The Department is also engaged in research in Translational Biomedicine, specifically in relation to the integration of the natural sciences and the humanities as well as the study of ‘Communication Sciences and Disorders’. Below are some indicative examples of work by Faculty members in this area:
Integration of the Natural Sciences and the Humanities
- Li Ou’s project on ‘Keats and scepticism’ involves discussion of Keats’s medical background and the humanitarian concerns of Romantic medicine. It also explores the root of scepticism in Keats’s contemporary medical community. It shares the goal of this strategic theme: ‘to integrate natural sciences and the humanities’ so as to ‘bring human knowledge to a new horizon’.
- Michael O’Sullivan’s book Cloneliness: on the reproduction of loneliness also explores how the reliance on the social network and the Internet is increasing levels of loneliness in what the UK Government calls an “epidemic of loneliness”. It examines medical research on loneliness and its causes. It explores ways through which arts practice and writing can help people discover ways for dealing with loneliness in the moment of feeling lonely. The book also explores how this is different in the US context, in China and in Japan.
Communication Sciences and Disorders (Brain and Mind):
- One line of Jette G. Hansen Edwards’ research focuses on ‘Communication Sciences’, and specifically, speech processing and production. Her research seeks to understand how social and linguistic factors interact to constrain and foster the acquisition of a second language phonology. She has published widely in this area including a recent chapter on “Pronunciation and individual differences” in The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary English Pronunciation. Her current research in this area focuses on speech intelligibility. She is currently engaged in an international research collaboration on the intelligibility of Asian Englishes both locally and internationally, which explores the impact of various factors including proficiency, international experience, and familiarity on speech intelligibility. Her most recent work in this area includes “The accentedness, comprehensibility, and intelligibility of different varieties of Asian Englishes.” World Englishes as well as an upcoming article in the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development on “Listener judgments of speaker and speech traits of varieties of English.”
