Joseph Wood

Profile

I am interested in the way that people express their experiences of pain, death, dying and grief. My English Literature PhD project at the University of Glasgow focuses on the legacy of the idea of 'total pain' as used by the hospice pioneer Cicely Saunders.

I am a member of the Glasgow End of Life Studies Group and the Glasgow Medical Humanities Network.

My research is supported by an Arts and Humanities Research Council Studentship through the Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities.

Research Interests

  • History of the hospice movement
  • Cicely Saunders
  • Medical Humanities
  • Narrative at the end of life

Contact

Email j.wood.2@research.gla.ac.uk
University of Glasgow, Rutherford/McCowan Building, Crichton University Campus, Dumfries DG1 4ZL, Scotland

Research

Thesis Title

Cicely Saunders and the Legacies of ‘Total Pain’

Description

My project examines the conceptual background to the idea of 'total pain' used by the hospice pioneer Cicely Saunders.

Using Saunders own published papers and private notes and correspondence alongside the literary, philosophical and theological texts which informed her work, I am investigating the theoretical heritage of a term that is often described as a touchstone concept in palliative and end-of-life care but is rarely the focus of research.

Using perspectives from medical humanities, narrative medicine and philosophies of care, I hope to assess how far 'total pain' can be understood as a narrative concept and its relation to issues of holism, non-verbal communication, and silence.

Supervisors

Biography

I have a BA English Literature (Durham, First Class, 2012) and secured a Wellcome Trust Masters Studentship for an MSc in Medical Humanities (King’s College London, Distinction, 2016).

Publications

Krawczyk, M. , Wood, J. and Clark, D. (2018) Total pain: origins, current practice, and future directions. Omsorg: The Norwegian Journal of Palliative Care, 2018(2)

Wood, J. (2018) Review: Somebody I Used to Know by Wendy Mitchell with Anna Wharton, The Kelvingrove Review, Issue 17: (Re)Creation, July 2018

Wood, J. (2018) Review: Cicely Saunders: A Life and Legacy by David Clark, BMJ: Medical Humanities Blog, online, September 2018

Wood, J. (2019) Review: Meaning-making Methods for Coping with Serious Illness, The Polyphony: Conversations Across the Medical Humanities, online, January 2018

Wood, J. (2019) Fragments and Silences: Rethinking Narrative in End-of-Life Care, The Polyphony: Conversations Across the Medical Humanities, online, June 2019

Teaching

I am Tutor on Society & Social Policy (DUMF1066) and 1A: Poetry and Poetics (1011)