Our first lunchtime seminar this semester will be delivered by Andrew Seaton (NYU) and chaired by Helen McCarthy (QMUL). Andrew’s paper is titled ‘Emotion on the Ward: Making Social Democracy in the Early National Health Service’. No need to book. Lunch provided.

Abstract: In July 2018, the National Health Service (NHS) will celebrate its seventieth ‘birthday’. NHS surgeries, clinics, and hospitals, in every town and city across Britain, are a testament to enduring postwar social democratic ideals. But why does nationalised medicine still stand when other parts of the universalist welfare state crumbled? This paper addresses this question by considering the making of social democracy on hospital wards in the 1940s-1960s. Following the experience of one patient in a maternity hospital, I explore the changing emotional dynamics of being hospitalised in postwar Britain. While anger, anxiety, and frustration posed a significant threat to the fledgling NHS, affection and communal bonds between patients and staff made possible its longer survival.

The talk will take place in room 2.17, Arts Two, Mile End Campus, London E1 4NS. For directions to Mile End and a campus map, see bit.ly/QMcampusmap.

Other papers in this series include:

1pm, 22nd November: James Southern ‘The ‘Spotting a Homosexual Checklist’: Masculinity, Homosexuality, and the British Foreign Office, 1965-1991’.

4pm, 6th December: Helen McCarthy ‘Graduate Mothers and Emotional Labour in 1960s Britain’.

See our events programme for more information.

A lost necklace received as a gift from a loved one, a stash of photographs found in a dusty attic… What objects are you emotionally attached to, and what feelings do they conjure up? Explore your emotions and how they are shaped by the objects around you at this drop-in event at the Royal College of Nursing, run by the Centre for the History of the Emotions as part of the Being Human Festival. Find out about gut feelings, add your emotional talismans to our display and explore your emotions and how they are shaped by objects through a series of drop-in activities. Attend short talks covering everything from fetishes to the hidden objects found in houses. This event will run in two sessions: 2-5pm and 6-9pm (talks in the evening only). Booking is essential and available on the Being Human website.

See the event on Facebook:

Activities:

Emotional Talismans
Do you carry an object with you that has emotional meaning? Or did you have a comfort blanket or similar item as a child? Bring it with you and we’ll photograph it for our picture wall or you can write a description on a parcel tag for our display. Learn about East End folklorist Edward Lovett and his collection of charms and amulets.

Signs of Life: emotional objects
Puppeteer Mervyn Millar will lead short practical workshops on animating objects that he has brought (but feel free to bring your own too). Emotions will be provided by the participants. Workshops will last about half an hour and will have limited numbers.

Invoking Memories: Sense of Place
Encounter objects designed to provoke an emotional response and evoke memories with artist Georgie Fay. Learn how to make monoprints of your important remembered spaces which will be displayed at the event.

Sentiment or sensation? Using historical images (2-5pm only)
In the digital era, historical images of people can be circulated more widely than ever before. In this workshop, participants will be asked for their thoughts on a range of historic images that have been re-used in various ways – from advertising wine to being transformed into video game characters. What are the ethical issues of such re-use? And how do they make us feel?

Please note that we will be using some medical photographs in this workshop; participants can choose whether or not they wish to see these. Workshops will last about half an hour and will have limited numbers. Under-18s will need permission from a parent or guardian to participate.

Gut Feelings

What’s your gut feeling? Our abdomens have long been recognised as sites of emotion, and cutting-edge research into the gut microbiome is bringing us closer than ever to unveiling this mystery. Our emotions and decisions are wrapped up in our digestive systems. Join us as we look at what the gut does for us – from past to present!

Belt Up: Accessories of Care

Reflect on your achievements while making your own belt buckle with the RCN Library & Archive team. Historically, belt buckles (given to nurses as gifts on their graduation) and hospital badges were the only way nurses personalised their uniforms, and these items have strong emotional resonance.

London’s Lost Dead

In 2012, Richard III’s grave was found under a car park in Leicester. But what lies buried beneath London’s streets? Learn about the city’s lost burial grounds and the unexpected places the dead are often found. How might the city and culture change memorial practices?

‘Orrible Objects

Explore a collection of objects now thought of as disgusting, offensive, uncanny, unpleasant and horrifying. How can we transform them into something acceptable and what does this tell us about how ideas of what’s ‘horrible’ has changed?

Do You Have a Theory of Other Minds?

Since the early twentieth century, psychologists have developed tests to see if you can understand the thoughts and feelings of other people.  Come and try some of those tests and consider what it means to have a “theory of other minds”.

Cocktails with Killgrief and Comfort

Explore the relationship between taste and memory with these evocative cocktails from Killgrief and Comfort. Experience Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter in a glass! (£7 alcoholic; £5 non-alcoholic)

Talks

Compered by Jules Evans

6.15 Rhodri Hayward ‘Messy Feelings and the Magic of Tidying Up’

6.45 Ceri Houlbrook ‘Hidden in the Home: The Concealed Revealed Roadshow’

7.15 Paolo Gervasi: ‘Fetishizing Memories: Emotional Objects in Literature’

7.45 Hannah Williams ‘Finding the Artists of 18th-Century Paris: Stories in Maps’

A panel discussion with Mervyn Millar, Emily Cross, Matthew Longo, Susanne Quadflieg and Joel Smith

Chaired by Tiffany Watt Smith, QMUL.

What role can puppetry play in unravelling the psychology of empathy and our ability to read each other’s emotions? How is it that we can we so easily feel apparently real emotions when watching bodies that are not even flesh and blood? Do we react differently to puppets, robots, avatars and people? And can we ever really ‘suspend disbelief’?

Puppet designer and director Mervyn Millar has been Leverhulme Trust Artist in Residence at QMUL’s Centre for the History of Emotions during 2017.  He will discuss these themes and related phenomena with academic researchers from a variety of fields: Prof Emily Cross (School of Psychology, Bangor University), Prof Matthew Longo (Cognitive Neuroscience ‘Bodylab’, Birkbeck University of London), Dr Susanne Quadflieg (Senior Lecturer in Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol), Dr Joel Smith (Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Manchester) and some puppeteers will all contribute to round table discussions and debate. Chaired by Dr Tiffany Watt-Smith (Centre for the History of Emotions, QMUL). This event is funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

Programme:

14.00 Welcome and introductions from the speakers

14.30 – 15.30  Discussion led by Tiffany Watt Smith, inviting cross-talk from the participants and including puppetry performances

15.30-16.00 tea and coffee break

16.00-16.50 Discussion and puppetry

16.50 Questions and wine reception

17.30 Finish

Attendance is free but limited: please email Helen Stark (h.stark@qmul.ac.uk) by 16 October for a place. This event will be recorded.