Project launch for EPIC!

On Monday 13th May, we celebrated the launch of Project EPIC in Bristol. The launch was held at a beautiful and unique historic venue in Bristol, The Mount Without. We welcomed colleagues from the Universities of Bristol, Nottingham, and Birmingham, as well as representatives from our funder, Wellcome, friends and colleagues from other Universities, doctors, local art therapists and more. 

The evening began with an introductory address from the Principal Investigator, Professor Havi Carel, who introduced the topic of epistemic injustice in healthcare and why it matters. This was followed by short, three-minute snap-shot talks from each of the project's researchers summarising what interests them about the project. 

We heard from Lisa Bortolotti, Matthew Broome, Ian James Kidd, Michael Larkin, Michael Bresalier, Ellie Byrne, Fred Cooper, Dan Degerman and Kathleen Murphy-Hollies on a range of topics, including how epistemic injustice in healthcare relates to intersectionality and wider socio-political structures, phenomenology, emotional dysregulation, self-understanding, loneliness, and silence.

The EPIC project team 

The first part of the evening was closed by the Bristol University Singers, conducted by Elinor Cooper. The choir first sang an excerpt from ‘under the surface’ composed 2015, called ‘We measure time in breath’, followed by 'Bawo Thixo Somandla - Sidumo Nyamezele’ - a protest song widely sung during the apartheid period - and ‘We are’ by Ysaye M Barnwell.

The final of four pieces was composed by Toby Young, with lyrics by Jennifer Thorp. It was commissioned specially for Project EPIC. An excerpt as follows:

    What I keep is vigil

    What I pray is mute

    What I breathe is secret

    What I know is brute

The musical composition will grow as the project progresses, and we can't wait to see what themes emerge from the research that we'll do together.

The University Singers

The remainder of the event was spent networking and mingling with our guests. Bringing together researchers, healthcare practitioners, patients, and their advocates, clearly demonstrated the scope and the potential of the project to better understand, and ameliorate, epistemic injustices in healthcare. 

Recordings of our talks and the musical composition will be made available in due course. 

Watch this space!