Fred Cooper
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histloneliness.bsky.social
Fred Cooper
@histloneliness.bsky.social
Historian of Medicine. Loneliness, epistemic injustice, medical humanities, shame. SRA on the Wellcome-funded Epistemic Injustice in Healthcare project (EPIC), University of Bristol Law School.
Pinned
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
Reposted by Fred Cooper
I'm not going to share Stock's Unherd article. But here's the important part: "Abortions should only be done for a highly restricted set of reasons. They should not be just nodded through for any reason a pregnant woman likes."

The ven diagram of the anti-trans & the anti-woman lobby is a circle.
November 21, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Reposted by Fred Cooper
On #WorldPhilosophyDay2025, read Jae Ryeong Sul and Dan Degerman's opinion piece in the British Journal of Psychiatry: Why we need a new understanding of silence in mental illness www.cambridge.org/co... #philsky #philpsy #epistemicinjustice
November 20, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Reposted by Fred Cooper
On #WorldPhilosophyDay2025 read project EPIC policy briefing "Raise awareness of epistemic injustice to improve healthcare in England" shorturl.at/QYoad, a document summarising the challenges posed by epistemic injustice to our health services. Initiative led by Dan Degerman. #philsky
November 20, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Reposted by Fred Cooper
On #WorldPhilosophyDay2025 read our open access document for the World Health Organisation on The Epistemic Determinants of Health: shorturl.at/jrjKq. A detailed report led by Fred Cooper on the significance of epistemic injustice for the delivery of health services. #philsky
November 20, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Reposted by Fred Cooper
Here at Exeter we are offering three fully funded AHRC PhD places in humanities subjects. Please get in touch if you are keen to come and do research with us! Closing date 23 February 2026: www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...
PhD: AHRC Studentship | University of Exeter
Project descriptionThe University of Exeter is offering up to three fully funded AHRC doctoral studentships and training and development opportunities across a range of the AHRC’s disciplines for cand...
www.exeter.ac.uk
November 18, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Reposted by Fred Cooper
Join us on Monday for this online symposium 'Towards Tourettic Studies' 👇
📅 Join us on Monday 24 November for an online interdisciplinary symposium on Tourette Syndrome, imagining a future of Tourettic Studies that is looking beyond the syndrome, featuring Bridging Fellow @danielpjones.bsky.social.

Find out more & register here 👇
medhumsplatform.org/event/toward...
November 19, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Reposted by Fred Cooper
I am very pleased and grateful to share this announcement of our recent award from the @wellcometrust.bsky.social for a project on history of smallpox and measles #histmed #histsci news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-h... The project will be based @exeter.ac.uk @cceh-u24.bsky.social led by ... 1/2
Exeter scholars secure significant research funding to investigate the early history of Smallpox and Measles
The early histories of smallpox and measles – and the insight they might offer to contemporary health and medicine – will be under the microscope of a new research project. Pustules, Palaeogenetics an...
news.exeter.ac.uk
November 19, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Reposted by Fred Cooper
Today in the life of an academic specifically targeted by management as under hours: PhD supervision meeting; exam board attendance; read and rank 51 job applications; write and deliver tonight’s MA lecture; write tomorrow’s 3rd year class.
November 19, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Reposted by Fred Cooper
“Around six months after the cyber incident I talked to the then chair of the science select committee, who was not aware of this incident” w o w
I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care?
The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity
www.cityam.com
November 18, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Reposted by Fred Cooper
2025 may be winding down but our events calendar is not! 📆

From reading groups to seminars, online talks to in-person conversations, there is plenty going on at the IMH throughout the rest of November and December.

Read our latest newsletter to find out more 👇
mailchi.mp/e9a1d07e9700...
IMH Newsletter November 2025 (Events)
Upcoming events from the Institute for Medical Humanities at Durham University.
mailchi.mp
November 18, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Reposted by Fred Cooper
mr president sir theres a story coming about how you intervened to help a sex criminal. no sir, not that sex criminal you helped….no not that one either…sir, please stop guessing sex criminals that you helped. ill give you a hint sir, hes a trafficker. no sir, not that trafficker a different one
November 18, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Reposted by Fred Cooper
'The science select committee should recognise that its remit covers all of research, and conduct an inquiry into the Library, with a view to helping it recover. It could quantify the funding that is needed to properly rebuild the Library’s digital infrastructure'.
I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care?
The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity
www.cityam.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:55 AM
Absolutely not sorry
We begin today with a content warning: this dispatch from history is not for the faint-hearted. However, if you wish, do please join me for the tale of the Sun King’s anal fistula and the three-hour operation performed on it without anaesthetic on this day in 1686... 🧵
November 18, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Reposted by Fred Cooper
Somebody is briefing the Times that the Home Secretary finds inspiration in Kristi Noem's leading the Trump mass deportation effort - which has gone much too far for Americans

What a kamikaze piece of political madness that is on the eve of their asylum package
www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
Shabana Mahmood threatens Trump-style visa ban on three countries
Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo will face Trump-style sanctions if they do not start taking back more illegal migrants and criminals
www.thetimes.com
November 16, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Reposted by Fred Cooper
📢NOVEMBER WILL OF THE MONTH📢

This month's featured testator is a widowed clergyman from Pembrokeshire who made his will in 1786.

