PEALS welcomes a range of international visitors. Find out more about our current and past visitors.
Lisa Matthews, a distinguished Geordie poet and researcher, was a Royal Literary Society Writer in Residence at PEALS from 2002 to 2004. During this time she led and explored a variety of ideas that threaded the medium of creative writing through perspectives and topics in medicine. She taught 'Novels, Poetry and Medicine' to third year students at Newcastle University Medical School and led a variety of writing workshops in the North East region. She explored ideas about innovation, progress, identity and the new genetics with children through her workshops.
Lisa also taught 'Imaginative Writing' to third year medical students at Newcastle University. She worked with students to look at the shared language of both doctor and patient, encouraging trainee clinicians to unpack ideas like pain and fear. The concept of narrative was explored and the relationship between doctor/patient and author/reader was considered. Lisa has been involved in two PEALS projects, 'How Gay are your Genes?' and the 'Stemistry' sci-art project. She has been a PEALS Associate since 2002.
Marian Verkerk is Ethics of Care Professor at Groningen University. She is interested in exploring how questions of morality and ethics are embedded in relational perspectives and experiences of care.
She has created and is co-leading a new international collaboration called the Ethics of Family in Health and Social Care Research Consortium
Professor Robin Williams, one of the leaders of the Northumbria University Centre for Forensic Science and Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Durham University, is Visiting Professor with PEALS from July 2010 until July 2013. The Visiting Professorship with us will facilitate the continued development of his collaboration with PEALS in the area of forensic science and the police uses of the biosciences and bioinformation. Robin will be working with Tim Wilson, Jackie Leach Scully and Erica Haimes) .
This work has already received funding from the Wellcome Trust, the Brocher Foundation (for an international workshop to take place in Geneva in December 2012 on disaster victim identification) and the Nuffield Foundation (for the study 'The Future of Forensic Bioinformation'). It seeks to explore issues such as:
Regula visited PEALS in February 2013. She is a doctoral student at the Centre for Ethics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and Jackie Leach Scully is one of the three supervisors on her doctoral committee. Regula's PhD is interdisciplinary, focusing on the ethics and social acceptability of cognitive neuroenhancers. In Switzerland she has carried out empirical work on attitudes to cognitive enhancers, and during her final year will work towards an ethical analysis of changing social norms. While in Newcastle she attend seminars given by PEALS and by Sociology, audit some lectures, and take part in PEALS Brown Bag Lunches and in our 14th Annual Symposium.
In February 2013 Dr Malin Masterton, a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics, Uppsala University, Sweden, visited PEALS for two weeks to continue her work on Disaster Victim Identification and ethical aspects of the dead body, supported by the Emil and Ragna Börjessons stipend.
Malin also presented at the Brocher Foundation-funded symposium in December 2012 on 'Naming the dead: social, ethical, legal and political issues of disaster victim identification by DNA' organised by Professor Jackie Leach Scully (PEALS) and Professor Robin Williams (NUCFS and Visiting Professor at PEALS).
Dr Tom Wakeford was Director of Co-Inquiry and Public Engagement at PEALS until 2010 and held a Visiting Fellowship with PEALS until October 2012.
PEALS successfully bid for a NIASSH Visiting Fellowship to support a series of visits by Professor Eva Feder Kittay. Eva is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Philosophy at State University of New York at Stony Brook, internationally recognised for her work as a political and moral philosopher, focusing on disability and particularly cognitive impairment and related issues of dependency, care and welfare. During her first visit to PEALS, in November 2011, Eva had informal meetings with researchers from PEALS and elsewhere in Newcastle University, and gave a seminar on The Completion of Care. Eva’s research dovetails with PEALS’ continuing work in the area of disability and disability theory, and her visit strengthened existing ties with PEALS colleagues.
As a Visiting Associate, Ninette Rothmüller focused on disseminating the research that she carried out on the Genetics of Healthy Ageing EU Project in cooperation with members of the Ethics Steering Committee. This work identified ethical and policy issues in the social science and bioethics literature.
