Tom Hey Thesis Title Eating Disorders and Contemporary Literature: Representation, Affect, and Experience Lancaster University

Tom Hey presented his paper, ‘Fragmented Narratives of Eating Disorders,’ at the University of Antwerp’s ‘Stories of Health and Illness: Limits and Opportunities of a Narrative Medical Ethics’ conference in July 2023. The event was designed to assemble a range of researchers from across disciplinary backgrounds (including philosophy and literary studies) to engage key concerns within narrative medical ethics and medical humanities about the importance of narrative as a device for understanding experiences of health and illness. Keynote speakers included Professor Angela Woods and Professor Havi Carel, with workshops organised by Dr Anna Gotlib and Dr Arya Thampuran.
Tom’s paper reflected upon his ongoing PhD research into representations of eating disorders in contemporary literature. He discussed how increasing awareness of the limitations of narrative as a medium for representing experiences of illness shifted the focus of his study towards a more personal, vulnerable literary critical practice, which struggled against the ethics of interpreting illness narratives. He emphasised the necessity of sitting with the discomfort that eating disorder narratives can provoke and finding new ways of reading literary texts that attempt to incorporate incoherence and contradiction.
The conference was a rewarding and fulfilling experience. The interdisciplinary nature of the attendees allowed Tom to gain a greater awareness of how his research can be situated within a broader medical humanities framework beyond literary criticism. The opportunity to discuss his research in an interdisciplinary context allowed Tom to develop his skills at communicating his work to a broader audience, and the conference allowed for networking across national and disciplinary boundaries. The respectful and intimate environment fostered by the organisers allowed Tom to feel comfortable reflecting upon his personal research journey and sharing this with the broader group. Tom will look back upon his time in Antwerp as an important milestone in his personal and professional development.

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