Eva Surawy Stepney
@evasurawy.bsky.social
History of OCD, clinical psychology, concepts, methods, evidence. Archive manager 4 @eshhs.bsky.social, Editor in Chief @the-polyphony.bsky.social
Camilla Lyckblad introduces us to her audio installation on medical records and record keeping. Read and listen… thepolyphony.org/2026/04/15/v...
On Voice and the Medical Record
Camilla Lyckblad introduces us to her audio installation on medical records and record keeping. Read and listen…
thepolyphony.org
There’s no such thing as the history of science (and this is a blog post about it) (inspired by a great 2017 article by Lorraine Daston) williamgpooley.wordpress.com/2026/03/25/t... 🗃️
There is no such thing as the history of science
People on the internet are arguing about what ‘science’ means and what properly belongs to the ‘history of science’. (Aparna Nair’s thread on Bluesky is a good introdu…
williamgpooley.wordpress.com
Please support dear @drrobertchapman.bsky.social- these places are so important as sites of safety and collective imaginings (plus books!!)
Robert Chapman@drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 5mo agoHey everyone, a collective I'm part of is starting a radical bookshop and community space in Newcastle, a city where the last radical bookshop closed around 40 years ago. We've just launched our crowdfunder. Please take a look a share widely! www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/booksfromb...
So excited to see this out in the world!
Chris Millard@chrismillard83.bsky.social · 5mo agoOh my god it is actually out - like actually now. Over a week early! They snuck it out without telling me! lol. Well, here it is people, and you can download the whole thing for free - thanks to @wellcometrust.bsky.social Fill your boots: www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mon...
Oh my god it is actually out - like actually now. Over a week early! They snuck it out without telling me! lol. Well, here it is people, and you can download the whole thing for free - thanks to @wellcometrust.bsky.social Fill your boots: www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mon...
The Politics of Personal Experience | Writing a History of Munchausen
How should a historian with personal experience of their topics write about them? Exploring the author’s own experiences with Munchausen Syndrome and Munchausen
taylorfrancis.com
Great to see this! Such an interesting piece. Tagging @kristinhussey.bsky.social 🙌
The Polyphony @the-polyphony.bsky.social · 5mo agoKristin D. Hussey and Hannah Star Rogers draw on Science and Technology Studies (STS) to think through how the ‘lab’ is being employed across the medical humanities. thepolyphony.org/2026/03/05/l...
Kristin D. Hussey and Hannah Star Rogers draw on Science and Technology Studies (STS) to think through how the ‘lab’ is being employed across the medical humanities. thepolyphony.org/2026/03/05/l...
Between the Lab and the Clinic: Perspectives from Medical Humanities and Science and Technology Studies (STS)
Kristin D. Hussey and Hannah Star Rogers draw on Science and Technology Studies (STS) to think through how the ‘lab’ is being employed across the medical humanities.
thepolyphony.org
I have a new article published today! Written with my fellow OCD-ist. Accepted a couple of years ago, the piece envisions theoretical directions for critical OCD studies through approaching order/control through a social and experiential lens. www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/...
The Paradox of Purity: Envisioning Theoretical Directions for Critical OCD Studies: Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies: Vol 20, No 1
This article imagines some theoretical directions for what is deemed as “critical OCD studies.” Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized in both clinical and cultural discourse as a preoccupation with order. This article moves beyond the ...
liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk
My book review of Alan Bleakley’s "Medical Humanities: Ethics, Aesthetics, Politics" out now in @the-polyphony.bsky.social Much thanks to Grace Brimacombe-Rand and @evasurawy.bsky.social for the sharp edits and support! thepolyphony.org/2026/02/12/r...
