Past Events

‘Race Correction’ in Medicine: A History of Lung Function Measurements

The Life of Breath project was delighted to host Professor Lundy Braun in Bristol recently to speak at our bi-annual team meeting “Breathing Space” along with a special public lecture. Life of Breath researcher Coreen McGuire reflects on Lundy’s visit…  … Read more…

Curious about breath at the Oxford Curiosity Carnival

Music therapist and writer Kate Binnie writes:  Friday 29th September saw Oxford’s City Centre transformed by the Curiosity Carnival. This University-organised event sought to bring together researchers across fields of study to share knowledge, answer questions, and interact in creative ways with … Read more…

Breath in the technoscientific imaginary

Here, Durham researcher Arthur Rose explores breath as a theme, metaphor and plot device in Science Fiction. Whether used to convey a sense of anticipation, otherness, or even signify life itself, breath is a common motif in artistic media. Drawing on Fahrenheit 451, Star … Read more…

Should I fear my death?

Where death is, I am no longer, where I am death is not. If life and death are mutually exclusive, then we have no reason to fear death; but could it have a role to play in life? As part of the student-voted Best of Bristol lecture series, Prof Havi Carel explored the question of whether we should fear our own deaths through contrasting the views of Epicurus and Heidegger.

A Tobacco-Free New Zealand by 2025? Lecture (Durham)


To mark No Smoking Day we welcomed public health and behaviour specialist Dr Marewa Glover to Durham University. Dr Glover (Massey University) is an indigenous woman of the Māori Ngā Puhi tribe of New Zealand who works to improve Māori health, mainly through reducing tobacco smoking. Marewa has led or been involved in the study of, design and trial of a number of smoking cessation interventions informed by Māori knowledge, that operate in accordance with Māori values and protocols.

You can read some of the audience reaction to her talk on Twitter #tobaccofreeNZ

“If I had to live like you, I think I’d kill myself”: Explaining the Disability Paradox

On 26 November 2015 Havi Carel visited Kings College London to give the Annual Philosophy and Medicine Sowerby Lecture. Her theme was the ‘disability paradox’ – the difference between how ill and disabled people rate their wellbeing and healthy people asked to imagine how happy they would be if they were unwell. Ill and disabled people’s wellbeing rating is only slightly lower than that of healthy people. Havi argues that healthy people may mis-imagine ill-health and that the ability of people to adapt to illness raises important questions for health economics.

You can watch the lecture here

Understanding Disease and Illness (6th International Philosophy of Medicine Roundtable)

The International Philosophy of Medicine Roundtable (IPMR) is an open group of philosophers, clinicians, epidemiologists, social scientists, statisticians, bioethicists, and anyone else with an interest in epistemological and ontological issues connected with medicine. The 2015 conference was hosted by the … Read more…