The experience of waiting in the health sector – from reception areas in healthcare settings, to our homes in anticipation of professional healthcare support – is the focus of an innovative new website that aims to help people improve the quality of time spent in such situations. WhatAreYouWaitingFor.org.uk has been developed to enable people in […]
Continue reading...Centre affiliates Catherine Rider and Sarah Toulalan have been awarded a VivaMente conference grant by the Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance in Pisa, to organise a conference on ‘Fertility, Medicine and the Body: Theory and Practice across the Premodern World’ on 22-23 May 2023. Additional sponsorship has been […]
Continue reading...Children with experience of surrogacy are in favour of legal reforms, according to a new study that marks the first time their views will be included in a review of surrogacy laws. Using a combination of age-appropriate methods, including a unique set of playing cards, researchers have drawn out their thoughts on topics including how […]
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“Shame in Medicine: The Lost Forest” is a 10-part audio documentary series produced by The Nocturnists in collaboration with the Shame and Medicine project at the University of Exeter. It draws on the stories of over 200 healthcare workers across the United States, the United Kingdom, and beyond, this series explores how shame manifests in medical culture. Alongside each […]
Continue reading...An exhibition supporting the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health (WCCEH)’s collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), exploring the ways that attention to behavioural and cultural aspects of life and existence contribute to better health outcomes for people, communities, and planet. Introduction Biomedical and public health approaches to health and wellbeing are […]
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The Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health are incredibly thrilled to be able to announce the projects we are funding through our Transformative Research Awards for 2022/23. Bringing together philosophers, young people, theatre companies, geographers, people with lived experience of voice hearing, SEN teachers, palliative care workers, sociologists, healthcare professionals, artists and […]
Continue reading...Dr Richard Vytniorgu and Dr Jaime Garcia-Iglesias have recently published their report of their study into bottom health, stigma and shame amongst gay men. The project was funded by a Wellcome Humanities and Social Sciences Research Centres Collaborative Research Seed Award, and enabled collaboration between Drs Vytniorgu, who is based at Exeter, and Garcia-Iglesias, who […]
Continue reading...The Health & Resilience Project is a collaboration between the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health and Quay Words, supported by Exeter City of Literature. It seeks to provide spaces in which self-identified women and non-binary people can explore their experiences of wellness and illness through creative expression. Using poetry and art, we […]
Continue reading...The Health & Resilience Project is looking for an illustrator to produce images and graphics for our project website. The project is using poetry and visual art to support women and non-binary people to tell stories of their health experiences. The website will be used to host their work and act a as platform for […]
Continue reading...The Beacon project, Loneliness and Community, led to the development of the Lonely Campus report. The Lonely Campus? An Exploration of Student Loneliness in UK Higher Education “Many students arrive at university with high expectations for sociability, friendship, and belonging. At the same time, however, there is extensive international evidence that many students feel […]
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The sounds of nature could help us recover from mental fatigue, but this power may be under threat as ecosystems deteriorate and people disconnect from the natural world, according to new research published in the journal Global Environmental Change. Led by a team from the University of Exeter, the study analysed data from over 7,500 […]
Continue reading...Dr Robin Durie, Professor Katrina Wyatt, Lorraine Hansford Executive Summary The story of dying in the 21st century is a story of paradox. COVID-19 has meant people have died the ultimate medicalised deaths, often alone in hospitals with little communication with their families. But in other settings, including in some lower income countries, many people […]
Continue reading...As the old academic year draws to a close, and we begin to prepare for the new academic year starting in September, WCCEH are delighted to announce the appointment of a new cohort of PhD students to join the Wellcome Centre during the 2021/22 academic year. Four of these students are funded by our core […]
Continue reading...Centre researchers Kath Maguire and Ritadevi Alflatt have recently started a YouTube channel for the Health and Environment Public Engagement group, based at Cornwall’s European Centre for Environment and Human Health. The group (known as HEPE) provide valuable consultation on researchers’ projects, helping to co-create research that is shaped by the people it impacts. Since […]
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We are pleased to announce that the outputs from 2018’s Mid-Life Conversations conference have been published. The collection, Mid-Life Conversations, is available to read online at the WCCEH website. Compiled and edited by Professor Mark Jackson and Dr Fred Cooper, the collection contains fifteen original pieces of writing – and an original cartoon! – about […]
