Ute Oswald
ABOUT ME
I am based at the Centre for the History of Medicine (CHM) and my thesis 'Entertaining the Insane: Recreation in Nineteenth-Century British Asylums' was supervised by Professor Hilary Marland and examined by Professor Mathew Thomson and Professor Rob Ellis. My PhD was generously funded by a Departmental Scholarship and I have subsequently been awarded an Early Career Fellowship as well as an Honorary Research Fellowship at Warwick's Institute of Advanced Study.Link opens in a new window I currently also hold a 3-year Postdoctoral Research Fellowship on the AHRC-funded project Asylum: Refugees and Mental Health at the University of Huddersfield. My research interests lie broadly within the social and cultural history of psychiatry in nineteenth-and twentieth-century Britain and abroad, with a particular focus on asylums and non-pharmacological therapies as well as the relationship between migration and mental health.
RESEARCH ABSTRACT
My research focuses on the role of recreational, educational and religious activities in nineteenth-century British asylums, for example concerts, art, sport, reading/writing classes, divine services and plays. These formed part of the moral treatment regime which had evolved around the turn of the century in response to a new belief in the curability of insanity, focusing on kindness, an individualised relationship between doctors and patients, and patient occupation. However, the role of recreation, education and religion within this has so far been under-explored, with activities often brandished as mere tools of social control.
My PhD project addressed the reform versus social control polarity and scrutinised the extent to which confinement, management and therapy can be aligned or consolidated through recreational activities. I challenged the current historical narrative by analysing primary sources such as archival records, medical treatises and reports in the popular and scientific nineteenth-century press. I also explored the interpersonal dynamics these activities engendered and investigate the adaptation of exterior and interior spaces to fit.
In exposing the impact of recreation and religion on the nineteenth-century insane, this project aimed to contribute to the growing body of research in the field of Medical Humanities. Identifying the forerunners of art, music and drama therapy, it sought to reshape public perceptions of institutional care and inform future policy making in mental health.
More recently, together with colleagues at the universities of Huddersfield and Utrecht, I have embarked on research at the intersection of migration and mental health by uncovering the histories of Belgian refugees in British asylums during the First World War. In turn, this will invite us to reflect on the emotional struggles experienced by displaced peoples today, employing creative approaches in partnership with public-facing organisations such as Alexandra Palace, the LMA and the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres.
EMPLOYMENT
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Huddersfield
IAS Early Career Fellow, University of Warwick
Associate Tutor in History, University of Warwick
Lecturer, Wolverhampton Further Education College
EDUCATION
PhD, History of Medicine, University of Warwick
MSt, Literature & Arts, University of Oxford (Distinction)
Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE FAHE), University of Wolverhampton
MA, Classical Archaeology (2.1) and Italian Language and Literature (1st), University of Hamburg, Germany
PUBLICATIONS
Book chapters
'Asylum Chapels: Healing Spaces of Worship', in Adam Powell, Kristy L Slominski and Christopher C.H. Cook (eds), Routledge Handbook of Spirituality, Religion, and Medical Humanities (Abingdon/New York, 2024) [forthcoming].
Academic Journals
'"Distraction from Hurtful Thoughts": Recreational Activities as Agents of Healing in Nineteenth-Century British Asylums', Medizinhistorisches Journal, 56:1/2 (2021), pp. 30-57 [peer reviewed].
Other
Revisiting 19th C Asylums, Asylum Magazine, Winter 2023, Vol. 30, Nr 4, p. 21.
'God Help Us? Religion in Nineteenth-Century Asylums', The Polyphony, 15 August 2023 [online]
Review of Dave Chawner Workshop, ‘How to engage non-academic audiences with your research’, University of Kent, 24 March 2023 [online].
‘Marketplace and Open Space: “A Box of Tricks” at the Inaugural Congress of the NNMHR’, The Polyphony, A Review (5 October 2017) [online].
‘International Network for The History of Hospitals: I’, Conference Report, The Gazette: Society for the Social History of Medicine, 78 (July 2017), pp. 8-10.
'"A Curious Dance Round a Curious Tree": Agency and Amusement in Victorian Asylums', VIDES 3 (Oxford, 2015), pp. 93-102.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
‘Carriages to be ordered at Eleven, Horses heads to face the Moon’: Laughter and Recreation in Nineteenth-Century British Asylums, Laughter and Medicine, University of Birmingham, 4-5 November 2024 [forthcoming].
‘Resistance and Moral Treatment in Nineteenth-Century British Asylums’, Society for the Social History of Medicine Biennial Conference: 'Resistance', University of Strathclyde and online, 16-19 July 2024 [forthcoming].
‘A Constant Source of Enjoyment’: Art and Theatre in 19th Century British Asylums' as part of the ‘Art and Recreation in Psychiatry: From the Nineteenth Century to the Present' panel, Inaugural Conference of the International Nineteenth Century Studies Association (INCSA):’The Nineteenth Century Today: Interdisciplinary, International, Intertemporal’, University of Durham and online, 10-12th July 2024 .
'A Civilised Species of Intellectual Amusement': Dramatic Performances in the Nineteenth-Century Asylum, Psychiatry and the Arts in Nineteenth-Century Britain (PAN) Conference: ‘Psychiatry, Mental Health and the Arts, Past and Present’, Open University and online, 20-21 June (invited).
