• Professor Marland's shortlisting is not the only success for Warwick in the 2018 Health Humanities Medal Shortlists, with Dr Anna Harpin and Dr Rachel Bennett both nominated for Best Doctoral or Early Career Research and will be featured in a story later this week.
  

Professor Hilary Marland, of the University of Warwick's Centre for the History of Medicine, has been shortlisted for the Health Humanities Medal, a new national award led by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in association with the Wellcome Trust.

Professor Marland is one of five academics who has made the shortlist for the Leadership Award category, which recognises those who have demonstrated leadership within the field of health humanities. The Health Humanities Medal comprises five categories designed to celebrate the achievements of those who have helped to inform and transform the health and wellbeing of the nation through the use of arts and humanities research.

Commenting on the shortlisting Professor Marland, said: “This is a huge honour and I am delighted to have been short-listed for the Medal. Health humanities is an exciting field to work in and offers enormous scope to academics to combine research with public engagement.

"Working with my colleagues at Warwick, most recently on a Wellcome Trust funded project on health in prison, I have had the opportunity and support to engage in initiatives that draw on historical research to develop new ways of working with the arts, policy makers and a wide range of audiences.”

• Professor Marland's shortlisting is not the only success for Warwick in the 2018 Health Humanities Medal Shortlists, with Dr Anna Harpin and Dr Rachel Bennett both nominated for Best Doctoral or Early Career Research.

Nearly a hundred nominations were received for the first ever Health Humanities Medal covering a diverse range of subjects ranging from dementia to music and psychology. Professor Nicola Shaughnessy chaired the first panel and said: “It was great to be chairing something completely new and getting the opportunity to read through all the applications.

“The applications consistently showed evidence of high impact, demonstrating how research in health humanities is changing lives and influencing policymakers.”

The projects that have been shortlisted, all of which are grounded in arts and humanities research, include schemes with older people at risk of social isolation, with people experiencing psychosis and mental distress, and schemes which use music and dance to break down social exclusion.

Professor Edward Harcourt, Director of Research, Strategy and Innovation at the AHRC said: “We are delighted to be supporting these new awards. The AHRC has always seen the importance of backing the health humanities. We were struck by the exceptional quality of the applications, which express a more inclusive vision of health and wellbeing and how to achieve it in ways that are not driven by medical science alone.”

Awards will be given in five categories designed to showcase the best research, impact and leadership during a special awards ceremony at the House of Commons on 11 September, and from these there will be an overall winner who will receive the Health Humanities Medal. You’ll be able to follow the fortunes of the shortlist on Twitter via the hashtag #HealthHumanitiesMedal.

17 August 2018

Notes to editors

• About AHRC

The Arts and Humanities Research Council funds world-class, independent researchers in a wide range of subjects: archaeology, area studies, the creative and performing arts, design, digital content, heritage, history, languages, philosophy and much more. This financial year we will spend approximately £98 million on research and postgraduate training in collaboration with a number of partners. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides economic, social and cultural benefits to the UK, but contributes to the culture and welfare of societies around the globe.

The AHRC is part of UK Research and Innovation, a new body that works in partnership with universities, research organisations, businesses, charities, and government to create the best possible environment for research and innovation to flourish. Operating across the whole of the UK with a combined budget of more than £6 billion, UK Research and Innovation brings together the seven Research Councils, Innovate UK and a new organisation, Research England.

• About the Wellcome Trust

The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to improving health. We support bright minds in science, the humanities and the social sciences, as well as education, public engagement and the application of research to medicine. Our investment portfolio gives us the independence to support such transformative work as the sequencing and understanding of the human genome, research that established front-line drugs for malaria, and Wellcome Collection, our free venue for the incurably curious that explores medicine, life and art. www.wellcome.ac.uk

Contact:

Tom Frew, Senior Press and Media Relations Manager – University of Warwick:

E: a dot t dot frew at warwick dot ac dot uk
M: +44(0)7785433155