Explore big ideas and ambitious innovations in science and society with Manchester Lit & Phil

On Thu 7 Nov, Manchester Lit & Phil explores the role of a historian in an ongoing health crisis with an illuminating talk on the ways in which testimonies, records and the shaping of narratives can support individuals and communities during times of existential uncertainty.

The discussion is Led by Stephanie Snow, Professor of Health, History and Policy and Academic Lead for Community Engagement and Involvement at the University of Manchester. It promises to unpack the vital work of historians in collating a permanent, cohesive understanding of a global health crisis. capturing societal responses which are often difficult to identify in public narratives as events unfold.

The conversation draws on Snow’s experience of leading a national oral history project on the NHS that transmuted into a national collection of COVID-19 testimonies. It will seek to refute retrospective efforts to create new public narratives of crisis for sociopolitical purposes, while addressing potential harm caused to participants and advocating for historians to engage with the present as readily as the past.

Hosted by trailblazing physicist Professor Dame Athene Donald, author of the titular work on female representation in science, this urgent and inspiring talk examines the growing absence of women in senior positions throughout the field. It will explore how to dismantle the systemic obstacles to greater inclusion which persist in spite of formal barriers being removed years ago.

From biology and physics to medicine and chemistry, Professor Dame Donald uncovers and disputes the myriad reasons for the dearth of women in STEM, both subtle and egregious. Whether it’s widely taught archaic presumptions about femininity in labour-intensive jobs or tired excuses based on the female desire for a family.

A staunch believer in scientific progress through diversity, Dame Athene will lead an invigorating discussion on how to deconstruct harmful elements of early education to ensure that laboratories and industries across the globe welcome the next generation of female scientists into a professional world without upper limits.

Join Robert Bristow, Director of the Manchester Cancer Research Centre, to discover the pioneering methods employed to drive practice-influencing cancer care and interrogate the problematic disregard for patient complexity which continues to inhibit lab research and clinical trial design.

Building upon the research centre’s innovative approach in providing ‘Precision Cancer Medicine for All’, Bristow seeks to expand on the importance of addressing the diverse, intricate needs of medically and socially complex patients, many of whom are currently excluded from precision oncology trials. Simultaneously, Bristow challenges conventionally selective studies which foreground subjects from Eurocentric backgrounds, or those with relatively healthy records.

This one-off talk sheds light on the research centre’s work within Greater Manchester’s diverse communities, with public engagement across local populations producing equitable, diverse and inclusive research that could form the basis of new clinical trials to benefit patients across the UK and around the world.