Oakhill Study Group
The Oakhill Study Group is for students on the intercalated BA Medical Humanities course, and meets every two weeks during term time.
The purpose of the group is to:
- support you in studying the main units;
- help forge links between the medical humanities and clinical medicine;
- provide a safe forum for your personal and artistic development;
- introduce you to novel applications of the arts in health care;
- help you in your professional development as a communicator and teacher.
The work of the group is informal and is not formally assessed. You are encouraged to keep a portfolio of your work, and to keep a written record of your progress, helping you with self- and peer-assessment and feedback throughout the course.
Activities
Several 'showpiece' events have come out of the group’s activities.
In 2012 and 2013 we were involved with Arnos Vale Cemetary for the Wellcome Trust funded 'Matters of Life and Death'. One part of that involved an exhitibion of creative work chosen as the Bristol Evening Post's 'Pick of the Week' (PDF, 964kB): When Science Meets Art press coverage.
Since then, the study group has held annual exhibitions, for the last five years in the People's Republic of Stokes Croft's The Space. Records of some of these are available on medicine360.co.uk -- itself a collaborative project with graduates from the intercalated BA in Medical Humanities. We like to stay in touch!In 2014 we worked with Wattle and Daub as part of their production of 'Performing the Freak'.
In 2017 and in subsequent years we hosted seminars with the Drive Project on the topic of 'Inspiring Stories: Recovery and Wellbeing through the Arts'.
The Oakhill Seminar also has many smaller one-off annual activities, such as: visits to MusicSpace Bristol, and the Jenner Museum, Berkeley; a series of mini-debates (chaired by Emeritus Professor Gareth Williams, the ex-Dean of Medicine); visits by guest speakers and seminars with doctors working in the medical humanities in Japan; working with illustrators on Graphic Medicine projects; and so on.
In 2019-20 we planned to hold a medical humanities festival here in Bristol. The arrival of COVID made this impractical. This launched as Bodies in 2023, and will be returning in November 2024. This also gives students the opportunity to see how such events are organised, work with the speakers, and so on.
All of these serve the core function of the Oakhill Study Group, which is to support and develop your learning during this year within the longer context of your medical studies.