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Rebecca Whiteley

@rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social
1.4K followers 442 following 37 posts

British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Birmingham. Prints and books, materiality, sex and medicine! Author of Birth Figures (she/her)

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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Could anyone help me with core reading on the whole 'Victorian corsets: torture machines or practical support' debate? I thought it might be an interesting section for my current chapter and now I feel like I've stepped on a wasps nest!
Tow silhouettes, one of an uncorseted and one of a corseted waist. Image from: Fowler, O.S., 1846, Tightlacing, Wellcome Collection.
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UCU Edinburgh @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Day 2 of the UCU workers' strike at the University of Edinburgh. The 1,800 jobs UCU estimates will be cut is unprecedented in Scottish higher education. It is happening in the wealthiest Scottish university, and the third richest in the UK, currently sitting with over £3billion reserves.
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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
My first piece of writing from my current project, all about Victorian medical impropriety, is out! Part of a wonderful volume on humour and visual medical history, get a copy for your library now! manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526187970/
A page spread from my chapter, including an image of a dentist peering/leering into a patient's mouth.
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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I will be convening a panel on The Medical Nude in the Long Nineteenth Century at AAH this year. Please come join me! forarthistory.org.uk/93-the-medic...
forarthistory.org.uk
93. The Medical Nude in the Long Nineteenth Century - For Art History
The nude is an art-historical stress test. As Lynda Nead tells us, it stands at the pinnacle of fine art and yet is always in danger of slipping into the unacceptable, the obscene. This dual identity ...
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Manchester University Press @manchesterup.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Who gets to define the boundaries of the human body? Free to read until 5 November, the introduction to Borderline bodies in art and visual culture explores the bodies, images and objects that challenge fixed ideas of identity, place and belonging. www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781...
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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This is such an important thing to share! Not all academic jobs are worth the conditions they come with, and given the current direction in the sector, this is something we all need to be vocal about!
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Alexandre Klein @alexandreklein.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
(Call for papers) Inside/Insight: Popular and biomedical representations and the aesthetics of the inner body histoiresante.blogspot.com/2026/09/repr... #histbody #histmed
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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Anyone who is interested in Material Culture and the Medical Humanities should definitely come and join our new Collective! medhumsplatform.org/call-for-col... @annafranjam.bsky.social @harrietbarratt.bsky.social @drfijohnstone.bsky.social
medhumsplatform.org
Call for collaborators – launching the Material Medical Humanities Collective | The Platform
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Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
How to do with books, especially bibles, when you live in a material world? Well, William Hogarth of 18th century fame reminds us of the typical re-using (of bindings). In this case, the leather binding is re-used for a shoe sole. #bookhistory #booksky
A detail from William Hogarth, A Rake's Progress, Plate 1, from around 1735, showing a bound bible and the leather cover with a hole that looks like a shoe. William Hogarth, A Rake's Progress, Plate 1.
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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Fantastic news for Manchester!
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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
A long shot but does anyone on here have experience of an ERC application in the humanities? This whole B1 / B2 thing has me in a tailspin!
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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Fantastic! I'm ordering this right now, what an absolute all star cast of experts in the field 💫
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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
I was super excited to delve into my newly arrived copy of Borderline Bodies in Art and Visual Culture, but then it became part of my kid's model village/egg hatchery.
A book titled 'Borderline Bodies' covered in stone eggs resting on cotton squares and surrounded by small cardboard houses.
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Lucy Pearson @lrpearson.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
If you, like me, have been wondering what the hell you can do in relation to the relentless stripping away of trans rights, this is one clear concrete action.
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Buckinghamshire Archives @bucksarchives.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Some bad news from your favourite archive
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Dr. Heather Leslie @heatherleslie.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
One of the best AI critiques I’ve seen read.dukeupress.edu/critical-ai/...
read.dukeupress.edu
A Pedagogy of the Inevitable
Over the last couple of years, two altogether incompatible discourses of “AI literacy” have emerged. One seeks just enough literacy to support a smooth, perhaps even joyful, integration with new techn...
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Durham Institute for Medical Humanities @durhamimh.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Next Wednesday 25 March, join us for the second instalment of Lab Coat Lunches! We'll be joined by Paulina Yurman who will present methods at the heart of her Wellcome Trust-funded project Maternal Machines: Design Speculations about Fantasies of Care. Sign up: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/maternal-m...
eventbrite.co.uk
Maternal Machines and other fantasies of care
Lab Coat Lunches 2026 – visual and material practices within and beyond the medical humanities (online)
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Becca @beccalou.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Morning everyone. We are looking for carers/ parents who are artists or academics in arts, social sciences or humanities to take part in our survey. More info here: lncn.ac/care . Reposts and shares appreciated.
lncn.ac
Caregiving, Careers, and Precarity in the Arts and Humanities | University of Lincoln
Caregiving, Careers, and Precarity in the Arts and Humanities Ethics reference: 2025_21927 Eligibility If you are a caregiver of any gender or age in one of the following roles we would like to know more about your experience. Caregiving includes: Parenting of biological or adopted children Kinship care Providing unpaid care to a friend or...
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Lucibee @lucibee.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
For those who are minded to do so, there's now a petition to sign too... #DirtyBusiness petition.parliament.uk/petitions/75...
petition.parliament.uk
Petition: Nationalise water companies to make water a non profit publicly owned asset
To make water a non profit making national asset that ensures we have a secure water infrastructure that ensures our water security for future generations.
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Hilary Davidson @fourredshoes.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
FYI, Academia.edu has changed its terms of service to give an irrevocable worldwide license for anything uploaded to its site to be used for generative AI. I do not consent to this and have pulled all my papers.
academia.edu
Academia.edu - Find Research Papers, Topics, Researchers
Academia.edu is the platform to share, find, and explore 50 Million research papers. Join us to accelerate your research needs & academic interests.
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Christine Slobogin @slobogin.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Much needed good news: _Sick Jokes_ is in production @katiesnow.bsky.social @lauracowley.bsky.social Our brilliant authors have written chapters on the intersection of visual culture, humor, and health (see ToC) And we're thrilled with the cover from @manchesterup.bsky.social - more in next post.
Cover of a book 
"Edited by Christine Slobogin, Katie Snow and Laura Cowley.
Sick jokes: Visual histories of humour, health and the body."