Professor Tim Wilson, a former member of the Senior Civil Service, was Head of the Forensic Science and Pathology Unit of the Home Office until 2005. Tim’s main research interest is the role of forensic sciences and medicine within the Criminal Justice System. In collaboration with PEALS colleagues, he is examining the inceasingly significant impact of bioethical deliberations and jurisprudential principles in a field traditionally dominated by technological, scientific and economic change, as well as political and bureaucratic decision making.
Tim was appointed Professor of Forensic Sciences and Public Policy at Northumbria University's Centre for Forensic Science in 2009, where he can be contacted via his main email address tim.wilson@northumbria.ac.uk.
Marcia Oliver, an Assistant Professor in the Law and Society programme at Wilfrid Laurier University, Brantford, Canada, joined PEALS from January to May 2012 as a Visiting Fellow in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology.
Her research interests encompass global governance and development, gender and sexuality studies, and human rights and justice. Before joining WLU in July 2011, she completed her doctoral studies in Sociology at York University (Toronto, Canada) and held a post-doctoral fellowship with the CHSRF/CIHR Chair of Health Services Research at York University. Her doctoral and post-doctoral research examined HIV/AIDS governance in Uganda alongside broader shifts in global governance and development aid practices and the rise of religious fundamentalism in global politics.
During her stay, she worked towards publishing journal articles from her dissertation and post-doctoral research. She also participated in the academic activities of GPS and PEALS through seminar participation, public lectures, and one to one discussions with staff and other Fellows.
Dr Yonggang Su is Visiting Academic Fellow at PEALS from September 2009 until August 2010. Yonggang is Director of the College English Department at Shandong University Medical School in northern China. He comes to PEALS with an award from the China Scholarship Council in order to further his PhD studies, which provide a comparison between Chinese and Western approaches to end of life issues, including palliative care and euthanasia. Yonggang is particularly concerned with expanding the levels of hospice care in China and hopes to learn from UK and EU experience with this issue in order to recommend appropriate approaches for Chinese policy-makers. He will be working with Michael Barr and Simon Woods during his stay at Newcastle.
Aaron Goldenberg, Michelle McGowan, and Nicole Deming
Dr Aaron Goldenberg, Dr Michelle McGowan, and Dr Nicole Deming from The Center for Genetic Research Ethics and Law (CGREAL) briefly visited with us in March 2010. PEALS has a long term connection with CGREAL: Erica Haimes sits on their advisory board and we have welcomed a number of visitors from the Centre. In 2010 PEALS is running a summer school in Newcastle for the Centre.
Professor Mats Hansson was a Visiting Professor with us through 2009 and 2010, funded by the University Research Office here at Newcastle. Mats is Director of the Centre for Research Ethics and Bioethics (CRB) at Uppsala University in Sweden. He is a leading Bioethicist, whose work on embryo donation, end of life decisions and clinical ethics has strong overlaps with our work. We continue to develop research collaborations in terms of projects and writing, with both him and others in the CRB and PEALS now has a formal link with his Centre to further this collaboration. Throughout 2009 Mats was also a member of the PEALS Advisory Group.
Professor Alan Petersen, from the School of Politics and Social Inquiry, Monash University, visited PEALS in June 2009 and again in July 2011 as a Visiting Scholar in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. His work on biotechnologies and bioethics links well with PEALS and a range of activities continues to enable collaborative links with Alan and other colleagues at Monash.
Professor Rehmann-Sutter was a Visiting Professor with us during 2008, funded by the University Research Office here at Newcastle. Christoph has been a research collaborator with PEALS for many years, working on various projects with Erica Haimes and Jackie Leach Scully, particularly within the area of embryo donation for use in medical research. His current role is Professor of Theory and Ethics of the Life Sciences at the Institute for Medical History and Research, University of Lübeck, Germany.
Francesca is an artist who joined PEALS in 2008 for an Arts Council INTERACT placement. The programme aims to unlock artists’ professional potential and develop the arts throughout England by using innovative placements in research and industry environments.