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In September 2018, the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health held an interdisciplinary conference called “Midlife Conversations”. The conference brought together scholars from across many disciplines, including history, biology, literature, psychology, sociology, and film studies, along with artists and members of the public, to explore the concept of mid-life. The following publication has […]
Continue reading...WCCEH is thrilled to announce that Dr Charlotte Jones and Dr Fred Cooper have been successful in obtaining funding from UK Research and Innovation’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for their EDI theatre engagement project. The Beat of Our Hearts – staging new histories of LGTBQIA loneliness is a new engagement project running in […]
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A new experiment goes live today, investigating how people respond to different kinds of digital nature experience. The study is part of a new collaboration between the BBC and the University of Exeter, called ‘Soundscapes for Wellbeing’, aiming to connect audiences with the nature through creative TV, radio, and online programming. The experiment is exploring […]
Continue reading...WCCEH are delighted to share that Luna Dolezal, Fred Cooper and Arthur Rose have received a UKRI-AHRC COVID Rapid Response Grant (AH/V013483/1) for a project called “Scenes of Shame and Stigma in COVID-19”. This project will identify and investigate, through philosophical, cultural studies and historical analyses, the sites and circumstances of shame, shaming, stigma and […]
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To celebrate Exeter’s status as a UNESCO City of Literature, the Centre held a short call for literary research projects. “Many of us felt lonely before the pandemic, and the lockdown might have made this better, worse, or made no difference at all. Some of us have become isolated recently in a way which is […]
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Dr Dora Vargha has won the 2020 Medical Humanities Award for Best International Research with her research into the impact of epidemics on the political landscape, which has helped to shape current policy on epidemic management. Her book, Polio Across The Iron Curtain, examines the emergence of polio vaccines in 1950s Europe, the manifold politics of […]
Continue reading...The Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health at the University of Exeter has been awarded an additional £1.43m to continue its pioneering engaged and transdisciplinary research. Applying for a two-year extension in July this year, the Centre asked the Wellcome Trust to renew their support for the Centre’s unique research and impact vision. […]
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Luna Dolezal is a Co-Investigator on the Wellcome Trust Collaborative Award project ‘Imagining Technologies for Disability Futures’ which is launching their new website this week: https://itdfproject.org The project is the first to combine expertise in arts and humanities, design, robotics and users of assistive technologies to increase understanding of how disability and embodiment are currently represented and used, and the ways in which […]
Continue reading...Watching high quality nature programmes on TV can uplift people’s moods, reduce negative emotions, and help alleviate the kind of boredom associated with being isolated indoors, according to a new BlueHealth study released today. Centre PhD student Alex Smalley and the BlueHealth team have worked with the BBC Natural History Unit to create experimental conditions to […]
Continue reading...The Shame and Medicine project has officially started, and is launching a new website! (See: https://shameandmedicine.org) Shame and Medicine is an interdisciplinary research project funded by a Wellcome Trust Collaborative Award. The project is led by Luna Dolezal (Exeter) and Matthew Gibson (Birmingham) and based at the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health […]
Continue reading...C2 Connecting Communities – a key partner for WCCEH’s Transforming Engagement Beacon project – recently hosted a webinar with Jennifer Dixon (Chief Executive of the Health Foundation) as part of a series celebrating the launch of Lord Nigel Crisp’s new book, Health is made at home; hospital is for repairs. The webinar series – Building a […]
Continue reading...There is no simple return to the way things were in the aftermath of an epidemic: whatever normal is built in the aftermath is a new normal…much of what we accept as everyday reality in the future will only be seen as different to those who look backward to find the subtle scars where the […]
Continue reading...Jessie Stanier recently delivered a webinar for Professor Susi Ferrarello‘s class Bioethics & Diversity at California State University, on the topic of ‘Making Sense of Ageing and Finding Its Time’. Widely advertised on the Philos-L mailing list, it was well-attended by academics from around the globe as well as the students in the class. Some […]
Continue reading...WCCEH were pleased to co-sponsor the British Society of Phenomenology’s 2020 conference, which, due to the pandemic, was held entirely online for the first time. Despite this, the engagement and participation was incredible from the 150 attendees, especially in the Q&A sessions. The BSP’s conference was co-hosted by the Centre’s Luna Dolezal and Jessie Stanier, […]
Continue reading...WCCEH PhD Student Raawiyah Rifath has begun recruiting for her project. Please contact her if you would like to participate.
