About Ongoing Conversations

Inspired by Dr Dieter Declercq and Professor Ian Sabroe’s Conversations about Arts, Humanities and Health which ran at Kent from 2021 until September 2024*, Ongoing Conversations aims to demonstrate the importance of health and medical humanities outside of academia through the art of conversation. Pairing academics and professionals working in fields relating to health and medicine in ‘professional blind date’ style videos, Ongoing Conversations encourages people to explore their connections, producing lasting conversations and collaborations in the process.

The Ongoing Conversations project ran from January 2024 to September 2025 with the CHMH’s then Co-Directors Dr Stella Bolaki and Dr Dieter Declercq (2022 – 2025), and culminated in four ten-minute videos which can be found via our YouTube channel. We have also created a ‘Toolkit’ for the project which is available to download. We hope you will use it to embark on your own Ongoing Conversations.

We have loved being part of this project and hope it inspires you to explore further unexpected connections and collaborations in your own work.

Ongoing Conversations Postgraduate Team,

Olivia Andrew, Dr Bence Bardos, and Dr Lindsey Zelvin.

*Please note: Conversations about Arts, Humanities and Health continues to be run from the University of Glasgow. More information can be found here.

Videos

Four ten-minute videos were created as part of the Ongoing Conversations project and can be found below. The aim of Ongoing Conversations was to demonstrate the importance of the health and medical humanities outside of academia through conversation.

Videos, filmed via Zoom, acted as ‘professional blind dates’, pairing academics from the CHMH with professionals working in the field of health. None of the participants knew who they would be paired with in advance of filming. We asked the academic to bring an object related to their research and the professional to bring a question or problem they encountered in their work. These requests were designed to stimulate conversation as participants worked together to uncover the unexpected connections between them.

The videos will be uploaded weekly from 1st May 2026 – 22nd May 2026 and can be found via our YouTube channel.

• Video one (Available 1st May 2026) sees Dr Max Pickard, Consultant Psychiatrist, and Cariad Martin, PhD student in Film and Media Studies discuss the question: ‘There is too much trauma and not enough therapists – what do we do?’ in relation to Cariad’s research on Fandoms.
• In video two (Available 8th May 2026) Dave Chawner, Stand Up Comic, Author, Presenter and Mental Health Campaigner, and Dr Roanna Mitchell, Senior Lecturer in Drama and Theatre discuss ‘How can you balance passion projects with what there is funding for?’.
• Video three (Available 15th May 2026) shows Dr Salma Elnahas, Speciality Doctor in Psychiatry, and Jane Davidson, PhD student in Veterinary History, discussing ‘Contextualised veterinary care’ with regards to the question; ‘How can we justify the use of animals in biomedical research, and still claim to be ethical?’.
• In video four (Available 22nd May 2026) David Stokes, CEO of Nucleus Arts, and Dr Patricia Novillo-Corvalán, Reader in Comparative Literature discuss ‘How do we get people to value the arts?’ in relation to an artistic depiction of Yellow Fever.

Toolkit

From the development stage to the final product, Ongoing Conversations ran from January 2024 to September 2025. To help you create your own Ongoing Conversations, we have written a ‘Toolkit’ which outlines the process we went through to make Ongoing Conversations the project it is today.

The Ongoing Conversations toolkit includes example email drafts, briefing/ workshop formats, and video formats, tips, and tricks to help you in your own journeys.

Ongoing Conversations Toolkit

Reflections

We have loved being part of the Ongoing Conversations and have enjoyed sharing the project through the filming process, conferences, and CHMH labs. But don’t take our word for it. What do our participants say about the project?

‘Overall, it was a really exciting opportunity to share my ongoing passion in the medical humanities, particularly with a broader general audience. I greatly appreciated the opportunity to meet [my partner] and to take part in such an intellectually stimulating and genuinely enjoyable conversation’.

‘I could see the similarities in the pairing, of using creative approaches to help people with their mental wellbeing in various ways. It surprised me in the sense that I expected to be paired with an org or service where my work might be helpful, rather than with someone who actually does something quite similar. However, the conversation meandered in some interesting ways’.

‘It was sad to end the conversation, because it was so stimulating.’

‘I was initially surprised by the pairing, although the conversation furthered my interest in identifying ways that my research had potential reach beyond my field, into family social care and health’.

‘My biggest takeaway was to keep close to heart the reminder that we need a plurality of approaches because, especially with mental health, what works for one person might not work for another. That’s really important for everyone involved in wellbeing/healthcare pathways to always keep in mind.’