Shame and Medicine Project Newsletter

COVID-19 and Shame: Political Emotions and Public Health in the UK, part of the 'Critical Interventions in the Medical and Health Humanities' book series and written by the Scenes of Shame and Stigma in COVID-19 research team, is available to pre-order now!

Read the Shame-Sensitive Public Health and COVID-19 briefing, prepared for the WHO Europe's Behavioural and Cultural Insights Hub. The briefing syntheses research from across the WHO European Region and makes the case for removing shame from public health interventions, detailing how shame-sensitive work can reduce or mitigate some of the harms of COVID-19.

The two day hybrid workshop at the University of Copenhagen and co-organized with the Centre for Subjectivity Research, Shame, Health and Lived Experience, was a great success and we would like to thank all those who participated, online and in person.

View the recordings.

'Shame and Medical History' Seminar Series - CPD points available!

5th May 2022 – Dr Anne Hanley (University of Birmingham) View recording
‘I am polluted to the marrow, soaked in abomination!’ Shame and Sexual Health in Modern Britain.’

6th October 2022 – Dr Michael Brown (University of Roehampton) - information to follow.

We are delighted to announce the successful papers for the special panel on “Phenomenology and Shame Experiences” sponsored by the Shame and Medicine Project at the British Society for Phenomenology’s Annual Conference, 30 Aug--1 Sept 22. This year the theme is “Engaged Phenomenology II: Explorations of Embodiment, Emotions and Sociality”.

Registration opens 31st May.

RECENT PROJECT ACTIVITIES
Luna Dolezal is on the Advisory Board for the Shame, Stigma, and Colorectal Health for Bottoms project, a six-month Wellcome Centres Collaboration seed fund award. The project wants to identify and develop a network of clinical and non-clinical stakeholders interested in exploring shame and stigma in colorectal healthcare settings experienced by gay men / MSM who bottom. Anyone with an interest in this area, please get in touch with r.r.o.vytniorgu@exeter.ac.uk.

As part of her Shame Competence Training work, Luna will speak to the Academy for Social Justice on the 30th June about "Why a Trauma-Informed Approach Requires Shame-Sensitive Practice", and deliver a workshop on shame and trauma at the Peninsula Trauma Informed Practice Conference 2022 on the 11th July.

GRAPHIC MEDICINE PROJECT - NEW FUNDING
Congratulations to Will Bynum and Luna Dolezal for their successful Duke-Exeter Accelerator Grant funding bid entitled 'Shame in Health Professions Education: Integrating Cross-Cultural Perspectives.' Working closely with Duke-National University of Singapore, Will and Luna will expand their existing graphic medicine work to further understandings of shame in healthcare across cultures, and to create teaching tools for use in health professionals learning environments.

We are thrilled that the graphic medicine perspective Needlestick (see Featured Article), a collaboration between the Shame and Medicine Project, The Shame Conversation, Charlotte Wu (Harness Health Global), Olivia Davies, and illustrated by Hannah Berry, the former UK Comics Laureate, has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Read about it in the University of Exeter's news story.

CPD POINTS
Each seminar in our Shame and Medicine History Seminar Series is approved by the Federation of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom for 2 category 1 (external) CPD credit(s) each. A certificate of attendance will be issued. Sign up now!

CALL FOR DOCTORS & PATIENTS
We are keen to hear from Doctors and Patients who would like to take part in our research - to register an interest in taking part, visit www.samp.uk or contact Dr Stephen Williams at S.J.Williams@bham.ac.uk.

'Haunted by shame, silenced by stigma: the experience of mothers living apart from their children as a result of state-ordered court removal' by Dr Lisa Morriss (University of Lancaster) is a moving and powerful account of shame, motherhood and court-ordered child removal.

'On Shame, Empathy & COVID-19 Vaccinations' by Maryam Golafshani (University of Toronto) is a fascinating account of how shame and empathy have been affective drivers during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially as related to vaccine uptake.

Already uncertain that she deserves to be in medical school, a medical student is thrown into despair when she accidentally sticks herself with a needle in the operating room in this Graphic Perspective.
Needlestick, illustrated by UK Comics laureate (2019-21) Hannah Berry, aims to support those experiencing shame, which is common in a healthcare environment. The article depicts the story of a US based doctor, Olivia Davies, and explores her shame experience.