Martin joined the School of English, Communication and Philosophy at Cardiff University in September 2015 as Professor of English Literature. His research focuses on literature, science and medicine, 1800 to the present. His present research has two strands: the representations of seizure conditions in literature and art from the early nineteenth century to the present, and the depiction of science and medicine in Victorian travel guidebooks to Britain and Europe.
He is a former Chair of the British Society for Literature and Science and the current Editor of the Journal of Literature and Science.
James’s interests lie broadly in 18th, 19th and 20th century poetry and poetics, as well as in thinking about the relationship between poetry, philosophy and science.
He is currently working on a monograph that focuses on ‘animal life’ in the poetry of William Wordsworth. the project builds upon recent research concerning the relation between Romantic literature and science, the development of animal rights movements in the period in the period, and renewed contemporary continental philosophical interest in animals and the nonhuman.
Keir is a specialist in the social history of medicine and has published books and articles on: public health, diseased meat (tuberculosis and BSE), medicine and charity, Victorian hospitals, the history of nursing, and the twentieth-century history of Bethlem (Bedlam). Having completed a book for Palgrave on the social history of medicine in Europe from 1500 to the present, he is currently working on projects related to: public health in rural Wales, river pollution, and on Gothic fiction and Victorian medicine.
He is a a co-director of the Collaborative Interdisciplinary Study for Science, Medicine and the Imagination Research Group, and editor of Studies for the Society for the Social History of Medicine monograph series published by Routledge.
Julie is a Senior Lecturer in Academic Practice at Cardiff University and course lead for the intercalated BSc in Medical Education. In 2015 she was awarded the President’s Silver Medal of the Academy of Medical Educators for outstanding and sustained contributions to medical education.
She is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Educators and was elected Vice Chair of its Council in 2015. She is a GMC Education Associate, and is the author or co-author of a number of peer reviewed publications on medical education, including a book (with Alan Bleakley and John Bligh). She is a member of the Association for Medical Humanities, and her interests include medical humanities, publication ethics and curriculum theory.
Members
College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
- English, Communication and Philosophy [Martin Willis (English); James Castell (English); Liz Irvine (Philosophy); Sean Roberts (Linguistics – Disglair lecturer); Jim Scown (English PhD); Cerys Knighton (English PhD); Arwa Al-Mubaddel (English PhD), Tim Rhys (Creative Writing)]
- History, Archaeology and Religion [Keir Waddington (History), Emily Cock (History), Jasmine Kilburn-Toppin (History – Disglair lecturer) Laurence Totelin (Ancient History), Mark Williams (History), Dan Jewson (History PhD), Chloe Dutell (History PhD)]
- Law and Politics [Anne Harrington (Law)]
- Social Sciences [Des Fitzgerald (Sociology), Rhiannon Lane (Sociology)]
College of Biomedical and Life Sciences
- Biosciences [Frank Hailer (Biology), Dr Ana Paziewska-Harris (Parasitology)]
- Medicine [Julie Browne (Medical Education)]
- Psychology [James Kolasinski (Psychology & CUBRIC), Isobel Ward (Psychology PhD)]
College of Physical Sciences and Engineering
- Engineering [Magdalini Theodoridou (Engineering)]
- Mathematics [Thomas Woolley (Maths)]
- Physics and Astronomy [Andrea Jimenez Dalmaroni (Physics)]
Regional Partners in Bristol and Exeter
- Bristol [Josie Gill (Centre for Black Humanities); Sarah Daw (English)]
- Exeter [Lara Choksey (Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine)]
The ScienceHumanities Initiative is a collaborative cross-disciplinary project led by three Cardiff Universities Schools: the School of English, Communication and Philosophy, the School of History, Archaeology and Religions and the School of Medicine. The Initiative is supported by generous funding from the Wellcome Trust’s Institutional Strategic Support Fund and Cardiff University’s College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.
The ScienceHumanities Initiative is led by Julie Browne (Medicine), James Castell (English), Keir Waddington (History) and Martin Willis (English).
The aim of the initiative is to interrogate our understandings of the relationships between the sciences, medicine, and the humanities across various arenas and to investigate the potential for a new “ScienceHumanities” scholarship that would give increased impetus to present and future research and engagement.
To this end the ScienceHumanities Initiative is holding a series of seminars, workshops, public talks, lectures, reading groups, and colloquia with the objective of building critical interactions between different fields of inquiry.
On this website you can find details of events (both those already held and those that are forthcoming), contact information for the ScienceHumanities Initiative investigators, and a blog featuring original position pieces from scholars located around the world.
Please get in touch with us if you would like to join the ScienceHumanities Initiative.
Cardiff ScienceHumanities 