Harriet Barratt
@harrietbarratt.bsky.social
Researcher of objects & spaces of healthcare (the psychosocial, material culture, co-production; PhD on Winnicott). Postdoc at the Visual and Material Lab at @durhamimh.bsky.social 2025-29, researching materialities of donor conception treatment in the UK.
Pre-xmas lit request! Does anyone happen to know of any critical writing on the exec order Trump that issued in March this year to try to force the Smithsonian Museum to remove 'improper' ideology from its displays? It was entitled 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History'. Thanks!
December 22, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Pre-xmas lit request! Does anyone happen to know of any critical writing on the exec order Trump that issued in March this year to try to force the Smithsonian Museum to remove 'improper' ideology from its displays? It was entitled 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History'. Thanks!
International family limits on donor gametes are urgently needed - the psychosocial impact of multiple siblings or, as in this terrible case, the medical impact, can be huge www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... #donorconception
Sperm from donor with cancer-causing gene was used to conceive almost 200 children
Some children have already died and only a minority who inherit the mutation will escape cancer in their lifetimes.
www.bbc.co.uk
December 10, 2025 at 10:27 PM
International family limits on donor gametes are urgently needed - the psychosocial impact of multiple siblings or, as in this terrible case, the medical impact, can be huge www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... #donorconception
Excited to be launching this new series of online talks, running Feb-July 2026. We'll be talking to a bioengineer, an immersive reality specialist, a visual artist, a glass artist, and a speculative designer on how a whole range of visual & material practices can transform healthcare. Sign up below!
📣 Introducing Lab Coat Lunches: A new free online event series from the Visual & Material Lab! 🥼
Starting in February 2026, these events will explore visual and material practices within and beyond the medical humanities.
Find out more: medhumsplatform.org/lab-coat-lun...
Starting in February 2026, these events will explore visual and material practices within and beyond the medical humanities.
Find out more: medhumsplatform.org/lab-coat-lun...
December 9, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Excited to be launching this new series of online talks, running Feb-July 2026. We'll be talking to a bioengineer, an immersive reality specialist, a visual artist, a glass artist, and a speculative designer on how a whole range of visual & material practices can transform healthcare. Sign up below!
Reposted by Harriet Barratt
📣 Applications are open for our 2026-27 Medical Humanities in Practice Research Fellowship scheme! The scheme supports professionals and researchers from health or voluntary and community sectors to develop research within the medical humanities.
Apply by 30 Jan:
Apply by 30 Jan:
Practice Research Fellowship Scheme
Announcing our Medical Humanities In Practice Research Fellowship Scheme
medhumsplatform.org
November 27, 2025 at 9:00 AM
📣 Applications are open for our 2026-27 Medical Humanities in Practice Research Fellowship scheme! The scheme supports professionals and researchers from health or voluntary and community sectors to develop research within the medical humanities.
Apply by 30 Jan:
Apply by 30 Jan:
Reposted by Harriet Barratt
📣 The Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research is pleased to present RETHINKING RIGOUR, a two-day symposium exploring creative-critical research in medical humanities.
📅 4-5 December 2025
Find out more about the event and book your free tickets 👇
📅 4-5 December 2025
Find out more about the event and book your free tickets 👇
Rethinking Rigour: Conditions of Creativity & Criticality in the Academy - Durham University
4 December 2025 - 4 December 2025
www.durham.ac.uk
October 30, 2025 at 10:24 AM
📣 The Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research is pleased to present RETHINKING RIGOUR, a two-day symposium exploring creative-critical research in medical humanities.
📅 4-5 December 2025
Find out more about the event and book your free tickets 👇
📅 4-5 December 2025
Find out more about the event and book your free tickets 👇
Reposted by Harriet Barratt
Our new paper: Austerity as reproductive injustice: did local government spending cuts unequally impact births? led by Laura Sochas is out now OA in @sfjournal.bsky.social
Austerity as reproductive injustice: did local government spending cuts unequally impact births?
Abstract. Large local government spending cuts in England, spanning over a decade of austerity policies, have severely restricted the universal services an
url.uk.m.mimecastprotect.com
December 1, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Our new paper: Austerity as reproductive injustice: did local government spending cuts unequally impact births? led by Laura Sochas is out now OA in @sfjournal.bsky.social
Reposted by Harriet Barratt
This piece is so good. www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself
Students use AI to write papers, professors use AI to grade them, degrees become meaningless, and tech companies make fortunes. Welcome to the death of higher education.
www.currentaffairs.org
December 4, 2025 at 2:39 AM
This piece is so good. www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
This is great: 'When someone recovers outside of traditional parameters [...] the system is left with a problem: It has no script for what to do with someone who is well and no longer needs it—especially if it challenges the framework that initially defined them as ill.' Thank you Monica
My new essay in Please See Me explores the shadow side of a mental health diagnosis—the parts our diagnostic tools can’t hold and the slow work of finding language that truly fits.
