Introduction: Embodiment, Identity, and the Patient’s Story

This introduction looks at the links between medicine and narrative, arguing that patients’ stories have a valuable role to play in patient-centered healthcare. Two particular areas are addressed: first, the ways in which first-person expressions of embodied experience may contribute to medicine’s empathetic endeavor; and second, the lack of research to date into autopathography in the French-speaking world.

Seasons, Family and Nation in American Horror Story

Arguably, the title of American Horror Story sets out an agenda for the program: this is not just a horror story, but it is a particularly American one. This chapter examines the way that the program uses seasonal celebrations as a way of expressing that national identity, with special emphasis on the importance of family to those celebrations. The particular seasonal celebrations focused on are those of Halloween and Christmas, each of which has associations with the supernatural. However, the use of the supernatural at those seasons is one which is particularly associated with the US, presenting Halloween as a time of supernatural incursion and horror, and of disruption to society and the normal order of things, while Christmas is presented more as a time of unity for the family. Where the supernatural emerges in American Christmas television, it is typically as a force to encourage togetherness and reconciliation, rather than as a dark reminder of the past. While these interpretations of these festivals have been broadcast abroad by American cultural products, not least American television, they have different associations and implications elsewhere, as will be shown. So the particular uses of these festivals is part of what marks American Horror Story out as American, as is the way that the program's narratives have been structured to fit in with US television scheduling. This chapter, then, argues that the structures of the narratives combines with their use of the festivals of Halloween and Christmas in order to enhance the sense of this series as a particularly American horror story.

People Hear the Story

This is an essay including annotated critical editions documenting the history of reception of this song since 1848. Published in the Liederlexikon for the AHRC and DFG funded project 'The History of Reception of the Songs of the 1848 Revolution' (2009-2013).

Ecology of the early life-history stages of shad Alosa fallax fallax (Lacépède, 1803) in the River Mira, with a note on Alosa spp. larvae in the River Guadiana

Tese dout., Ecologia, Universidade do Algarve, 2006

Methodological Synergy in a National Project: The VITAE Story

VITAE was a four-year research project designed to explore the work and lives of a purposive sample of 300 Key Stage 1, 2 and 3 (English and maths) teachers at different phases of their careers in 100 primary and secondary schools in different socioeconomic contexts, drawn from seven local authorities in England. Its focus was upon identifying variations in different aspects of teachers' lives and work and examining possible connections between these and their effects on pupils as perceived by the teachers themselves and as measured by value-added national test scores. An integrated mixed-method approach was developed in addressing the research questions. The results showed that there were associations between teachers' work, lives and identities, that teachers' perceived and relative (valueadded) effectiveness varied within each of six professional life phases, and that this variation depended upon their capacity to manage a number of moderating and mediating factors. Statistically significant relationships were found between teacher commitment, resilience and the value-added pupil test scores. The findings from the study shed new light upon the meanings and measurement of teacher effectiveness and the complex nature and trajectories of teachers' work, lives and effectiveness in different school contexts.

Poetry With People With Dementia: An Evaluation of a Two Year Project Engaging in Poetry Activities With Older People in Residential and Nursing Homes.

This paper is a summary of an evaluation of the first two years of a three year poetry project for older people with dementia. The project was set up with a poet in residence who mentored six poets to deliver poetry activities to older people and those with dementia in residential and care homes in Herefordshire. The project was developed and run by the Courtyards Hereford. The evaluation was undertake through the use of questionnaires that were given to staff and carers undertaking training workshops and the poets, staff and carers in the homes who facilitated the activities and finally by the residents who took part in the project. The main findings were that participants that responded to the questionnaire for staff and carers it had increased confidence and assisted them in gaining more knowledge about the residents, whilst for residents it had a number of positive effects including enhanced communication, increased self-esteem and enhanced self-worth whilst making them feel less isolated.