Whether health is regarded as a value in itself, or an instrument which aids greater human productivity, the tendency to ignore, conceal or minimise painful truths concerning threats to human health presents a complex problem in need of inter-disciplinary responses. The Health and Illness collection of research streams aim to provide a platform for examining and exploring issues surrounding the ways people experience health issues directly and indirectly, on a personal or professional basis. The impact of health, its presence and its absence, and how human beings regard and engage with it is complex and multi-layered.

Key themes will explore:

~The ‘meanings’ of health, illness, dying and death for individuals and communities
~ Perceptions of the ‘well’, the ‘ill’, the ‘impaired’ and the disabled
~ The preoccupation with health in the 21st century
~ The threat of global pandemics
~ The business of ‘wellness’, ‘cures’ and ‘treatments’
~ Chronic illness; terminal illness; attitudes to death
~ Pain; chronic pain; suffering
~ How we perceive of and conduct ourselves through the experiences of health and illness
~ The impact of social media
~ Technology, health, dying and death
~ The impact of health, illness, disease, dying and death on biology, economics, government, medicine, politics, social sciences
~ The relationship between creative work and health, illness, dying and death