Danger
Unsafe environments, personal safety and that of research subjects, unexpected events that threaten the success of a research project, and of course research into danger itself are just a few of many ways in which academics engage with the theme of danger.
We were delighted to welcome as speakers Marion Kibuka (currently a DPhil student in Evidence-Based Health Care), Yasmin Khan (University Lecturer in 18th to early 20th century British History) and Anna Beer (Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College) who will develop a multidisciplinary discussion of the concept of 'Danger', focussing on how the themes of danger are addressed by their research.
- Marion Kibuka: Dangerous Childbirth: Developing a scientific approach to maternal safety?
- Yasmin Khan: Imperial war and civilian lives: the Bengal famine of 1943
- Anna Beer: 'Where danger and dishonour lurk': thinking about danger in the Humanities
Abstracts
Marion Kibuka
Dangerous childbirth Third and fourth degree perineal trauma are common complication of vaginal delivery, with reference to their occurrence dating back to Hippocrates (ALSO 2011). This incidence of trauma has increased over the last 100 years paralleling the routine use of episiotomy that occurred as birthing moved into hospital setting (ALSO 2011). Short and long-term health problems resulting from perineal trauma can significantly affect a woman’s quality of life. The complications may include anal and/or urine incontinence, dyspareunia, haematoma, post-partum haemorrhage, dehiscence, postnatal depression, severe pain etc. There is controversy with the existing published evidence as to whether squatting positions is risk factor for severe perineal trauma. A number of research studies have been published on the effects of this intervention with little or no effect on changing practice. It is therefore vital to undertake an overview of systematic reviews on maternal positions in childbirth, systematic review on squatting positions and consensus development methods to demonstrate clinical practices required by midwife in effective management of second stage of labour for women who choose to squat.
Yasmin Khan
Imperial war and civilian lives Some three million people are estimated to have died during the Bengal famine of 1943. The famine took place in the midst of the Second World War in India. This short talk will assess some of the ongoing debates around the causes of the famine but also particularly draw out the links between warfare and threats to civilian life. Indian soldiers serving overseas were some of the first to draw attention to the looming famine while the British Raj failed to deal with the impending threat of mass death.
Anna Beer
'Where danger and dishonour lurk' Anna's title quote comes from John Milton's Paradise Lost, when Adam is trying to persuade Eve to stay at his side ('The wife, where danger or dishonour lurks, safest and seemliest by her husband stays, who guards her, or with her the worst endures.'). Taking this quotation as a starting point, Anna will be talking about the topic of 'danger and dishonour' in relation to her current research into the lives and works of women composers, active in Florence in the seventeenth century, Vienna in the eighteenth century, and Berlin in the nineteenth. This discussion will be framed by some thoughts on the research of danger, and, just as important, the dangers of research in the Humanities.
Biographies
Marion Kibuka
Marion is currently working as a community midwife for the East Kent Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust and a member of South East Coastal Strategic Clinical Network as well as undertaking a DPhil in Evidence-Based Health Care under the Department for Continuing Education. She qualified as a registered general nurse in 1995 and then undertook a midwifery training programme at the Anglia Polytechnic University in Essex. She has been practicing as a registered qualified midwife since August 1999. She has a passion for promoting normal birth through empowering women in their physiological experience. In 2006, she undertook the MSc in Evidence-Based Health Care at the University of Oxford.
Yasmin Khan
Yasmin studied history as an undergraduate at St. Peter's, College Oxford and quickly developed a passion for the history of Asia. Her DPhil, also from Oxford, was in the History of the British Empire. She has taught at the Universities of Edinburgh and Royal Holloway, University of London where she was a Senior Lecturer. Her first book, The Great Partition: the making of India and Pakistan (Yale, 2007) won the Gladstone Prize for History from the Royal Historical Society. Her new book about the history of India during the Second World War will be published by the Bodley Head and Penguin India in Spring 2014.
Anna Beer
Anna Beer was a University Lecturer in Literature at the Department for Continuing Education between 2003 and 2010, and Chair of the interdisciplinary M.St. in Women’s Studies. She is the author of two biographies, written for a readership beyond academia, but drawing on the latest research in her field: Bess: The Life of Lady Ralegh, Wife to Sir Walter, the first biography of this important early-modern figure, and John Milton: Poet, Pamphleteer and Patriot. Anna is currently researching her latest project, to be published by Oneworld Publications, a celebration and exploration of the achievements of women composers through the centuries, again written for the non-specialist. For more information, see http://shadowofthecourtesan.wordpress.com. Recent academic and educational publications include a new assessment of Sir Walter Ralegh's poetry (Literary Ralegh, Manchester University Press, 2013); an article on the gendering of commercial biography (in Lifewriting, 2012); and study guides on Andrew Marvell's poetry and Christopher Marlowe's Edward the Second (for Oxford University Press, 2011 and 2013 respectively).
