Health Discourse

The OU’s Health Discourse research group brings together researchers and practitioners from disciplines across the university with expertise in applied linguistics, narrative studies, psychology, sociology, computing, medical humanities, and health and social care. The group is an informal research hub that fosters collaboration across different disciplines in the following areas:

• The language of wellbeing and illness, including illness narratives
• Communication between different groups (patients, informal carers, healthcare professionals)
• The communication of public health issues in the media and social media
• Diversity in the experiences and attitudes to health, illness(es), and healthcare
• Multilingualism and multiculturalism in healthcare encounters
• Translation & interpreting in healthcare outcomes
• The impact of technologies on healthcare interactions
• The contribution of fiction and literature to public perceptions of illnesses
• Expert discourses on health, with special focus on COVID-19
• Histories of pandemics

Researchers

• Ann Flynn
• Alison Higgs
• Alison Twiner
• Allan Third
• Anna Comas Quinn
• Anna Proudfoot
• Ava Gordon
• Caroline Pearce
• Caroline Tagg
• Cathy Lloyd
• Chris Kubiak
• Cristina Chimisso
• Erica Borgstrom
• Geraldine Boyle
• Grainne O’Connor
• Ian Hesketh
• Janine Talley
• Jan Draper
• Jeanette Copperman
• Jenny Bew
• Joan Oliver – CREET Research Administrator
• Joan Simons
• John Rowe
• Jonathan Rix
• Judith Davies
• Julie Messenger
• Kate Lister
• Kerry Jones
• Klaus-Dieter Rossade
• Korina Giaxoglou
• Kythe Beaumont
• Lynne Watson
• Lindsay O’Dell
• Lucy Gray
• Michael Charles Joseph Davidson
• Mara Fuertes Gutierrez
• Maria Leedham
• Martin Bootman
• Martin Robb
• Nathaniel Owen
• Paul Stenner
• Rajvinder Samra
• Raymond Hickman
• Rose Capdevila
• Sam Murphy
• Shailey Minocha
• Sharon Mallon
• Sheila Counihan
• Susanne Main
• Theresa Lillis
• Tim Coughlan
• Timothy Lewis
• Tom Witney
• Victoria Newton
• Z Demjen

If you are interested in being a part of the Health Discourse SIG please email healthwellbeing@open.ac.uk where further details will be provided.