Reverend William Thomas asked to be buried 'as remote from every other grave as conveniently may be'. 🪦✝️💀

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
November 18, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Reposted by Fred Cooper
A senior academic using mentoring as leverage to obtain sex is a contemptible abuser of power.
Summers conferred with Epstein frequently about how to extract sexual favors from a Harvard econ grad (AB '04, PhD '09)

The grad is from China

Epstein and Summers referred to her by the codename "Peril"

Racism and sexual exploitation in one efficient package

bit.ly/3LHpin8
As Summers Sought Clandestine Relationship With Woman He Called a Mentee, Epstein Was His ‘Wing Man’ | News | The Harvard Crimson
When former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers was pursuing a romantic relationship with a woman he described as a mentee, he turned to a longtime associate for guidance: convicted sex offender Jef...
bit.ly
November 17, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Reposted by Fred Cooper
Network co-lead @danielpjones.bsky.social is facilitating this wonderful online roundtable on the future of Tourette Synrome research - tickets are free, and available in the original post!
One week to go! 🎉

24 Nov, 3–5pm GMT

'Towards Tourettic Studies: The Future of #TouretteSyndrome Research' features a Tourettic-majority panel sharing bold provocations on #TS, ownership of diagnosis, art-science collaboration, and more!

Free registration: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/towards-to...
Towards Tourettic Studies: The Future of Tourette Syndrome Research
An interdisciplinary symposium on Tourette Syndrome, imagining a future of Tourettic Studies that is looking beyond the syndrome.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
November 17, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Reposted by Fred Cooper
CFP: www.northampton.ac.uk/research-blo... Nostalgia and Radical Politics, Past and Present, a 2 day workshop (15-16 June 2026) 🗃️Please share - and submit an abstract!
Call For Papers: Nostalgia and Radical Politics, Past and Present | UON
Centre for Historical Studies, University of Northampton, UK Monday 15 – Tuesday 16 June 2026 Nostalgia, defined most simply as a wistful or...
www.northampton.ac.uk
November 17, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Fred Cooper
I'm on strike for the next three days in protest at my employer's refusal to rule out compulsory redundancies as part of their cost-cutting vision for a radically diminished university. My school makes a healthy profit, most of which goes back into central coffers, yet still we're told to save more.
November 17, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Reposted by Fred Cooper
The New York Times obit for Alice Wong doesn’t mention Covid or Gaza

It ignores two of her biggest causes because of political bias

Alice fought tirelessly for Covid mitigations

She fought for the people of Gaza

She rightfully reminded us that the genocide in Gaza is a disability justice issue
November 17, 2025 at 11:31 AM
2 fantastic-looking history of medicine research fellowships at Warwick: Traumatised Minds, Neurosis and Hysteria in Soviet Medicine and Culture, 1917-1953

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPK288/r...
Research Fellow x2 (109856-1125) at University of Warwick
Discover Research Fellow x2 (109856-1125) jobs and more in higher education on jobs.ac.uk. Apply for further details on the top job board.
www.jobs.ac.uk
November 16, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Reposted by Fred Cooper
Every single time! Epstein will write:

"porsecters h4arrsed me w/ sbuopenas al bcuase tr4ificing myners .due porcess much???no"

and then there's, like, the former president of a university or white house counsel or something replying:

"You're totally right, and also I love you with all my heart."
November 13, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Reposted by Fred Cooper
Check out new new #histmed CFPs added to our page:
'Life Histories in Mind: Mental ILL Health and Learning Disability in Context'
Manchester Metropolitan University, 21 July 2026
Deadline for abstracts: 15 January 2026
Organised by Rob Ellis and Rebecca Ball
@re-histories.bsky.social
#DisHist
History of Medicine CFPs
If you wish to share your CFPs on the SSHM website please contact the Exec Sec, Dr Justine Pick admin@sshm.org Intimate States: New Histories of Medicine, Welfare, and Care under Socialism Location…
sshm.org
November 12, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by Fred Cooper
'Australia’s major research universities have warned that declining support for the humanities could threaten the country’s ability to operate in its region.' 1/3
November 11, 2025 at 4:41 PM