In this first year, our research theme brought together scholars from the environmental and medical humanities around weather, climate, and health, building a community in Durham and beyond through online and in-person lectures and workshops.
Our online lecture series addressed weather, climate, and health as both historical and contemporary concerns, letting past and present practices resonate with each other. Historical talks covered the 'open body' in early meteorological medicine (Eva Horn, Vienna), 'bad air' and humidity in Chinese history (Chris Courtney, Durham), air and multispecies encounters in tuberculosis sanatoria and modern healthcare (Clare Hickman, Newcastle), indoor environments and comfort in Victorian England (Vladimir Janković, Manchester), and the history of environmental determinism (David Livingstone, Belfast). Contemporary talks explored planetary instability and "living tenaciously" (Martin Savransky, Bath), urban heat as a design and humanities crisis (Tomás Criado, Barcelona), and the politics of energy transition through affect and decolonial theory (Benoit Dillet, Bath).
Alongside these, two hybrid workshops in Durham—co-hosted with the IMH's Measurement and Moving Bodies labs and Geography—explored heat and seasons. A Flourish@Durham-funded Research through Design workshop with William Gaver and Liliana Ovalle Piedra (Northumbria) used weather–health as a case study for reimagining measuring devices, producing speculative design proposals.
Speakers and audiences spanned the UK, Ireland, and continental Europe. Two impacts stand out: the theme gave shared conceptual footing to Durham researchers across Geography, Anthropology, Sociology, and History previously working in isolation, and inspired a two-day Hamburg Institute workshop on "the meteorological body." Our events also consistently challenged technocratic framings of climate-health research, foregrounding meaning, comfort, memory, and political imagination.
Next year, we plan a larger, externally funded multi-day conference on weather, climate, and health, laying groundwork for sustained collaboration—potentially an edited volume or special issue—beyond the theme's 2025–27 timeframe.
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