Fiona Johnstone
@drfijohnstone.bsky.social
Assistant Prof in Visual Medical Humanities at Durham University. Views mine.
Facilitating the Queer Methodologies in Medical Humanities PhD School with David Woodhead was one of my highlights on 2025. I was so impressed by the students' commitment to doing this important work - have a look at the collection, and I am sure you will be too!
We're pleased to announce this collection of contributions to The Polyphony from attendees at the 2025 International PhD School on Queer Methodologies in Medical Humanities, which took place in Durham in March 2025.
📖 Read the collection 👇
thepolyphony.org/category/col...
📖 Read the collection 👇
thepolyphony.org/category/col...
PhD School 2025: Queer Methodologies in Medical Humanities – the polyphony
Conversations across the medical humanities
thepolyphony.org
January 23, 2026 at 4:49 PM
Facilitating the Queer Methodologies in Medical Humanities PhD School with David Woodhead was one of my highlights on 2025. I was so impressed by the students' commitment to doing this important work - have a look at the collection, and I am sure you will be too!
Thrilled to finally be holding a physical copy of Art and the Critical Medical Humanities 📘
Co-edited with Allison Morehead and Imogen Wiltshire, this book has been a true labour of love.
Co-edited with Allison Morehead and Imogen Wiltshire, this book has been a true labour of love.
January 21, 2026 at 5:11 PM
Thrilled to finally be holding a physical copy of Art and the Critical Medical Humanities 📘
Co-edited with Allison Morehead and Imogen Wiltshire, this book has been a true labour of love.
Co-edited with Allison Morehead and Imogen Wiltshire, this book has been a true labour of love.
RETHINKING RIGOUR: a two-day symposium on creative-critical research in medical humanities organised by the NNMHR.
Explore method, assessment, and new possibilities for scholar-practitioners.
🗓️ Dec 4–5, Durham + online
🎟️ Free via Eventbrite: nnmh.org.uk/rethinking-r...
Explore method, assessment, and new possibilities for scholar-practitioners.
🗓️ Dec 4–5, Durham + online
🎟️ Free via Eventbrite: nnmh.org.uk/rethinking-r...
November 12, 2025 at 1:50 PM
RETHINKING RIGOUR: a two-day symposium on creative-critical research in medical humanities organised by the NNMHR.
Explore method, assessment, and new possibilities for scholar-practitioners.
🗓️ Dec 4–5, Durham + online
🎟️ Free via Eventbrite: nnmh.org.uk/rethinking-r...
Explore method, assessment, and new possibilities for scholar-practitioners.
🗓️ Dec 4–5, Durham + online
🎟️ Free via Eventbrite: nnmh.org.uk/rethinking-r...
Reposted by Fiona Johnstone
10 days until the #CFP deadline for the online workshop *Object Stories in Health and Medicine 1700-1900*.
We invite proposals for 15-minute talks on a single object related to health or medicine during the 18th & 19th centuries #histmed #histpsych #medhums
www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/objec...
We invite proposals for 15-minute talks on a single object related to health or medicine during the 18th & 19th centuries #histmed #histpsych #medhums
www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/objec...
Object Stories in Health and Medicine, 1700-1900 - University of Birmingham
x9artsandlaw-event,x9history-event,x9historycultures-event,x9clemt-event
www.birmingham.ac.uk
September 26, 2025 at 2:06 PM
10 days until the #CFP deadline for the online workshop *Object Stories in Health and Medicine 1700-1900*.
We invite proposals for 15-minute talks on a single object related to health or medicine during the 18th & 19th centuries #histmed #histpsych #medhums
www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/objec...
We invite proposals for 15-minute talks on a single object related to health or medicine during the 18th & 19th centuries #histmed #histpsych #medhums
www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/objec...
Grateful for a rich few days in Oslo with the Curating Cultural Heritage for the Medical & Health Humanities project (MNU). Highlights: inspiring sessions at Norsk Teknisk Museum & MUNCH, deep dives into art, ethics & medicine—and a sauna swim to wrap it all up!
medhumsplatform.org/curating-cul...
medhumsplatform.org/curating-cul...
