Harriet Barratt
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harrietbarratt.bsky.social
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.
Pinned
Extremely pleased to be joining @durhamimh.bsky.social's Visual & Material Lab in Sept to explore materialities of reproductive healthcare, specifically around donor conception - can't wait to get started!
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...
November 8, 2025 at 8:05 AM
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 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
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
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.
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
Reposted by Harriet Barratt
This is how you blurb
October 23, 2025 at 12:41 PM
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...
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
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...
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
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.
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
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
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...
October 10, 2025 at 2:24 PM
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...
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
Durham!
September 29, 2025 at 8:17 PM
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...
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
*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.
September 28, 2025 at 6:32 AM
Cambridge service station nailing it
September 27, 2025 at 2:16 PM
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
Reposted by Harriet Barratt
The Society's AGM followed immediately by The SSHM Lecture 2025 with Jeremy Greene (all welcome).
'Wasted medicines and medical wastes: Notes from the trash-heap of medical history'

📅Monday 6 October [Online]
🕰️4:00-5:30pm (UK time)
Register via the link on the webpage
#histmed #histSTM
SSHM AGM & The SSHM Lecture 2025
Monday 6 October [Online]  4:00 – 5:30pm (UK time)  As required, the Society gives notice to members that the Annual General Meeting to formally accept the accounts for 2024 and for…
sshm.org
September 5, 2025 at 3:32 PM
So excited to be joining this team!
We are very pleased to welcome @harrietbarratt.bsky.social 🎉
Harriet joins us as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Visual & Material Lab.

Read about Harriet and her work in this interview: 👇 medhumsplatform.org/introducing-...
Introducing Harriet Barratt: New PDRA in the Visual & Material Lab
Discover more about new Postdoctoral Research Associate Harriet Barratt in our interview about her research and interests.
medhumsplatform.org
September 24, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Reposted by Harriet Barratt
Fantastic #openaccess article 📄 by @dralanagharris.bsky.social & Laura Mitchison in Transactions @royalhistsoc.org on disability, ethics, public history, photography & oral history: Essential read for any of us doing public engagement work on sensitive histories. 🌟

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Us and Them: Disability Ethics, Oral History and Inclusive Praxis in the Reuse of Asylum Photography | Transactions of the Royal Historical Society | Cambridge Core
Us and Them: Disability Ethics, Oral History and Inclusive Praxis in the Reuse of Asylum Photography
www.cambridge.org
September 23, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Reposted by Harriet Barratt
CfP for an online workshop on Object Stories in Health and Medicine, 1700-1900
@annafranjam.bsky.social and I can't wait to hear about your objects!
September 5, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Reposted by Harriet Barratt
Happy Skyscraper Day!

(architects dressed as their NYC buildings, 1931)
September 3, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Reposted by Harriet Barratt
Each day you should wake up thinking "how can I spend more time in TEAMS?" and "can the TEAMS app open up any faster when I start my computer??" or "is there a way TEAMS can be connected to every surface of my life? My food? Air? And love-making?????"
September 1, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Reposted by Harriet Barratt
Those wonderful sheep-counting words from the North of England.
#language #dialect
August 29, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Reposted by Harriet Barratt
The next sign for my office to be put next to “It’s an archive, not a corpus”:

“Quantitative data and math does not make your analysis objective”
August 28, 2025 at 1:03 PM