After an enriching, transformative year forging connections and collaborations, under the brilliant leadership of Principal Investigator, Dr Josie Gill, and Research Associate, Dr Amber Lascelles, based at the University of Bristol’s Centre for Black Humanities, we are delighted to announce that moving forward, the network will be hosted by Durham University’s Institute for Medical Humanities. The network will be coordinated by members Dr Arya Thampuran (Assistant Professor, Institute for Medical Humanities, Durham University) and Dr Shelda-Jane Smith (Lecturer in Human Geography, University of Liverpool). This cross-institutional collaboration offers exciting prospects for expanding the interdisciplinary partnerships that have proven invaluable in the last year, with the infrastructural support to build upon the network’s legacy as it develops beyond this academic year. The network is very much committed to being member-led, and this cross-institutional collaboration offers the resources and infrastructure to support the development of researchers working at the critical intersection of race and health, and address the needs identified by members at our final workshop in June 2022.

A message from Arya and Shelda-Jane:

We are hugely excited and honoured to be supporting the network’s continuity – we have both found this space incredibly rewarding, both personally and professionally, and hope that it remains a vital resource and collaborative community for all of us. In this academic year, we will facilitate regular work-in-progress forums for existing members, as a space for us to test out ideas and exchange conversations within this community we have established. We are also hoping to expand the breadth of this interdisciplinary dialogue by bridging the BHH with existing networks at Durham and Liverpool, such as through Durham’s Neurodivergent Humanities Network and Postgraduate & Early Career Researcher Network, and Liverpool’s Centre for Health, Medical and Environmental Humanities. Drawing on these resources, we have plans for specific skills training workshops, programmes, reading groups, and symposiums that can develop and platform our critical work at the intersection of arts and activism. We are also hoping to support the production of creative output, drawing on our collective wide-ranging skills and interests. As always, we remain member-led and member-focused, so our activities will very much be shaped in dialogue and partnership with everyone in the network.

In the longer-term, there is a view towards expanding the membership model and extending a mentorship programme for precarious scholars in the field. Through the research activities planned for this year, we are aiming to develop a best practice methodology document which will outline principles for engaging with sensitive material informed by the network’s facilitation of research activities, and that can, in turn, shape pedagogical practice within and beyond academic spaces.