#Nonfiction #NarrativeEthics #LivedExperience #MentalHealth #NarrativeMedicine
pleaseseeme.com/issue-17-fre...
#Nonfiction #NarrativeEthics #LivedExperience #MentalHealth #NarrativeMedicine
pleaseseeme.com/issue-17-fre...
November 8, 2025 at 8:05 AM
This is great: 'When someone recovers outside of traditional parameters [...] the system is left with a problem: It has no script for what to do with someone who is well and no longer needs it—especially if it challenges the framework that initially defined them as ill.' Thank you Monica
Reposted by Harriet Barratt
The 2026 SSHM Conference will be @universityofleeds.bsky.social. The theme will be In/Out and we are inviting papers that consider experiences of being in and/or out of health or health care in any period or geographical location. #HistMed #HistSTM
sshm.org/sshm-2026/
sshm.org/sshm-2026/
SSHM 2026: In/Out
Location: University of Leeds Dates: 30 June to 3 July 2026 Submission Deadline: 5.00pm (GMT) 11th January 2026 Conference Co-Convenors: Dr Alexia Moncrieff & Dr Katherine Rawling Conference Co…
sshm.org
October 13, 2025 at 12:15 PM
The 2026 SSHM Conference will be @universityofleeds.bsky.social. The theme will be In/Out and we are inviting papers that consider experiences of being in and/or out of health or health care in any period or geographical location. #HistMed #HistSTM
sshm.org/sshm-2026/
sshm.org/sshm-2026/
Someone's taken down the St George's flag by Brighton pier and replaced it with a BIPOC Trans Pride flag with 'Everyone is welcome here' on it. I wonder how much of this very localised stuff gets lost to history, but so many people will see and remember this - hooray!
October 29, 2025 at 7:36 AM
Someone's taken down the St George's flag by Brighton pier and replaced it with a BIPOC Trans Pride flag with 'Everyone is welcome here' on it. I wonder how much of this very localised stuff gets lost to history, but so many people will see and remember this - hooray!
Reposted by Harriet Barratt
"Since when did we become Big Tech's free PR department?"
I'm really pleased to see an article like this pushing back on the uncritical adoption of (gen)AI by our universities. It hits all the major concerns.
I'm really pleased to see an article like this pushing back on the uncritical adoption of (gen)AI by our universities. It hits all the major concerns.
Belgian AI scientists are advocating *against* the use of AI in academia. “If independent thinking is no longer encouraged at university, where would it?” apache.be/2025/10/24/b...
Belgian AI scientists resist the use of AI in academia
Several AI scientists have published an open letter calling for a ban on AI use by students.
apache.be
October 24, 2025 at 2:11 PM
"Since when did we become Big Tech's free PR department?"
I'm really pleased to see an article like this pushing back on the uncritical adoption of (gen)AI by our universities. It hits all the major concerns.
I'm really pleased to see an article like this pushing back on the uncritical adoption of (gen)AI by our universities. It hits all the major concerns.
Reposted by Harriet Barratt
This is how you blurb
October 23, 2025 at 12:41 PM
This is how you blurb
Reposted by Harriet Barratt
In Part 4 of the @readingbodies.bsky.social takeover, @rocio.bsky.social discusses the colonial legacies of nineteenth-century medical metaphors and demonstrates their ongoing relevance for the present day.
thepolyphony.org/2025/10/23/m...
thepolyphony.org/2025/10/23/m...
How Medical Metaphors of the Past Are Shaping Our Future
In Part 4 of the Reading Bodies takeover, Rocío Rødtjer discusses the colonial legacies of nineteenth-century medical metaphors and demonstrates their ongoing relevance for the present day.
thepolyphony.org
October 23, 2025 at 11:08 AM
In Part 4 of the @readingbodies.bsky.social takeover, @rocio.bsky.social discusses the colonial legacies of nineteenth-century medical metaphors and demonstrates their ongoing relevance for the present day.
thepolyphony.org/2025/10/23/m...
thepolyphony.org/2025/10/23/m...
Reposted by Harriet Barratt
I'm really excited to finally be able to share this after months of work - our new Project EPIC report on the epistemic determinants of health. With over 20 contributors, we make the case for incorporating this new framework into existing determinants of health models:
bci-hub.org/documents/ep...
bci-hub.org/documents/ep...
The Epistemic Determinants of Health
Health and illness are significantly determined by knowledge and its communication. At first glance, this might seem obvious; people use healthcare systems when they suspect that something might be wr...
bci-hub.org
October 21, 2025 at 1:07 PM
I'm really excited to finally be able to share this after months of work - our new Project EPIC report on the epistemic determinants of health. With over 20 contributors, we make the case for incorporating this new framework into existing determinants of health models:
bci-hub.org/documents/ep...
bci-hub.org/documents/ep...