Curating Cultural Heritage for the Medical & Health Humanities: Reflections from Oslo
Researchers from across the Matariki Network of Universities (MNU) recently gathered in Oslo for a stimulating few days of discussion, collaboration, and creative exploration as part of the Curating C...
medhumsplatform.org
September 17, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Grateful for a rich few days in Oslo with the Curating Cultural Heritage for the Medical & Health Humanities project (MNU). Highlights: inspiring sessions at Norsk Teknisk Museum & MUNCH, deep dives into art, ethics & medicine—and a sauna swim to wrap it all up!
medhumsplatform.org/curating-cul...
medhumsplatform.org/curating-cul...
Reposted by Fiona Johnstone
Delighted to welcome the University of Stirling and @npapadogian.bsky.social to the Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research Steering Group. We're looking forward to collaborating with you and your colleagues!
nnmh.org.uk/university-o...
nnmh.org.uk/university-o...
University of Stirling joins NNMHR Steering Group - Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research
The NNMHR is delighted to welcome the University of Stirling as the newest members of the Steering Group. Research in the Medical Humanities at the University of Stirling includes ongoing...
nnmh.org.uk
September 8, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Delighted to welcome the University of Stirling and @npapadogian.bsky.social to the Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research Steering Group. We're looking forward to collaborating with you and your colleagues!
nnmh.org.uk/university-o...
nnmh.org.uk/university-o...
Reposted by Fiona Johnstone
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!
@annafranjam.bsky.social and I can't wait to hear about your objects!
September 5, 2025 at 9:41 AM
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!
@annafranjam.bsky.social and I can't wait to hear about your objects!
Reposted by Fiona Johnstone
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!
August 8, 2025 at 8:28 AM
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!
Proofs! (always good to receive book proofs a few hours before going on annual leave...)
July 18, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Proofs! (always good to receive book proofs a few hours before going on annual leave...)
"The quilt offers us a way to think. It is, somehow, a kind of methodology." @davidwoodhead.bsky.social gives a moving & thought-provoking account of (re)visiting the UK AIDS Quilt, on display @tate.bsky.social last month.
thepolyphony.org/2025/07/02/q...
thepolyphony.org/2025/07/02/q...
Looking Again: The Quilt, the Gaze, and Queer Remembering
David Woodhead reflects on the memories, legacies, and queer histories provoked by viewing- gazing upon- the AIDS memorial quilt in 1994 and in June this year.
thepolyphony.org
July 2, 2025 at 8:54 AM
"The quilt offers us a way to think. It is, somehow, a kind of methodology." @davidwoodhead.bsky.social gives a moving & thought-provoking account of (re)visiting the UK AIDS Quilt, on display @tate.bsky.social last month.
thepolyphony.org/2025/07/02/q...
thepolyphony.org/2025/07/02/q...
Reposted by Fiona Johnstone
Two postdoc positions are available on the Wellcome-funded project "Between Deception and Dissent: regulating unproven, disproven and misleading health-related claims". www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs/118725-...
Postdoctoral Research Associate
www.kcl.ac.uk
July 1, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Two postdoc positions are available on the Wellcome-funded project "Between Deception and Dissent: regulating unproven, disproven and misleading health-related claims". www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs/118725-...
Having an end-of-term office clean out and have discovered two spare editors’ copies of Anti-Portraiture (2020). Would be very happy to post them to good homes, if there are any takers on here?
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/antiportr...
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/antiportr...
Anti-Portraiture
The portrait has historically been understood as an artistic representation of a human subject. Its purpose was to provide a visual or psychological likenesses…
www.bloomsbury.com
June 30, 2025 at 7:34 AM
Having an end-of-term office clean out and have discovered two spare editors’ copies of Anti-Portraiture (2020). Would be very happy to post them to good homes, if there are any takers on here?
