Departmental Research Seminar with Dr Rebecca Jackson

Our departmental research seminar talks will take place on Wednesdays during term time from 15:00 to 16:30, in room 005, 48 Old Elvet, Durham, DH1 3HN.

This week's speaker is Dr Rebecca Jackson from Durham University.

Rebecca is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Medical Humanities in Department of Philosophy, the Measurement Lab, and the Affective Experience Lab within the Institute for Medical Humanities and Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities.

Title: "Why Study Nonstandard Measuring Practices?: Historically-informed Philosophy of Measurement and the Future of Person-centred Care"

Abstract: I present a historical case of a nonstandard measuring practice, digital cervimetry, as instructive for understanding current issues faced in measuring human experiences (such as aspects of health and wellness). Current issues of “measurement disjuncture” (Sul 2019) in medicine expose an epistemic disconnect between human experiences and instruments for measuring those experiences. These range from experiences of breathlessness, pain, voice hearing, and quality of life. Rather than label these experiences as non-measurable in light of these metrological failures, this presentation explores what understanding nonstandard measurement can bring to the table. “Nonstandard measurement” may still involve shared practices (e.g., anthropometric units like the hand or the finger used as a unit of distance), a common protocol, or shared tacit knowledge, but are otherwise eschewing expectations of uniformity, mechanical objectivity, and/or interval-scale assignment that we have come to expect from measures. There are disadvantages and advantages to both standardised and nonstandard measuring systems. I explain the advantages, and how the success stories of measuring practices past can inform the future of (particularly, clinical) instruments.