The cover image is a black-and-white photograph of a white man with short hair, a gold earring, stubble, glasses, and an oxygen tube. He makes eye contact with the viewer and his mouth is slightly open, perhaps in a smile. His hospital gown is pulled up to reveal both a Kaposi's lesion and a smiley face tattoo.Table of Contents

Introduction
Christine Slobogin, Katie Snow and Laura Cowley

PART I – PATHOLOGIES AND POWER IN PRINT
Chapter 1 – ‘Uncorking Old Sherry’: Alcohol, the body and political decline in visual culture. The case of Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Callum Smith
 
Chapter 2 – Bedroom eyes as bedside manner: Humorous expressions of medical impropriety in mid-nineteenth-century visual culture
Rebecca Whiteley
 
Chapter 3 – ‘The top set’s artificial, but the bottom’s my own!’: Comic representations of false teeth and denture users in mid-twentieth-century British seaside postcards
Georgia Haire

PART II – DYING LAUGHING: DEATH, DISFIGUREMENT, DISEASE, AND DISABILITY
Chapter 4 – Dancing, laughing and sexing (with) death: Edvard Munch’s gendered medical humour
Allison Morehead
 
Chapter 5 – Tube pedicles and positionality: The visual humour of a plastic surgery technique
Christine Slobogin
 
Chapter 6 – The bittersweet look(s) of AIDS: Consuming the ironic waste of HIV/AIDS imagery (and other butts of the joke) in Diseased Pariah News
Jo Michael Rezes
 
