Everyday, for the past ten years, I have quietly celebrated the joy of a human life. When, on February 18th 2007, I was wheeled into the operating room at King’s Hospital for a liver transplant, my life was saved. Two years earlier I had been diagnosed with liver cirrhosis and had increasingly come…
Tag: health
Narrative Research on Sickness
Announcement: Narrative Research on Sickness and Illness SORRY: THIS COURSE HAS BEEN CANCELLED FOR THIS YEAR Friday June 13th 10.00 -4.15 Note: plenty of places at present and it might be cancelled because of lack of interest Constable Building, Seminar Room 3 Ken Plummer Course Overview: Telling stories about our illnesses has become a…
One day course on illness
A one day course will be run by Ken on illness stories on Friday June 14th Stories of Health and Illness: An Introduction: (Essex Short Courses in Social Research) Professor Ken Plummer from Department of Sociology, University of Essex At 09:30 in Seminar Room 3, Constable Building, Essex University, Colchester Campus . Course overview Telling…
Transplant Hallucinations
6th Anniversary of My Transplant: Time for Hallucinatory Stories Today, February 18th, is the 6th Anniversary of my Liver Transplant. I remain full of daily gratitude to my donor – and her family. I have had six years of extra life so far! It is a true scientific and human miracle. Any point in history…
Imagining Better Worlds, Insipirations, Poems and Poetics, Politics and change, Quoting Humanisms, Sociological Imaginations
In Memoriam: Stan Cohen
The past few days have been very sad ones as I have learnt of the deaths of two former teachers, colleagues and dear friends: Stan Cohen and Mary McIntosh. They were both inspirational; both pioneers in their works for rights and better worlds ; both serious intellectuals; and both very dear people. They will be…
Giving Up Drink: on alcohol, livers and transplants
Giving Up Drink: on alcohol, livers and transplants Illness is an opportunity, though a dangerous one. To seize this opportunity I need to remain with illness a little longer and share what I have learned through it. Arthur W.Frank : At the Will of the Body (2002: p1) As many seasoned researchers through the years…
Ken’s Sickness and Transplant Story
I have today placed a 50 page account of my illness and transplant. It is an auto/ ethnography and has appeared on a separate page on my web site marked Selected Writings . More on this will gradually be placed on this page.
Article: My Multiple Sick Bodies
Below is my most recent article published in April 2012. It is my first published piece based on my illness. MY MULTIPLE SICK BODIES: SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM, AUTOETHNOGRAPHY AND EMBODIMENT Ken Plummer Published in Bryan S Turner ed. Routledge Handbook of Body Studies 2012: Routledge p75-93 What happens when my body breaks down…