'The Father-Confessor': The Role of the Chaplain in Nineteenth-Century British Asylums, Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, San Antonio (TX) USA, 18-21 November 2023.
Religion and the 'Other' in Nineteenth-Century British Asylums, Poster Presentation, Psychology and the "Other" Conference, Boston College, Boston, MA, USA, 6-8 October 2023.
‘The Divine Art of Healing’: Religion as Therapy in Nineteenth-Century British Asylums, as part of the Religion, Health and Humanities Researchers (RHHR) panel :'Of Ultimate Concern: Spiritual Tools and Technologies for Critical Medical Humanities', Northern Network For Medical Humanities Research Congress, online, 19-21 April 2023 (invited speaker).
'God, the Great Physician': Religious Activities in Nineteenth-Century British Asylums, European Association for the History of Medicine and Health (EAHMH), Leuven (Belgium) and online, 7-10 September 2021.
'Conformity and Cure': Appropriating Social Activities in British Asylums c. 1800-1845, Biennial Conference of the Society for the Social History of Medicine, University of Liverpool, 11-13 July 2018.
'Healthful Indulgences': Recreational Objects and Spaces in the Nineteenth-Century British Asylum, 'Material Cultures of Psychiatry', International Conference at the Department of History and Ethics of Medicine at the University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf (Germany) in cooperation with the University Luxembourg and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Ottersberg, (Deutsch/Englisch), 2-4 May 2018.
‘Das Vergnügen ist unermesslich’: Kunst und Kultur als Heilung in britischen Irrenanstalten des 19. Jahrhunderts, 'Gebessert Entlassen': Heilen in der Psychiatrischen Theorie und Praxis zwischen 1800 und 1970, Institut für Geschichte der Medizin, Universität Heidelberg, Germany, 6-7 April 2018.
'The Pleasure is Intense': Social Activities in British Asylums c. 1800-1890, Inaugural Congress of the Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research, Durham University, 14-15 September 2017.
'Re-tuning' the Mind: Art and Emotion in Nineteenth-Century British Asylums, ‘Emotion and the Arts: An Interdisciplinary History’, ISCH Annual Conference, Umea University, Sweden, 26-29 June 2017.
Art and Beauty as Therapeutic Agents in British Asylums, c.1800-1870; ‘Beauty and the Hospital', International Network for the History of Hospitals, University of Malta, 6-8 April 2017.
OUTREACH and PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
Recreation as Therapy in Nineteenth-Century British Asylums, Bath and North-East Somerset PG Psychiatry Academic Programme [online], 14 February 2024 (invited speaker).
Art and Beauty in Nineteenth-Century British Asylums, Psychiatry and the Arts in Nineteenth-Century Britain (PAN) Symposium 2 [online], 26 October 2023 (invited speaker).
Recreation as Therapy in Nineteenth-Century British Asylums, RCPsych HoPSIG Autumn Conference, London Metropolitan Archives, 20 October 2023 (invited speaker).
‘Recreation in Nineteenth-Century Asylums: An Overview and a Theatre Case Study’, Psychiatry and the Arts in Nineteenth-Century Britain (PAN) Symposium, Crichton Institution, Dumfries, 9 June 2023 (invited speaker).
‘A Day in the Life of’, Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance Website, June 2023.
Art and Amusement in Victorian Asylums; ‘History Matters: An Evening of Talks', The George Marshall Medical Museum, Worcester, 4 July 2016.
TEACHING
2018-2019 HI153 Making of the Modern World, Associate Tutor, University of Warwick.
SOCIETY MEMBERSHIPS
British Association for Victorian Studies (BAVS)
Society for the Social History of Medicine (SSHM)
International Society for Cultural History (ISCH)
European Association for the History of Medicine and Health (EAHMH)
Institute for Medical & Health Humanities and Artistic Research (IMHAR)
Religion, Health and Humanities Researchers (RHHR)
Social History Society
ESTEEM INDICATORS
Royal Historical Society, Associate Fellow
Royal College of Psychiatrists, History of Psychiatry Special Interest Group (HoPSIG), Member of the Executive Committee
Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, Member of the Editorial Board
AWARDS and BURSARIES
Full Travel and Accommodation Bursary from the Institute of Advanced Study, University of Warwick, for the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, San Antonio (TX) USA, 18-21 November 2023
Full Travel and Accommodation Bursary, from the Psychiatry and the Arts in Nineteenth-Century Britain (PAN) Network, for the PAN Symposium, Crichton Institution, Dumfries, 9 June 2023.
IAS Early Career Fellowship, Institute of Advanced Study, University of Warwick, 2022-2023.
PhD Departmental Scholarship, University of Warwick 2016-2022.
Travel and Accommodation Bursary from the Steering Group of the Inaugural Congress of the Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research, for their Inaugural Congress, Durham University, 14-15 September 2017.
Full Travel and Accommodation Bursary, from CHM, University of Warwick, for the ISCH Annual Conference in Umeå, Sweden, 26-29 June 2017.
Travel Bursary from the Society for the Social History of Medicine (SSHM), for the Conference ‘Beauty and the Hospital’, University of Malta, 6-8 April 2017.
