Professor Susan Hogan

Faculty: Education, Health and Sciences

School: School of Health and Social Care

Subject Area: Mental Health and Therapeutic Practice

Scholarship & Research Strategy Co-ordinator, School of Health, & Professor in Cultural Studies and Art Therapy

Teaching responsibilities

I am a supervisor at MA and PhD levels. I supervise academic work in the following broad areas:

Artistic (studio based)work;

History of medicine;

Culture and illness/health;

The body and society;

Representations of illness (including some work in the area of 'visual culture');

Gender, feminism and mental health treatments;

Women's issues: body, sexuality, self-esteem, ageing;

The history of psychiatry and therapy;

The relationship between the arts and insanity and the role of the arts in rehabilitation;

Visual arts-based research/creative research methods;

Ante-natal care; motherhood; post-natal depression (and the use of the arts as a support tool);

The arts as therapy - art, drama, dance-movement, photo therapy, and music therapy.

I serve as module leader of 'Service & Practice Development' (the independent scholarship development module for the Doctor of Health & Social Care Practice, PrD) in which students select and refine their research methods, develop their research protocols and prepare for ethical clearance. I also contribute to the MA art therapy theory module, and the Independent Scholarship module of the MA in Art Therapy.

Professional interests

Publication & Grant Reviewer

The Arts & Humanities Research Board (AHRB); Berghahn Books (visual anthropology series); The British Psychological Society; Drug & Alcohol Review. Journal of the Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and Other Drugs (APSAD); The Economic and Social Research Council, UK (ESRC); Gender & Society; The Leverhulme Trust; Journal of Sociology; RANNIS: The Icelandic Centre for Research, Reykjavik; Routledge (Mental Health); Visual Anthropology.

Research interests

I have research interests in the history of medicine. I have written extensively on the relationship between the arts, insanity, and the role of the arts in rehabilitation. I am also very interested in the treatment of women within psychiatry and maternity care. My most recent work is ESRC funded work, in collaboration with the University of Sheffield, Department of Sociological Studies, which is looking at representions of older women. The aim of this study is to use the creative arts to negotiate and challenge images of ageing and explore their contribution to participatory approaches to research in social gerontology. The study will ask how media and cultural representations of older people have conveyed ideas and expectations about age and gender. The aims are to: enable older women drawn from different community settings to create their own images of ageing using a variety of visual and textual methods; explore the relationship between cultural and creative activity and later life well-being; reflect upon the contribution of visual 'real life methods' to participatory processes; demonstrate the contribution of arts and humanities to critical gerontology; enhance recognition, by policy makers and the wider public, of the authority, wisdom and productivity of older women. Other recent collaborative research: Connecting Communities: Recovery and Resilience in Health Care Relationship Through the Arts & Humanities. Project Development Award.

Membership of professional bodies and advisory committees

Professional Registration:Health Professions Council (HPC) Art Therapist. Registration number AS.00214. Australian National Art Therapy Association. Art Therapist. AATR. Registration number P19900S-015.Current Memberships:Association for Medical Humanities British Association of Art Therapists, and Registered Supervisor.

Other memberships

Arts, Health & Wellbeing Network, UK.

Association for Medical Humanities.

British Association of Art Therapists. 

Centre for Research into Arts Therapies, Advisory Committee Member. Imperial College, London.

Forum for Research Through the Arts. Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences & Humanities (CRASSH). Cambridge University.

ICAPT: International Centre for Arts Therapies Training in Mental Health. Central & North West London NHS Trust.

International Health Humanities Network.

International Society for Cultural History.

International Visual Sociology Association.

University of Warwick, Centre for the History of Medicine. Associate Member.

Recent Conferences

Jul 12 7th International Conference on the Arts in Society. Dealing With Complexity in Research Findings: How do Older Women Negotiate & Challenge Images of Ageing? 25/07/12.

May 12 University of Durham, Dept. of Sociology. Guest lecturer. Visual Methods.16/05/12.

Nov 11 Sheffield Hallam University, Sociology, Politics & Policy Research Group. Dealing With Complexity in Research Findings: How do Older Women Negotiate & Challenge Images of Ageing? 21.11.2011.

Nov 11 ESRC National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM). Methods Crossing Borders: Journeys of Methodological Innovation and Evolution. University of Southampton Autumn School, November. Invited Speaker. Look at Me! Arts in the New Dynamics of Ageing Study. 9-11th November.

Oct 11 Autumn Arts & Health Showcase. Mitchell Arts Centre, Stoke-on-Trent. Reinforcing or Challenging Clichés? Four Participatory Arts Projects - Representing Self, Representing Ageing. 12/10/11

Sep 11 2nd International Visual Methods Conference. Open University, Milton Keynes. Paper presented: How do Older Women Negotiate Images of Ageing Using Visual Methods? 15.9.11.

Jan 11 Researching Everyday Life. Anthropology of Britain Workshop. ICOSS, Sheffield. Paper Title: Images of Broomhall, Sheffield. Urban Violence & Using the Arts as a Research Aid. 13/1/11.

September 2010 - Vital Signs 2. Engaging Research Imaginations. International Interdisciplinary Methods Conference. University of Manchester. Joint paper also: Look at Me! Women & Ageing (Warren, L., Martin, R. Gott, M. & McManus, C).

July 2010 - International Visual Sociology Association, Bologna, Italy. Panel co-organiser - Arts Based Research Methods. Also individual paper, title: Articulating Ageing - A Discourse on Wrinkles!

20-22 July, 2010. July 2010 - The XVII ISA World Congress of Sociology, Gothenburg, Sweden, Session: 'Cultural Representations of the Ageing Body'. Joint distributed paper accepted, Gott, M. Warren, L., & Hogan et. al. 11-17 July, 2010. 

July 2010 - The 5th International Conference, The Arts in Society, Melbourne, Australia. 22/7/2010-25/7/09. Joint paper: Look at Me! A Participatory Arts Project Working With Older Women in the UK to Create New & Alternative Images of Ageing. Gott, M., Warren, L., & Hogan, S. et. al.

September 2009 - First International Visual Methods Conference, Leeds University. Paper title: Routes to Interiorities: Art Therapy, Anthropology & Accessing the Impossible - Innovative Research Methods. Joint paper with Sarah Pink. E.S.R.C. Building Capacity in Visual Methods Initiative 15-17/9.July 2009.

July 2009 - UK & Ireland Association for Medical Humanities. Taking the Body Seriously. Paper title: The Woman in the Body: Women's Changed Sense of Self-Identity as a Result of Pregnancy & Childbirth - Visual Representations. 8.7.09.

Additional Interests and Activities

Clinical Interests: I am a Health Professions Council Registered art therapist, and I have supervisor status with BAAT, and substantial clinical experience as an art therapist. I supervise art therapists who work in adult psychiatry & CMHS. My specialist clinical areas are in sexual abuse, post-natal adjustment, and adult psychiatry. I have conducted work with pregnant women and women who have recently given birth, offering art therapy to give support to women and an opportunity for them to explore their changed sense of self-identity and sexuality as a result of pregnancy and motherhood. I have published extensively on this topic.

Undergraduate qualifications

• BA (Hons) Degree in Drawing and Painting, Edinburgh College of Arts

Postgraduate qualifications

• Post-Graduate Diploma in Art Therapy, University of Hertfordshire
• MA Degree in Arts Administration, City University London
• MA in Social Science Research Methods with distinction*, Sheffield Hallam University
• *Winner of the best overall performance award

Research qualifications

• PhD in Cultural History, University of Aberdeen

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