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/antiportr...
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/antiportr...
Gutted that I can't be at RAP2025 at The Clark in Massachusetts as originally planned today. I was invited to speak on a panel on "Case Histories" convened by Suzanne Hudson and Victoria Papa, but have sadly been unable to fly out due to circs beyond my control.
www.clarkart.edu/research-aca...
www.clarkart.edu/research-aca...
June 27, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Gutted that I can't be at RAP2025 at The Clark in Massachusetts as originally planned today. I was invited to speak on a panel on "Case Histories" convened by Suzanne Hudson and Victoria Papa, but have sadly been unable to fly out due to circs beyond my control.
www.clarkart.edu/research-aca...
www.clarkart.edu/research-aca...
Reposted by Fiona Johnstone
Great day today at our Critical Neurodiversity Studies Conference! Highlights included a keynote from Lisa Johnson and Liorah Hoek & Sanne van Driel’s workshop on what understanding experiences of plural identities can bring to critical neurodiversity studies. The Sensory Den was also a real hit!
June 24, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Great day today at our Critical Neurodiversity Studies Conference! Highlights included a keynote from Lisa Johnson and Liorah Hoek & Sanne van Driel’s workshop on what understanding experiences of plural identities can bring to critical neurodiversity studies. The Sensory Den was also a real hit!
Are you working in #VisualMedicalHumanities with a specific focus on art, anatomy and medicine? The BMJ Medical Humanities has just released this CFP for articles on "visuality in medical practice and history". Looking forward to seeing how this moves the field forward!
mh.bmj.com/pages/topic-...
mh.bmj.com/pages/topic-...
Topic Collection: Visual Medical Humanities | Medical Humanities
mh.bmj.com
June 24, 2025 at 7:07 AM
Are you working in #VisualMedicalHumanities with a specific focus on art, anatomy and medicine? The BMJ Medical Humanities has just released this CFP for articles on "visuality in medical practice and history". Looking forward to seeing how this moves the field forward!
mh.bmj.com/pages/topic-...
mh.bmj.com/pages/topic-...
Reposted by Fiona Johnstone
This week we're profiling our new Medical Humanities in Practice Research Fellows. First up it's a written interview with Estelle Verdi about her research on Muslim women's experiences of baby loss. medhumsplatform.org/introducing-...
June 16, 2025 at 5:42 PM
This week we're profiling our new Medical Humanities in Practice Research Fellows. First up it's a written interview with Estelle Verdi about her research on Muslim women's experiences of baby loss. medhumsplatform.org/introducing-...
Reposted by Fiona Johnstone
Continuing our interviews with the new Medical Humanities in Practice Research Fellows, today we catch up with Phil Samba. Read on to find out about Phil's research on the barriers and opportunities of long acting injectable PrEP for Black Queer Men.
medhumsplatform.org/introducing-...
medhumsplatform.org/introducing-...
Introducing Phil Samba: New Medical Humanities in Practice Research Fellow
An interview with Phil Samba, our new Medical Humanities in Practice Research Fellow.
medhumsplatform.org
June 17, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Continuing our interviews with the new Medical Humanities in Practice Research Fellows, today we catch up with Phil Samba. Read on to find out about Phil's research on the barriers and opportunities of long acting injectable PrEP for Black Queer Men.
medhumsplatform.org/introducing-...
medhumsplatform.org/introducing-...
An appropriately gothic setting for the “Blood, Myth and Media” symposium today at Liverpool John Moores, convened by @beehughes.bsky.social and Stella Gaynor. Some great interdisciplinary papers on blood in horror, health, forensics, fashion and more.
June 13, 2025 at 12:02 PM
An appropriately gothic setting for the “Blood, Myth and Media” symposium today at Liverpool John Moores, convened by @beehughes.bsky.social and Stella Gaynor. Some great interdisciplinary papers on blood in horror, health, forensics, fashion and more.
Reposted by Fiona Johnstone
Today!
