A warm welcome to Allison Morehead who joins the Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities as a Visiting Scholar for two weeks in the Visual and Material Lab.
Allison studies the relays between modern art, the psy-sciences, and the medicalization of modern life, with particular insights drawn from the critical medical humanities as well as museum studies, curatorial studies and curatorial practice. In 2021–23, Allison co-directed the online event series, Confabulations: Art Practice, Art History, Critical Medical Humanities with Fiona Johnstone and Imogen Wiltshire, which led to their recent co-edited volume, Art and the Critical Medical Humanities as part of the series: Critical Interventions in the Medical and Health Humanities (Bloomsbury, 2026).
In 2025, Allison curated the critically acclaimed exhibition Lifeblood – Edvard Munch for MUNCH in Oslo, Norway. The exhibition juxtaposed the work of the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (author of The Scream) with visual and material cultures of healthcare to explore the universal and particular experiences of having a vulnerable body in the age of modern medicine. As Lifeblood attests, Morehead is particularly interested in ways to put critical medical humanities work in front of large and general publics.
As a visiting scholar at the Institute for Medical Humanities, Allison will be drawing on the experience of curating Lifeblood to catalyze conversations around curatorial medical humanities and cultural heritages of health and medicine. In partnership with Fiona Johnstone and Cecilia Rodéhn, this work builds on and extends the collaborations between Durham, Uppsala and Queen’s Universities that began with the 2024–26 Matariki Network-funded project, Curating Cultural Heritage for the Medical and Health Humanities.
We look forward to working together, Allison!
