Tower Seminar series – Methodologies of the Heart: A Case Study in Maternal Mental Health and Issues of Migration

Methodologies of the Heart: A Case Study in Maternal Mental Health and Issues of Migration
Presenters: Maebh Barry, Ailish Hannigan, Dr Susann Huschke, Anne MacFarlane, Sylvia Murphy
Tighe
Chair: Professor Helen Phelan

In his ground-breaking publication, A Methodology of the Heart, Professor of Communications & Performance Studies, Ronald Pelias, argued for the value of the ethical and the affective at the heart of all research. This round-table presentation charts the development of a research team at the University of Limerick with a central concern for maternal mental health and issues of migration, as well as a determination to build a research model based on participatory and arts-based principles. Bringing together researchers from the Graduate Medical School, Nursing and Midwifery and the Irish World Academy, it shares their vision of developing and researching an arts-based intervention for a diverse group of mothers and babies with the proactive inclusion of migrant mothers. The seminar also provides a forum for community groups to learn about and inform the direction and development of this research initiative.