'Hungry for Words: A cross-disciplinary approach to articulating, communicating and understanding male anorexia'

该研究网络将通过将独特的艺术和人文视角引入医学和健康科学，研究男性进食障碍(ED)、神经性厌食症(AN)的各个方面，从而绘制出一个跨学科研究的领域。AHRC的重点公告“跨学科研究网络探索跨理事会调查的新兴领域”为本次合作提供了信息，并侧重于AHRC重点关注的福祉和心理健康领域。虽然在医学和文化方法上对女性的ED(如厌食症、暴食症)进行了相当广泛的探索，但总体上与男性ED的接触明显较少，尤其是男性。尽管被认为是“女性独有的问题”，但教育慈善机构表示，在西方国家，男性AN是一个日益严重的问题，并强调需要更多的意识和更多的研究。人与食物的关系非常复杂，影响着生活的方方面面，涉及生物、心理、经济、社会和文化等因素。这强调需要更广泛和跨学科的参与，同时也要考虑到性别问题。所有这些都使我们的建议具有及时和高度的相关性，并强调了其刺激创新研究的潜力。我们在英国和美国的国际研究人员网络促进了医学、精神病学、心理健康科学、教育、英语、现代外语、语言学和数学之间的重要跨境交流，以制定联合研究议程。我们还与4个教育慈善机构的指定合作伙伴在我们的研究和影响活动中密切合作(与学校和UG学生的教育活动，与教师的研讨会，学生培训活动)。我们的项目对个人、卫生和教育专业人员、更广泛的公众和政策制定以及未来跨学科的协作工作具有巨大的潜力。它位于新兴的卫生人文学科之中，提供了一个将卫生学科与艺术和人文学科联系起来的平台，鼓励对后者进行创新应用，以改善个人和社会的福祉。诺丁汉心理健康研究所的跨学科工作也为其提供了信息。我们网络的核心是希望对男性AN进行进一步研究，并提高对其的认识。它探索了英国男性AN的各个方面，并在个人叙事的三个领域与北美、德国、法国和意大利进行了比较：文学(小说和自传体写作)、在线自我文档(网络博客和论坛上的个人账户)和口头陈述(在更广泛的治疗背景下由客户主导的口头交流)。虽然来自学术机构的参与研究人员为这三个领域带来了独特的艺术和人文视角，但拟议的关键活动主要不是为了促进个别学科的发展，而是为了与来自医疗和保健科学的参与学者展开新的对话。该项目促进了不同领域的比较，并探索了个人叙事如何在医疗和保健背景下增加对男性AN的理解。制定联合研究议程有可能为男性的治疗和管理提供信息并改变其治疗和管理，并由跨学科的研究问题构成：如何通过文献、在线自我文件和客户主导的口头陈述提供关于男性ED的个人叙述--以创新的方式帮助男性？-帮助和告知他们超越既定的医学定义和社会文化构建的障碍和性别化行为概念的范例的治疗？-用于教育和培训卫生保健专业人员？-促进更多的公众知识、意识和理解？反过来，来自医疗保健专业人员的见解如何有助于理解这三种类型的个人叙事？

The research network will investigate aspects of the eating disorder (ED) anorexia nervosa (AN) in males by bringing distinct arts & humanities perspectives to medical and health sciences thus mapping a field of cross-disciplinary enquiry. The collaboration is informed by the AHRC's highlight notice 'Cross-Disciplinary Research Networks Exploring Emerging Areas of Cross-Council Enquiry' and focuses on the AHRC highlighted areas of well-being and mental health. Whilst EDs in females (e.g. anorexia, bulimia) are being explored fairly extensively in medical and cultural approaches, there is significantly less engagement with male EDs in general and male AN in particular. Despite being perceived as a 'female-only-problem', ED-charities suggest that male AN is an increasing problem in Western countries and highlight the need for greater awareness and more research. The relationship between human beings and food is highly complex and affects many aspects of life, involving biological, psychological, economic, social and cultural factors. This stresses the need for a wider and cross-disciplinary engagement that also takes questions of gender into account. All this makes our proposal timely and highly relevant and emphasizes its potential to stimulate innovative research. Our network of international UK- and US-based investigators facilitates significant boundary-crossing exchange between medicine, psychiatry, mental health science, education, english, modern foreign languages, linguistics and mathematics to develop a joint research agenda. We also collaborate closely with named partners from 4 ED-charities in our research and impact activities (educational events with schools and UG students, a workshop with teachers, student training events). Our project has significant potential to impact on individuals, health and educational professionals, the wider public and policy-making and for future collaborative work across the disciplines. It is situated in the emerging discipline of health humanities that provides a platform for linking health disciplines with the arts & humanities encouraging innovative applications of the latter to improve the well-being of individuals and societies. It is also informed by the interdisciplinary work of Nottingham's Institute of Mental Health. At the heart of our network is the desire for further research on, and to raise awareness of, male AN. It explores aspects of male AN in the UK and draws comparisons with North America, Germany, France and Italy in 3 areas of personal narrative: literature (fiction and autobiographical writings), online egodocuments (personal accounts in weblogs and forums), and oral accounts (client-led oral communication in a wider therapy context). Whilst participating researchers from academic institutions bring a distinct arts & humanities perspective to these 3 areas, the proposed key activities are not primarily designed to advance individual disciplines but to spark new conversations with participating scholars from medical and health care sciences. The project facilitates comparisons across different areas and explores how personal narratives can add to the understanding of male AN in a medical and healthcare context. Developing a joint research agenda has the potential to inform and transform the treatment and management of male AN framed by cross-disciplinary research questions:How can personal narratives of male EDs delivered in literature, online egodocuments and client-led oral accounts- help males with AN in an innovative manner?- aid and inform their treatment beyond established medical definitions and paradigms of socio-culturally constructed concepts of disorder and gendered behaviour? - be used in educating and training health care professionals?- contribute to greater public knowledge, awareness and understanding? How, in turn, can insights from healthcare professionals aid to the understanding of these 3 types of personal narratives?