We are pleased to announce an exciting opportunity for people who experience difficulties with their sleep and have connections to the Newcastle area.
Understanding and Reimagining Sleep and Its Disorders is a project launching at Northumbria University, in partnership with us and funded by the Wellcome Trust. It aims to bring the most recent research in sleep science and the cultural study of sleep directly to those who live with sleep disorders.
Six workshops will be held in February and March 2023 on various aspects of sleep and health. Half will be online and half in-person at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Newcastle. The project organisers recommend that participants attend two workshops, one online and one in-person. The project will be able to cover reasonable expenses of participants.
Across the workshops, participants will have the opportunity to work directly with artists and specialist researchers of sleep from psychology and literary and cultural studies. We will share stories of sleep, explore the impact of sleep disorders in our lives, and produce creative responses to sleep.
The online workshops will be held at the following times:
- Sleep and parenting (led by Dr Diletta De Cristofaro and Dr Pam Alfonso Miller): 13th February, 11am-12pm
- Sleep and ageing (led by Dr Diletta De Cristofaro and Dr Greg Elder): 19th April, 10-11am
- Sleep and menopause (led by Dr Diletta De Cristofaro and Prof Jason Ellis): 3rd March, 6-7pm
In the in-person workshops, artist Chiara Dellerba will guide participants in activities aimed towards expressing creatively their experiences of sleep. They will be held at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Newcastle at the following times:
- Sleep and parenting: 18th March, 2-4pm
- Sleep and ageing, 19th March, 2-4pm
- Sleep and menopause, 25th March, 2-4pm
The aim of this project is for researchers and those with experience of sleep issues to learn together and discuss ways to increase awareness and improve the wellbeing of people who live with sleep disorders.
Creative responses that participants produce at the workshops will be published on an interactive website later in the year, named or anonymously at the participant’s request. This interactive website will then become a community space for people from all over the world to view and contribute their own stories of sleep.
Workshop participants will be able to withdraw from the project at any time. If any research outcomes which describe the workshops are published or presented at conferences, the anonymity of participants will be protected and the data you have provided will not be personally identifiable.
For further information, and to access the expression of interest form, please see: https://www.writingsleep.com/reimagining-sleep/.