Beyond Reductionism: Reimagining Medical Education through the Humanities
Vivek N. D. reviews Alan Bleakley’s ‘Medical Humanities: Ethics, Aesthetics, Politics (2024)’, examining the contemporary purpose of medical humanities in medical education.
thepolyphony.org
My short article on ‘ontological friction’ is out now! Super grateful to @evasurawy.bsky.social for the incredible support
The Polyphony @the-polyphony.bsky.social · 6mo agoAnnie James introduces the concept of ‘ontological friction’ to explore the medical and lived complexity of a form of menstrual pain. thepolyphony.org/2026/02/02/o...
Thanks so much for everything, Arya. For your creativity and commitment!
Arya Ray@aryaray.bsky.social · 7mo agoWe've tried to do something different with this piece, and we'd love it if you tell us what you think. It's also my final piece as Guest Editor, and I think it's a great not to leave on. I'm incredibly grateful for this experience. Can't wait to see what the project does next!
Surjavo Sen Gupta reimagines a multisensory art gallery as a space for restoration and ocular relief through his time as a walk leader at the Flowing Heritage exhibition at Arthshila. thepolyphony.org/2026/01/07/h...
Holding and Beholding Art
Surjavo Sen Gupta reimagines a multisensory art gallery as a space for restoration and ocular relief through his time as a walk leader at the Flowing Heritage exhibition at Arthshila.
thepolyphony.org
"When anti-stigma campaigns shift away from acting on the wider determinants of health [..] they tend to [..] reproduce inequalities." #RecalibratingStigma @oliwilliams.bsky.social @gmthomas.bsky.social @amychandler.bsky.social Tanisha Spratt @brisunipress.bsky.social
The Polyphony @the-polyphony.bsky.social · 8mo agoIn the first of our 'Recalibrating Stigma' mini-takeover, Oli Williams, Gareth M. Thomas, Amy Chandler, and Tanisha Spratt introduce the concept of anti-stigma. thepolyphony.org/2025/12/03/a...
Lastly Caroline Law and @harrietcooper.bsky.social pull together their respective analyses of male infertility and parenting disabled children to consider how stigma is involved in shaping and maintaining reproductive norms and idealised notions of family. 4/5 thepolyphony.org/2025/12/05/r...
Reproductive norms: stigma and disruptions in family-building
In the final of our ‘Recalibrating Stigma’ mini-takeover, Caroline Law and Harriet Cooper explores how stigma operates in relation to reproductive norms.
thepolyphony.org
Thanks @the-polyphony.bsky.social for sharing your platform with us to give people a sense of what's in the new edited collection 'Recalibrating Stigma: sociologies of health and illness' Available as a free e-book or relatively inexpensive paperback 5/5 bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/recalibratin...
Recalibrating Stigma
Recalibrating Stigma - Sociologies of Health and Illness; Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Featuring original analyses from emerging leaders in medical sociology, this book r...
bristoluniversitypress.co.uk
2 years ago @the-polyphony.bsky.social kindly invited me @gmthomas.bsky.social @amychandler.bsky.social & Tanisha to write about the book we were putting together on stigma (see ⬇️). Now it's out @brisunipress.bsky.social they've let us do a mini-takeover! 1/5 thepolyphony.org/2023/09/11/r...
Recalibrating Stigma
Gareth Thomas, Tanisha Spratt, Oli Williams, and Amy Chandler reflect on the 2023 symposium: Recalibrating Stigma, Sociological Perspectives on Health and Illness.
thepolyphony.org
In the first of our 'Recalibrating Stigma' mini-takeover, Oli Williams, Gareth M. Thomas, Amy Chandler, and Tanisha Spratt introduce the concept of anti-stigma. thepolyphony.org/2025/12/03/a...
What’s wrong with anti-stigma?
In the first of our ‘Recalibrating Stigma’ mini-takeover, Oli Williams, Gareth M. Thomas, Amy Chandler, and Tanisha Spratt introduce the concept of anti-stigma.
thepolyphony.org
On World AIDS Day, reposting this piece on David Wojnarowicz, politics, & gestures that draws on one of my snapshots of illness-thought-activism in time in my book Indirect Action. #IllnessPolitics www.lisadiedrich.org/thoughts/on-...
