lifeofbreath.org

The Life of Breath team at the University of Bristol is looking to appoint a second part-time Project Administrator to support our five-year research project funded by a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award in the Medical Humanities. Life of Breath (LoB) is based in at the University of Bristol and Durham University, and is directed by Professor Havi Carel (Bristol) and Professor Jane Macnaughton (Durham). The Project Administrator will work alongside a dynamic, interdisciplinary team of researchers in Bristol and play a key role in the development of the Life of Breath project team and in ensuring the overall success of the project. The Project Administrator’s main responsibilities will include: working with the current Bristol Project Administrator to coordinate the meetings of the project team; arranging travel and accommodation for team members and guests at conferences and meetings; processing external expense claims and invoicing for project collaborators; ensuring efficient and effective internal and external communication with project partners and stakeholders; event management of project meetings, workshops, and conferences; and working with the Bristol Project Administrator to develop and maintain the project website and social media.

So, with just one week of the Catch Your Breath exhibition at Palace Green Library to go, this blog offers a chance to look back on some of the exhibition highlights. Most significant are the contrasting comments from those who had never given their breath a second thought, to those who are affected by breathing conditions day in, day out. From the peaceful and reflective weekly yoga and mindfulness classes, to the slightly more hectic school visits, Catch Your Breath has offered something for everyone. All of this has helped to reinforce and justify the key messages of the exhibition that were discussed and debated long before the opening of the gallery: our breath is unique and personal, but also collective and universal.

We want to talk to you about breathing — something you do all the time (if you don’t, we have no idea how you’re reading this. ) Breathing, of course, just happens

How do we understand the relationship between tobacco and humans in light of the fact that tobacco has become one of the most widely used and traded commodities on the planet? In Anthropology of Tobacco, Life of Breath researcher Andrew Russell re-frames the tobacco plant, flipping it from a passive commodity into a powerful player at the centre of a global adventure involving people, corporations, and public health. Examined from a range of perspectives, Anthropology of Tobacco weaves together stories from historical, cross-cultural and literary sources, as well as empirical research