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Time Being Deborah Robinson A collaboration with Ruairí Corr 24 September – 26 September 2020 A 14 minute film with sound Socially distanced hourly screenings Free admission Timed tickets only. Booking strongly advised Part of Waiting Times Maketank, 3-5 Paris Street, Exeter EX1 2JB Join us at the spacious Maketank in Exeter City […]
Continue reading...WCCEH research fellow Lorraine Hansford has been working on her project Checking Out since late last year, examining the concept of a “good death” in low-income families and communities, and how this can be achieved. The original plans for Checking Out were amended following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Lorraine has skilfully reconfigured […]
Continue reading...Autism, despite being seen as a particularly ‘male’ condition, is increasingly being diagnosed in women in their 30s, 40s and 50s – or even later in life. WCCEH PhD student Helen Keen is one of them, and she has produced a half-hour documentary – Broad Spectrum – for BBC Radio 4, talking with other women […]
Continue reading...Following his successful collaboration with the BBC on Forest 404, Centre PhD student Alex Smalley has once again collaborated with the BBC on a new four-part series, Mindful Escapes: Breathe, Release, Restore. The series brings together video footage from the The BBC Studios Natural History Unit’s archives with voiceover from Andy Puddicombe, founder of the Headspace mindfulness […]
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Share your experiences of loneliness and Covid-19 as part of a major new creative project People in the South West can now share their experiences of the considerable isolating impact of the coronavirus pandemic, as part of a major new project designed to collect stories of loneliness and community. The Lockdown Blues is an online […]
Continue reading...Following the publication earlier this year of the World Health Organization’s toolkit for Migration and Health, we are pleased to share that the toolkit has now also been turned into a MOOC (massive online open course) through the WHO. The Centre’s Deputy Director for Learning, Dr Felicity Thomas, authored the initial report in close partnership […]
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The Wellcome Centre for Environments and Cultures of Health and The Exeter Centre for the Study of the Life Sciences (Egenis) have been leading a cross-college initiative from SSIS and HUMS to launch the platform “Society With COVID-19”. Drawing on longstanding expertise in the social study of science and in the medical humanities at the University […]
Continue reading...Following an initial seed phase in which three artists were granted funding to think about loneliness, theatre and performance alongside scholars at the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health, we are excited to announce the direction that this collaboration will take. Working closely with the Centre and with Exeter’s Northcott Theatre, the acclaimed […]
Continue reading...Research participants sought: if you have used child-inclusive mediation we would like to speak to you. We are conducting confidential telephone interviews with parents and young people aged 8 and over who have experienced child inclusive mediation. We give a £20 Amazon voucher to parents and a £15 Amazon voucher to the young people we […]
Continue reading...It is with regret that we have decided to cancel the talks and other activities that had been arranged to take place on 18-20 March, as part of WCCEH’s External Advisory Board. Earlier this week, we made the decision to also cancel Professor Judith Green’s public lecture and the conference dinner that was planned. We […]
Continue reading...At the end of January I co-organised a workshop with Enda Santé on Partnership for Healthy and Sustainable Food Systems (Àndadoo ngir lekk bu sel, in Wolof) financed by the Exeter GCRF facilitation fund. The workshop brought community health workers and people from Popenguine together with academic researchers in nutrition, pharmacy, public health, history and […]
Continue reading...Professor Judith Green, Dr Des Fitzgerald and Dr Martin Moore will be joining the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health in 2020, following a rigorous and robust recruitment campaign in the latter part of last year. The Centre spent much of 2019 involved in preparing a recruitment campaign to attract staff with interdisciplinary […]
Continue reading...Our research associate Dr Ayesha Nathoo was featured on a BBC radio programme, Resting and Rushing, alongside Claudia Hammond, Matthew Smith and Sarah Cook. The full podcast can be downloaded or listened to online here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000bp2c
Continue reading...On Friday 29th November Rebecca Sandover was an expert witness in the Devon Net Zero Taskforce’s hearings to gather evidence towards creating a Devon Carbon Plan. Rebecca focussed on measures to bring more, affordable local food to local markets and local food procurement, drawing on evidence from her recent research, including including her WCCEH-funded project Devon […]