On David Wojnarowicz, politics, and gestures — Lisa Diedrich
This is the final weekend for the exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art of the work of David Wojnarowicz, “History Keeps Me Awake at Night.” I can’t recommend the show enough, especi...
lisadiedrich.org
Órla Meadhbh Murray introduces the Gut Feelings course: a space for people to narrate, explore, and challenge their experience of gut symptoms. thepolyphony.org/2025/12/01/g...
Gut Feelings: Challenging Crip Gut Stigma
Órla Meadhbh Murray introduces the Gut Feelings course: a space for people to narrate, explore, and challenge their experience of gut symptoms.
thepolyphony.org
David Woodhead reflects on being gay and getting older. thepolyphony.org/2025/11/24/a...
Am I queer enough? When theory and lived experience collide
David Woodhead reflects on being gay and getting older.
thepolyphony.org
Not long left to apply to be an editor at the Polyphony!
Eva Surawy Stepney@evasurawy.bsky.social · 9mo agoCome and work with me! :D
I recently wrote a reflective piece for the Polyphony blog @the-polyphony.bsky.social explaining the motivations behind my work on ME, and what I think a medical humanities approach has to offer this field - and health research more generally thepolyphony.org/2025/10/09/p...
Privilege and Pain: Why the Medical Humanities Matter
Katharine Cheston reflects on her own experience of ME and the need for a more caring, curious, and compassionate approach to health research.
thepolyphony.org
Katharine Cheston reflects on her own experience of ME and the need for a more caring, curious, and compassionate approach to health research. thepolyphony.org/2025/10/09/p...
Privilege and Pain: Why the Medical Humanities Matter
Katharine Cheston reflects on her own experience of ME and the need for a more caring, curious, and compassionate approach to health research.
thepolyphony.org
This year, I've been lucky enough to work with @actionforme.bsky.social, as part of a collaboration between Action for ME and @durhamimh.bsky.social. (More on this soon!) For now, this reflective post explains my motivations - and what I believe a collaborative, cross-sector approach can achieve.
The Polyphony @the-polyphony.bsky.social · 10mo agoKatharine Cheston reflects on her own experience of ME and the need for a more caring, curious, and compassionate approach to health research. thepolyphony.org/2025/10/09/p...
Employing Alison Kafer's 'crip time' as a mode of writing, Ayeong unravels the recovery paradigm and its institutional salience. thepolyphony.org/2025/10/10/c...
Crip Time and the Recovery Paradigm: Clashes Between Institutional and Lived Temporality
Employing Alison Kafer’s concept of ‘crip time’ as a mode of writing, Ayeong unravels the recovery paradigm and its institutional salience.
thepolyphony.org
Really enjoyed working with Yann on this, important and thoughtful reflections from clinical practice
The Polyphony @the-polyphony.bsky.social · 10mo agoYann Phesans interrogates the concept of therapeutic neutrality, combining personal history and clinical experience to offer an alternative. thepolyphony.org/2025/10/02/n...
Yann Phesans interrogates the concept of therapeutic neutrality, combining personal history and clinical experience to offer an alternative. thepolyphony.org/2025/10/02/n...
“Not Like Them”: Opacity, Disidentification, and the Queer Art of Refusal in the Therapeutic Encounter
Yann Phesans interrogates the concept of therapeutic neutrality, combining personal history and clinical experience to offer an alternative.
thepolyphony.org
Queer science in action: “As Max put it, ‘Be open to surprises…biology will surprise you. Let the animals tell you something different about the world than what you thought.’ He was talking abt frogs, of course. But also abt the many, many other animals who don’t live quite the way we might expect.”
MIT Press@mitpress.bsky.social · 11mo ago"A queer feminist approach ... would not frame chemically-poisoned frogs as pitiable freaks of nature, as well-intentioned scientific and media coverage tends to do."