Really excited to be speaking at the Modern French History IHR seminar series on Monday on my project on the emergence of medical photography in France in the 19th century. I'll do my best to make it relevant to French historians! www.history.ac.uk/events/emerg... 📸📷🗂️
The Emergence of Medical Photography in Nineteenth Century France
www.history.ac.uk
June 9, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Today!
Reposted by Fiona Johnstone
I'm excited to have had a paper accepted for the Artefacts conference (assoc of STEM and medicine museums) in Oslo in Oct. I'll be talking about object attachment & extreme repair in relation to this curious object, a prosthetic leg in the @sciencemuseum.org.uk collections. [more in thread]
June 6, 2025 at 9:40 AM
I'm excited to have had a paper accepted for the Artefacts conference (assoc of STEM and medicine museums) in Oslo in Oct. I'll be talking about object attachment & extreme repair in relation to this curious object, a prosthetic leg in the @sciencemuseum.org.uk collections. [more in thread]
Such a pleasure to present on how creativity is central to the work of @durhamimh.bsky.social at "Creativity in Research" hosted by South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust yesterday. A great day with some fascinating reflections on what 'creativity' signifies in an NHS context.
June 4, 2025 at 7:06 AM
Such a pleasure to present on how creativity is central to the work of @durhamimh.bsky.social at "Creativity in Research" hosted by South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust yesterday. A great day with some fascinating reflections on what 'creativity' signifies in an NHS context.
Reposted by Fiona Johnstone
Really delighted to share this paper drawing on data from my PhD to explore the relation between care, texts, & self-harm. Particularly, I draw out how my participants engaged in active, creative, & relational viewing/reading practices to enable care for self-harm: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Creating Care for People Who Self-Harm through Transformation of Aesthetic Objects - Journal of Medical Humanities
The role of fiction in enabling care for people who self-harm is primarily framed as a relation of protection through absence or avoidance. It is frequently suggested that fiction should avoid depicti...
link.springer.com
May 28, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Really delighted to share this paper drawing on data from my PhD to explore the relation between care, texts, & self-harm. Particularly, I draw out how my participants engaged in active, creative, & relational viewing/reading practices to enable care for self-harm: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Reposted by Fiona Johnstone
If you're an ECR and interested in ethics, photography, zines, medicine and creativity in general, this event organised by The Ethics of Medical Photography is for you! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/exposing-t... 11 June at Wellcome Collection, FREE!!!
Exposing the Archive - A Workshop on Medical Photography
Join Liz Orton, a visual artist working with photography, text, and performance for a free zine-making workshop.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
May 27, 2025 at 11:12 AM
If you're an ECR and interested in ethics, photography, zines, medicine and creativity in general, this event organised by The Ethics of Medical Photography is for you! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/exposing-t... 11 June at Wellcome Collection, FREE!!!
London based? This Birkbeck event on Lived Experience Writing and Medical Humanities on 17th June looks really excellent: www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...
Lived Experience Writing and Medical Humanities
Visiting authors and artists discuss their writing and offer workshops on writing, science, and medicine.
www.bbk.ac.uk
May 22, 2025 at 7:46 AM
London based? This Birkbeck event on Lived Experience Writing and Medical Humanities on 17th June looks really excellent: www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...
Reposted by Fiona Johnstone
This is an urgent and incisive post by my wonderful friend and colleague @kacheston.bsky.social, who writes bravely and convincingly about ME/CFS and about the flawed Opinion piece, regrettably published by the BMJ - please do read and share Katharine’s response
I've submitted a rapid response to this BMJ Opinion piece - speaking from my dual experience as both researcher and 'recovered ME/CFS patient' (not a term I'd choose to employ).
May 15, 2025 at 7:56 PM
This is an urgent and incisive post by my wonderful friend and colleague @kacheston.bsky.social, who writes bravely and convincingly about ME/CFS and about the flawed Opinion piece, regrettably published by the BMJ - please do read and share Katharine’s response