Continue reading...We’re delighted to share the news that the European Centre for Environment and Human Health has been designated as a Collaborating Centre on Natural Environments and Health by the World Health Organization. This achievement recognises the Centre’s significant contribution to science and policy-making from a decade of interdisciplinary research. We congratulate our colleagues Lora Fleming […]
Continue reading...People with anxiety or depression who go to see the GP are often given a leaflet with numbers for psychological services and advised to give them a call. This system of “self-referral” for common mental health problems has been in place for more than 10 years. In sheer numbers terms, it appears to have been […]
Continue reading...Congratulations to Centre members Felicity Thomas and Lorraine Hansford! A series of items about antidepressant use on Radio 4’s PM programme, which featured De-Stress, a collaborative project between the universities of Exeter and Plymouth (funded by Economic and Social Research Council and supported by PenARC), has been shortlisted for an award at the Mind Mental […]
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Ray Earwicker, a WCCEH friend, writes … If time is a great healer, is waiting the problem? Florence Nightingale (1859) certainly thought so. She saw it as bad for health – “apprehension, uncertainty, waiting (my italics), fear of surprise…do a patient more harm than any exertion.” It’s tiresome too, as the Kinks noted in 1965 […]
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We’re thrilled to learn that Exeter has been awarded ‘City of Literature’ status by UNESCO – the only new place in the UK to gain this prestigious status. Exeter will join 65 cities around the world as a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. Centre members have been closely involved in the development of […]
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PhD Project: Interview Study Do you have experience of self-harm? Would you consider being interviewed about your views on fictional representations of self-harm? This project takes as its starting point the possibility that fictional representations in some way may impact the conversations that it is possible to have around self-harm. It works from the […]
Continue reading...The Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health and the Centre for Maritime Historical Studies warmly invite you to a joint seminar: Dr Christos Lynteris: Rats and the Global History of Maritime Fumigation 5pm Wednesday, October 23 University of Exeter, Amory 106 (Building 29 on the university map) Christos Lynteris (University of St. Andrews) […]
Continue reading...The latest in the series of seminars run in partnership with the WHO Collaborating Centre for Culture and Health considered the question of a ‘good death’ and the cultural contexts of palliative care. End of life care aims to help people live and die with dignity. Cultural norms, beliefs and expectations heavily influence how this […]
Continue reading...The Department of Ultimology Ultimology is the study of endings, and the essay ranges across multiple disciplines; history of art, communications technologies, linguistics, the climate emergency, the history of disease and personal stories. Centre academics Dora Vargha and Luna Dolezal contributed to this RTE radio essay written by Fiona Hallinan and Kate Strain.
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Explain it to me … Pete Hodges, the Centre’s Comms Assistant, invited researchers around the Centre to talk about their work. In the third of this podcast series, the Centre’s Deputy Director for Research, Robin Durie, discusses engaged research and his pathway to it.
Continue reading...Dr Dóra Vargha celebrated last month as her book Polio Across The Iron Curtain was announced as the winner of the prestigious European Association for the History of Medicine and Health Book Award 2019. The prize is awarded to the best book on the history of medicine from the preceding two years, and is presented at […]
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Explain it to me … Pete Hodges, the Centre’s Comms Assistant, invited researchers around the Centre to talk about their work. In the second of this podcast series, PhD student Alex Smalley discusses his research and his links with the BBC Sounds podcast series, Forest 404.
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The South West Loneliness network was founded by Fred Cooper and Charlotte Jones in 2019. It connects academics, students, university staff, community organisations, charities, public health experts, and people with lived experience of loneliness. It provides networking and knowledge exchange opportunities through discussions, meetings, and seminars, and works to foster transdisciplinary collaborations and partnerships. For […]
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Explain it to me … Pete Hodges, the Centre’s Comms Assistant, invited researchers around the Centre to talk about their work. In the first of this podcast series, Fred Cooper talks about his work on the Centre’s Beacon Project ‘Loneliness and Community‘.