Professor Eric Juengst was a Visiting Professor with us during 2007, funded by Newcastle University's Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty. Eric is Director of the Center for Genetics Research, Ethics and Law (CGREAL) at Case Western Reserve University in the United States. A leading Bioethicist in the US, he has long standing research collaborations with Erica Haimes (who sits on the international advisory board of CGREAL). Further collaborations between other colleagues in CGREAL and PEALS continue to be developed.
Associate Professor Legge was with us as a Visiting Fellow in 2007, funded by the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty here at Newcastle. Mike is based in the Department of Biochemistry and Pathology, University of Otago in New Zealand. Whilst a biochemist by training, Mike also has a long standing research interest in sociological and anthropological approaches to studying how people live with chronic conditions and how clinicians working in areas such as fertility treatment make sense of their role and relationship with patients. We continue to discuss this work with him and other colleagues at Otago University.
Artist Elio Caccavale collaborated with PEALS as part of our Sci-Art work, bringing scientists and artists together to share ideas and work on common problems. Elio's work with PEALS has included a project with the Arts Council's ARTISTS INSIGHTS programme, where he led an 'Interact' placement over a six month period from September 2007. The programme aims to unlock artists’ professional potential and develop the arts throughout England by using innovative placements in research and industry environments. Elio used his time at PEALS to engage with new research areas and develop new ideas for future collaborative work intended to stimulate the public to develop an understanding that enables them not only to deal with applications of life sciences, but with the social developments of scientific knowledge. It is hoped that the placement will serve as a platform for opening up further disciplinary research.
Halvor Hanisch, a postgraduate student from Oslo University, Norway, came to explore disability studies questions in May 2007, particularly the topic of cultural representation of disabled people. He gave a seminar in the School of English and talked with Jackie Leach Scully, Janice McLaughlin and Tom Shakespeare amongst others.
Dr Rouven Porz, who was a research assistant on the Basel-based embryo donation project, visited Newcastle for two weeks at the end of November 2007. See our research section for more details of PEALS' embryo donation project.
Akira Tsurushima joined us for a few weeks in February 2007 from Hokkaido University, Japan. Akira was a PhD student examining theology and bioethics. His visit also helped initiate discussions with Hokkaido University about further research links.
Dr Claire Marris was a Visiting Fellow at PEALS during 2006, seconded from her tenured research position at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) in France. Claire is a sociologist of science with a track record of research on public perceptions of risk. Whilst at PEALS she developed her research interests in the use of scientific expertise by governments and other stakeholders, especially for policies related to health and environmental risks; public participation in decision making on science and technology related issues; the rise and fall of public controversies on science and technology related issues, and the role of NGOs in the governance of science and technology. Claire is now a Senior Research Fellow in BIOS at the London School of Economics.
Jenny Everist, a graduate student of the Diploma of Genetic Counselling from Melborne University, spent a month at PEALS in November 2004. Whilst with us she worked on the AnSWeR website and conducted research into comparative healthcare issues. The work that she took part in and observed allowed her to consider the differences in approach to the work of genetic counselling and learn about PEALS' research into the social and ethical aspects of medicine.
Catherine Bleasdale came to PEALS in the autumn of 2004 while in the final year of her NHS Management Training course, run from the University of Birmingham. She is a Durham Philosophy and Theology graduate with a particular interest in the ethics of fertility and embryo research. Catherine joined PEALS for an elective placement and used her time to conduct a systematic literature review on the topic of male fertility.
Dr Feruza Zagirtdinova was a TEMPUS fellow from Uzbekistan, from May to July 2004. Feruza spent her time with us investigating disability services and medical education in the UK. She also opened our eyes to the radically different context in post-Soviet, strongly muslim Uzbekistan. Her work with PEALS contributed to a book on biomedical ethics for Tashkent Medical Institution entitled "Some Problems of Biomedical Ethics".TEMPUS supports the modernisation of higher education and creates an area of co-operation in countries surrounding the EU. Established in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the scheme now covers 27 countries in the Western Balkans, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, North Africa and the Middle East.