The medical field is not where my own career path exists. I came to know the field from another point of view – from being the daughter of an ALS patient and a member of a family who has…

The Shame and Medicine Project is looking for doctors who have been disciplined by the GMC and feel shame or other self-conscious emotions as a result of it. By shame we mean the emotional experience of feeling bad about yourself,…

  Towards Shame-Sensitive Dental Practice Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise runs a Community Dental Clinic in Plymouth for vulnerable people, including those who are affected by homelessness and who have drug and alcohol addictions. We aim to work in a trauma-informed…

  Shame and Dentistry: Considering the Impact of Vulnerable Individuals’ Experiences People with complex lives and complex needs related to homelessness or other severe disadvantage are no strangers to shame. Many will have experienced judgement regarding their economic situation, literacy,…

  Avoidance of clinical care is common for those who experience shame and stigma often to the detriment of care procurement. This avoidance can be an effort to protect from further shaming. For those who experience chronic persistent pain (CPP)…

  The development of the first hormonal contraceptive in 1960 was considered one of the most important inventions of the 20th century, and worldwide it has continued to pave the way for sexual freedom and reproductive choice. Besides family planning,…

The Shame and Medicine Project is excited to be collaborating with The Nocturnists, a medical storytelling podcast and community to create an audio documentary storytelling series about ‘Shame in Medicine’ Shame is everywhere in healthcare. We feel shame in our…

  ‘Virginity testing’, which refers to the medical or non-medical practice that is expected to determine the existence of the ‘hymen’, has been covered by a wide variety of media outlets in the last few months of 2020. We have…

  Call for comic creator collaborators for paid graphic medicine projects in 2021/2022 We are now searching for comic creators, who want to collaborate with doctors and medical humanities researchers to create graphic medicine comics to illustrate experiences/stories in healthcare,…

“Is doctor something I wanted to do or something I wanted to be?” – Emily Silverman “Shame becomes inevitably bound up with the process of identity formation which underlies man’s striving for self, for valuing, and for meaning. The experience…

  Applications are invited for a PhD studentship in Art History and Visual Culture as part of the Wellcome-Trust funded Shame and Medicine Project. This fully funded studentship, beginning in July 2021, will be based at the University of Exeter…

In Imogen Tyler’s recent monograph, Stigma: The Machine of Inequality, she opens the introduction with a vignette describing her conversation with Stephanie, a woman who talked about her experience of joblessness, poverty, and housing and unemployment benefits. The vignette is…

  CALL FOR PAPERS FOR THEME ISSUE OF LITERATURE AND MEDICINE SHAME AND MEDICINE Spring 2025 Issue Editors: Arthur Rose and Luna Dolezal This issue of Literature and Medicine will explore experiences of shame in literary and medical contexts. Characterized…

Disabled Ex-Soldiers, the Police and the Exeter Magistrates The difficulties that First World War ex-servicemen, particularly those with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), experienced in civilian life have been researched and discussed specifically in the context of their medical treatment. Less…

Alongside the official textbooks of the medical curriculum, there appears a second canon, a hidden curriculum. Consisting of essays, films, folktales, jokes, novels, plays, poems and television shows, this repository is a refuge, a place where doctors and other healthcare…

Shame and stigma have been prominent features of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stigma, in particular, has been identified as an urgent issue related to COVID-19 by health organizations worldwide, including Public Health England, the CDC and the WHO. Stigma negatively impacts…

Having had the opportunity to read about shame in academic literature in more depth and detail, I became increasingly interested in learning about shame in relation to different cultural backgrounds, especially migrant and minority-ethnic groups in light of my past research…

We are delighted to confirm that the Shame and Medicine project has been funded by a generous Collaborative Award from the Wellcome Trust (£1.46million). This will enable us to continue our research until 2025. Research News from the University of…