IMH Postgraduate Researcher Showcase

The IMH PhD Showcase took place at the Tom Percival Annexe on the afternoon of Thursday 11 June 2026. The event included a rich array of presentations from postgraduate (PGR) students from departments ranging from the School of Government and International Affairs to Music, Anthropology, English, Psychology and the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, all grouped into three panels broadly centred on Medical Ethics, New Perspectives on Mental Health and Contested Bodies.

Panels were complemented by small group discussion providing written feedback with clean language for each panellist, expertly coordinated and facilitated by our creative facilitator Mary Robson. This is different from traditional Q&A feedback which is prone to miscommunications due to its fast-paced nature and the presence of unexplained assumptions. Listeners have about 20 minutes after each panel to digest the presentations and formulate collective feedback on paper. Their feedback is guided by three prompts: What’s working well? What’s not working so well? What would work better? This ensures the feedback starts from the positives, moves on to small issues, and then ends with bigger challenges. When writing their feedback, listeners are also asked to unpack their assumptions about the presentations, be specific with their wording, and consider the impact of the presentations and the feedback. After this exercise, presenters get to take the written feedback home and reflect on it at their own pace. The clean feedback exercise as a whole ensures that communication is direct and easy to understand. It also reframes feedback as a cooperative and constructive process.  

The afternoon, attended by around 25 colleagues and PGR students, provided an informal, friendly occasion to network, test out and exchange ideas and hear more about current research in the Medical Humanities. As part of the afternoon’s activities, we solicited feedback and requests for how the IMH can best support its PGR and Early Career Researcher (ECR) community, which was collated by Lucy Jameson. Next steps will include a discussion of the feedback and an action plan for events to be organised for 2026-27, with a tentative plan to arrange a pitch-to-peer session involving both PGRs and ECRs (to forge further connections between the two communities), as well as social events and training opportunities with senior staff, in the autumn term.

The event was co-organised by Mary Robson, the PGR coordinators, Lucy Jameson and Chung-Yen Cheng, and Katrin Wehling-Giorgi. It was generously sponsored by Durham University’s Flourish at Durham programme.