Chapter 7 – Irony, assisted dying and The Disabled Avant-Garde
Laura Cowley

PART III – COMICAL HEALTH COMMUNICATIONS
Chapter 8 – ‘Doctor, are you speaking in tongues?’: Humour and the health humanities of Selma and Lois DeBakey
Jeffrey S. Reznick
 
Chapter 9 – Tough Shit Thomas and Peanut Pete: Harm reduction comics and British identities in the 1990s
Peder Clark
 
Chapter 10 – Pandemic funnies: Humour in COVID-19 comics
Soha Bayoumi
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Fiona Johnstone @drfijohnstone.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Thrilled to finally be holding a physical copy of Art and the Critical Medical Humanities 📘 Co-edited with Allison Morehead and Imogen Wiltshire, this book has been a true labour of love.
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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
Is anyone doing interesting work on the mid-nineteenth century nude at the moment? I'd be so grateful to hear of any scholars or new publications in this sphere!
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UCL Health Humanities Centre @uclhhcentre.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
The Health Care Closet: Sexual Politics & American Health since the Rights Revolutions of the 1960s 29 Jan 6:15–7:30pm We welcome Prof Jonathan Bell @uclamericas.bsky.social, who will explore an emerging crisis in health care access through the lens of sex and gender. www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...
ucl.ac.uk
The Health Care Closet: Sexual Politics & American Health since the Rights Revolutions of the 1960s
Join this Health Humanities Seminar with Prof Jonathan Bell (UCL Institute of the Americas), who will explore an emerging crisis in health care access through the lens of sex and gender.
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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Huge excitement to hear today that Art and the Critical Medical Humanities is out in the world! Go and have a look, it's all open access www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?do...
bloomsburycollections.com
Art and the Critical Medical Humanities
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Laura Ansley @lmansley.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Nominations are now open for the @nursingclio.bsky.social Prize for Best Journal Article, an award for the best peer-reviewed academic journal article on the intersection of gender and medical histories in English. Self-nominations are encouraged! 🗃️
nursingclio.org
Awards
Nursing Clio Prize for Best Journal Article The Nursing Clio Prize for Best Journal Article is awarded annually for the best peer-reviewed academic journal article on the intersection of gender and…
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Not In Our Name (NION) Women @nionwomen.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
Over 71,000 women so far have clearly said: this does not speak for us. Add your name to our open letter in support of the trans+ community: ✍️ notinourname.org.uk Not In Our Name.
notinourname.org.uk
Home - Not in our name
Not In our Name: Women in support of the trans+community
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Dr Anna Jamieson @annafranjam.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
Still time to sign up for our online event *Object Stories in Health and Medicine* on Friday 5 December! We've got a fantastic programme with panels on Wearable Objects, Object Biographies, Representing the Body, Personal Papers and Domestic Health. One week today @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social
birmingham.ac.uk
Object stories in health and medicine, 1700-1900 - University of Birmingham
This event is aimed at researchers across the medical humanities and histories of medicine and psychiatry working with material culture.
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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
I am loving seeing everyone's books this morning! Here's mine, look how pink it is!
The cover of 'Birth Figures: Early Modern Prints and the Pregnant Body'. A bright pink ground with woodcut illustrations of the fetus in utero.
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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
And the prize for creepiest image of the day goes to our good friend Frederick Hollick (courtesy of Wellcome)
A man points at an anatomical model, resting his other hand on its head.
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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Booking is now live for our exciting online workshop Object Stories in Health and Medicine 1700-1900! See the full programme and grab a ticket here: www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/objec...
birmingham.ac.uk
Object stories in health and medicine, 1700-1900 - University of Birmingham
This event is aimed at researchers across the medical humanities and histories of medicine and psychiatry working with material culture.
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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Does anyone know of any work on the Victorian use of the word 'interesting' to describe women as a category - 'the most interesting part of humanity'? I keep finding it and its making my toes curl 😰
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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
CfP for an online workshop on Object Stories in Health and Medicine, 1700-1900 @annafranjam.bsky.social and I can't wait to hear about your objects!
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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
How. HOW. Are there still academic ebooks with no page numbers?! How.
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The Victorian Hand @victorianhand.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
🙌Call for Papers🙌 We are excited to invite abstracts for an interdisciplinary conference on The Hand: Emotions, Embodiment, Identity, at @unioftheartslondon.bsky.social on 8-9 Jan 2026 Send abstracts of 300 words to victorianhand@fashion.arts.ac.uk by 22 Sep - please circulate among your networks!
Call for Papers. The Hand: Emotions, Embodiment, Identity. An Interdisciplinary Conference. 8-9 January, 2026 
London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London.
Proposal Deadline: 22 September 2025What do hands reveal about us?
We invite abstracts for papers of 15-20 minutes, for presentation at our 2-day interdisciplinary conference, part of The Victorian Hand: Emotions, Embodiment, and Identity, Past and Present, supported by UKRI.We welcome presentations from multi- and interdisciplinary research fields, including Critical Studies, Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences and STEM. 
We encourage proposals from artists, makers and performers.
Image includes an illustration of magnetism, a Victorian man sitting under 3 hands, 2 of whom have lines of magnetic power emanating onto his head and shouldersPlease send abstracts up to 300 words, and biographies up to 100 words to victorianhand@fashion.arts.ac.uk by 22 September 2025
Read the full call at thevictorianhand.uk/call-for-papers-the-hand

