Our Research

Our project explores two centuries (1760-1960) of bodily pain across the Anglo-American worlds. In addition to understanding how people ‘without voices’ experienced and expressed pain in different cultural contexts, we are also interested in developing our understanding of clinical intersubjectivity between the patient and his or her physician and nurse.

We are drawing on manuscript sources primarily from institutions such as hospitals, prison and workhouse infirmaries, factories and schools in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the US and Australia. We are also looking at published and unpublished diaries, letters, reports, journals and newspapers, lecture notes, annals, necrologies, sermons, oral histories, fiction and autobiographies. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the project, we will be using film, sound recordings, cartoons, and art.

Our research findings will be disseminated through a series of papers and journal articles, workshops and seminars. We expect at least one monograph to be published.

Case book kept by the surgeons of
a Royal Navy ship, 1851-53