Reposted by Harriet Barratt
Cross posting this to alert colleagues in #scicomm #sts #envhums #scipol about alarming developments at the BBC Written Archive. So many fundamental studies in these areas have drawn on this resource; it would be disastrous to lose access to it.
For reasons, it would be v. helpful to have information from a broad range of academic and non-academic (incl. GLAM) users of the BBC Written Archives OTHER THAN historians, briefly on: 1) What you've used it for and 2) How the proposed changes would impact on your research.
Reposts welcomed.
Reposts welcomed.
Historians dismayed by ‘scandal’ of BBC cutting access to...
Critics say new limit to trove of information sounds knell for independent research
observer.co.uk
October 14, 2025 at 12:28 PM
I'm at the wonderful Norsk Teknisk Museum in Oslo for the annual ARTEFACTS meeting of science, technology and medicine museums. Beautiful surroundings and fascinating talks on the multiple meanings of care and repair in object collections.
October 13, 2025 at 2:06 PM
I'm at the wonderful Norsk Teknisk Museum in Oslo for the annual ARTEFACTS meeting of science, technology and medicine museums. Beautiful surroundings and fascinating talks on the multiple meanings of care and repair in object collections.
Reposted by Harriet Barratt
More than 12K jobs going across UK universities so far this year, with more to come, says @ucu.org.uk www.timeshighereducation.com/news/cuts-eq... via @helenpacker.bsky.social
Cuts equivalent to 15,000 jobs planned at UK universities – UCU
Proposed job losses almost triple since March as unions prepare to vote on nationwide industrial action
www.timeshighereducation.com
October 10, 2025 at 1:04 PM
More than 12K jobs going across UK universities so far this year, with more to come, says @ucu.org.uk www.timeshighereducation.com/news/cuts-eq... via @helenpacker.bsky.social
Reposted by Harriet Barratt
Join us on 6th November for our annual Research Cabaret! An evening of live music 🎶 poetry 💬 dance 🕺💃 and chaos 🎉 exploring what it means to live between the lines. Featuring Durham IMH researchers and local performers!
Reserve your FREE ticket here 🎟️👇
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/between-th...
Reserve your FREE ticket here 🎟️👇
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/between-th...
October 10, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Join us on 6th November for our annual Research Cabaret! An evening of live music 🎶 poetry 💬 dance 🕺💃 and chaos 🎉 exploring what it means to live between the lines. Featuring Durham IMH researchers and local performers!
Reserve your FREE ticket here 🎟️👇
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/between-th...
Reserve your FREE ticket here 🎟️👇
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/between-th...
Reposted by Harriet Barratt
"The (anti)microbial gaze"
Fab paper from the visualisations in science people on how representations of antimicrobial resistance shape and constrain our response to it.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
Fab paper from the visualisations in science people on how representations of antimicrobial resistance shape and constrain our response to it.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
October 10, 2025 at 11:24 AM
"The (anti)microbial gaze"
Fab paper from the visualisations in science people on how representations of antimicrobial resistance shape and constrain our response to it.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
Fab paper from the visualisations in science people on how representations of antimicrobial resistance shape and constrain our response to it.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
Reposted by Harriet Barratt
They're going to try to overturn Obergefell and end marriage equality. Eyes wide open, folks.
www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...
www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...
Not 'the gospel.' Ahead of Supreme Court term, Clarence Thomas weighs in on precedent
As the Supreme Court is about to revisit some major decisions, Justice Thomas said there's nothing sacred about precedent.
www.usatoday.com
September 28, 2025 at 5:40 AM
They're going to try to overturn Obergefell and end marriage equality. Eyes wide open, folks.
www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...
www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...
*medical objects researcher starts jumping on the spot with horror and glee*
I know a lot of people won’t click through to read about “med beds” so here’s the crucial quote to explain how fucking crazy this is.
Trump just posted an AI video of himself promising every American access to this.
Trump just posted an AI video of himself promising every American access to this.
September 28, 2025 at 6:32 AM
*medical objects researcher starts jumping on the spot with horror and glee*
Cambridge service station nailing it
September 27, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Cambridge service station nailing it
Reposted by Harriet Barratt
'Feeling blue: Colour and the modern British hospital' is out! And it's free online (or a relatively affordable £25 hardback if you prefer print)! Thanks so much to everyone who helped with the research for this, from supporting site visits to reading drafts. www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781...
www.manchesterhive.com
August 19, 2025 at 8:51 AM
'Feeling blue: Colour and the modern British hospital' is out! And it's free online (or a relatively affordable £25 hardback if you prefer print)! Thanks so much to everyone who helped with the research for this, from supporting site visits to reading drafts. www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781...