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With the first Exeter Mental Health Awareness Weekend taking place at Exeter Phoenix this year, we thought that the opportunity was ripe to get the word out about what we do. So much research at WCCEH relates to mental health, whether directly or indirectly, that this seemed like a fantastic event to get involved in; […]
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Librarians vs Loneliness, a collaborative day conference jointly organised between WCCEH, Egenis, and Libraries Unlimited, took place on Thursday 27th June. Funded by an Engaged Research Exploratory Award, the workshop was loosely structured around four thematic sessions, followed by an expert panel of library staff. The guiding principle was to draw academics and practising librarians […]
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The Wellcome Centre is incredibly proud of everyone who works with us but we want to highlight a few people who’s work has been in the spotlight. Congratulations to ‘Waiting Times’, Michael Flexer and Kelechi Anucha Michael Flexer, Publicly Engaged Research Fellow on the ‘Waiting Times’ project has won the 2019 Public Engagement Award from Birkbeck, University […]
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The External Advisory Board plays a crucial part in how the Centre functions. Academics and practitioners from the international community were invited to join the board at the start of the grant in 2017. Board members were chosen based on their knowledge and experience, as they link to the Centre’s themes and vision, and therefore […]
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After two rounds of our Research Support Funding scheme, we have reflected on the feedback from applicants (both successful and unsuccessful) and mentors and have refreshed the funding routes the Centre offers. Our new schemes were launched in January 2019. We welcome your questions, feedback or thoughts on these ideas. Please send any comments to […]
Continue reading...New film celebrates Exeter as a UNESCO City of Literature
27 November 2023BCI Hub Exhibition displayed in town
28 September 2023New website aims to transform the experience of ‘waiting’ for healthcare
20 April 2023Conference CfP: Fertility, Medicine and the Body: Theory and Practice across the Premodern World
10 March 2023‘Rosie’s Story’: Collaborative Research Produces New Teaching Resource on Parental Separation
16 February 2023Card play and art reveals children’s views of surrogacy for first time
3 February 2023Shame in Medicine: The Lost Forest
1 February 2023OPEN CALL: BEHAVIOURAL AND CULTURAL INSIGHTS EXHIBITION
6 January 2023Transformative Research Awards 2022/2023
15 December 2022Stigma, Shame and Colorectal Health
28 November 2022The Health & Resilience Project
27 September 2022CALL: Health and Resilience illustrator/designer
15 August 2022Sounds of nature benefit mental health and promote environmental protection
29 March 2022The Lancet Commission on the Value of Death
28 March 2022New PhD Students join the Wellcome Centre
26 July 2021Working Out Relationships Youth Panel
18 February 2021Mid-Life Conversations Is Published
5 February 2021EDI theatre project receives funding to explore LGBTQIA loneliness and histories
29 January 2021New nature experiment launched with BBC Music
25 January 2021It’s a win for Dr Dora Vargha at the AHRC/Wellcome 2020 Awards!
4 December 2020Renewal Funds for the Wellcome Centre!
6 November 2020Imagining Technologies for Disability Futures
6 November 2020Watching nature on TV can boost wellbeing
5 November 2020Community voices, barriers and enablers
24 September 2020Ending an epidemic and the ‘new normal’
23 September 2020Making Sense of Ageing & Finding Its Time
22 September 2020Centre-sponsored conference is held fully online for the first time
21 September 2020Recruitment for PhD project goes ahead
17 September 2020‘Time Being’ premieres at Exeter’s Maketank
17 September 2020Checking Out checks in the first round of interviews
17 September 2020Broad Spectrum comes to Radio 4
7 September 2020Mindfulness meets Mother Nature in new BBC series
7 September 2020Suffering from the ‘Lockdown Blues’? Share your experiences online
1 September 2020‘Mitigating loneliness in youth’ project sweeps across Europe
28 August 2020Intercultural competence migrant training approved by WHO now available online
27 August 2020Working out relationships? Free teaching materials for PSHE lessons
18 August 2020Exploring Society with COVID-19
22 June 2020Participants needed for Beacon Healthy Relationships Research Project
15 April 2020Postponement of External Advisory Board Events
13 March 2020Workshop on Healthy and Sustainable Food Systems in Dakar
4 February 2020New Appointments at the Centre
13 January 2020Sustainable food networks and the Devon Net Zero Task Force
5 December 2019Congratulations to colleagues at ECEHH
2 December 2019New study identifies problems with mental health self-referral system
20 November 2019DE-STRESS Project shortlisted for Mind Media Award
13 November 2019WCCEH celebrates Exeter – UNESCO City of Literature
4 November 2019Fictional Representations of Self-Harm
30 October 2019Rats and the Global History of Maritime Fumigation Seminar
18 October 2019Centre seminar: A good death? The cultural contexts of palliative care
9 October 2019Academic wins prestigious book award
11 September 2019Mental Health Awareness Weekend
2 July 2019Research Fellows’ and PhD Students’ Success
30 April 2019Another successful External Advisory Board meeting
29 April 2019The Wellcome Centre funding schemes
28 April 2019
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