To foster further research on digestive health from a historical and cultural perspective, I organized a round table on 'Digestive Health: Then and Now' in November 2017 and a two-day workshop on ' The Gut-Brain Axis: Cultural and Historical Perspectives' in May 2018. The event provided the basis for a volume of essays, Gut Feeling and Digestive Health in Nineteenth-Century Literature, History and Culture(Palgrave: 2018) which I co-edited with Alison Moore (Western Sydney University). A key insight that emerged is the importance of emotion and psychology in eating and digesting. The event was funded by a range of external sources including the British Academy. The research was inititally inspired by an nternational, cross-disciplinary workshop I organized in May 2017 on Gut Feeling to examine changing attitudes towards the digestive system in modern Western culture. I am also writing my next monograph, Food and Mood: The Gut-Mind Relationship in Nineteenth-Century French Literature and Medicine.Īs Co-Director of the Scottish Food and Drink Histories artslab theme, I recently produced a video available here on my reserach and its connections with the theme's catalyst The project focuses on the links between gut disorders and mental health amongst Scottish patients and investigates problems of communication and language in explaining digestive diseases and their impact on wellbeing. I am currently undertaking the first study on the gut-mind connection in nineteenth-century French litersture and medicine by looking at links between digestive health and the mind in novels, gastronomic writing and health manuals. Inspired by recent conversations with academics from a range of disciplines, I am now PI on a Network Grant awarded by the RSE to fund the Scottish Gut Project.
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