Welcoming Dr Will Viney to the Centre for Medical Humanities

The Centre for Medical Humanities is delighted to welcome Dr Will Viney, who joins our research team as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Centre for Medical Humanities and Department of English Studies.

Will has a PhD in Cultural Studies and Humanities from The London Consortium, University of London (thesis title: “Waste Effects: Building, Writing and Collecting”), and degrees from the University of Durham and the University of Sussex.  His research monograph Waste: A Philosophy of Things is forthcoming from I.B. Tauris in November 2013. He is the author of the blog “Waste Effects: An investigation into the wastes of building, writing and collecting“.

Will’s work with the Centre for Medical Humanities will examine how twins have contributed to the formation of medical, theological, philosophical and psychoanalytic knowledge. Ranging from the extraordinary presence of twins in Indo-European and African myth and religion, to their inclusion in the emerging anatomical regimes of early modern medicine, to their important role in contemporary genetics, his work demonstrates how twins became historically significant actors within the shifting parameters of human individuality. By tracing the influence that twins have had in the history of human thought, and by following the significance given to twins in ancient, early modern and contemporary stories, Will aims to show the twinliness of human self–regard in myth, literature and science.

We warmly welcome Will to the CMH and to Durham University. Will’s contact details, and further information about his research will, in due course, be added to both the CMH and the Department of English Studies website.