Image features the 3 logos of Lancaster University, UAL and UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council
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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
I wonder if anyone tech-minded can help! I have two mac computers about 10 years old, both work fine and yet I've just discovered are now 'unsupported' by Apple and I can't update their OSs. Soon I won't be able to use key programs. Is there anything to be done?!
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British Association for Romantic Studies @bars.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
Now on the BARS Blog: CfP: 'Sex in the Long Nineteenth Century' - Romance, Revolution and Reform Journal 2026 Conference See all the details here: www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6071 Please share widely!!
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Richard Bellis @richardtbellis.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
New article out today! 'The Structures and Textures of Disease Made Printable' focuses on how the illustrations for Matthew Baillie's morbid anatomy were made through collaborations with the artist William Clift and a team of engravers associated with the Royal Society. doi.org/10.1086/736874
doi.org
University of Chicago Press Journals: Cookie absent
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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 23/09/2024
Want to know more about obstetrical models, paper dolls, or play in medical education? Check out my new article in Material Culture Review about these little guys! journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MC...
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Christine Slobogin @slobogin.bsky.social · 13/08/2024
Reminder that I am soliciting papers for my CAA 2025 panel "Anonymity in Art and Visual Culture." 📅 Deadline: August 29
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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 07/03/2024
My little bookish heart is bleeding! I just opened a new book from an academic press far enough for it to lie open, and about forty pages have burst from their 'glue' binding 😭
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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 26/01/2024
A fantastic summary of a term I have been wanting to know more about for a while. thepolyphony.org/2024/01/26/m...
thepolyphony.org
MedHums 101: What is Crip Time?
‘Crip time’ is a conception of living with illness that many patients bring to their healthcare interactions, says Élaina Gauthier-Mamaril.
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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 25/01/2024
What are visual culture people using to keep track of their images? I love Zotero for references and I tried Tropy but it couldn't talk across my two devices so I had to give that up... I'm drowning in medical book illustrations!
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Rebecca Whiteley @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social · 15/12/2023
Does anyone know anything written about Gustave-Joseph Witkowski? Because I'm looking at his publication history and he seems too bonkers to be unstudied?? 👀
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Isabel Davis @drbeldavis.bsky.social · 24/10/2023
My (Mis)Conceptions project is collecting magical thinking during the trying to conceive experience. Do you have a story to share? Why not contribute it to future ttc communities? docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com
Trying To Conceive
All answers are completely anonymous but your answers will be used to inform the creative outputs and research for the project (Mis)Conceptions Read more about the project here: https://www.nhm.ac.uk...
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