We are delighted to share the news that our collaborator and dear friend Dr Ross White received the "Best International Research Award" in the first AHRC/Health Humanities Medal awards on Tuesday 11 September 2018. 

This new national award was created to celebrate the contribution of the arts and humanities to improving healthcare, health and wellbeing. In this particular category, the judges were looking for the best research in the health humanities from the past five years that has an international focus.  Ross's work explores the effects of trauma in relation to post-conflict situations. He focuses on understanding how local idioms are used to express wellbeing, resilience and distress in different languages. The research is then used to adapt psychotherapeutic interactions to be more linguistically and culturally sensitive. This in turn has helped improve patient’s self-confidence and self-regard.

Ross collaborated with members of the UNESCO RILA Team on the GCRF Funded project "Idioms of Distress, Resilience and Well-Being: Enhancing understanding about mental health in multilingual contexts"

One of the outputs of the project is the film Gedzem Kutrikuku, directed by Dr Gameli Tordzro. It is the first of a series of documentaries to be made on the process, experience and findings of the project.

Ross is a Reader in Global Mental Health at University of Liverpool and has worked for a decade in often challenging international contexts exploring the effects of trauma in relation to post-conflict situations, genocide and gender-related violence.

Well done, Ross!


First published: 13 September 2018