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Biography
Dr Charley Baker (BA MA PhD PGCHE SFHEA) is an Associate Professor of Mental Health at the University of Nottingham. She has broad expertise across a range of mental health and illness, with a particular interest in 'psychosis', self harm, suicidality, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder. Charley is heavily involved in nurse education at the University, where she is Faculty Lead for Safeguarding across the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. She has extensive experience in education around safeguarding for professionals and pastoral care of students for safeguarding and domestic violence. She is known internationally for her work in the Health Humanities, particularly in the sub fields of literature and mental health, and heavy metal music and self harm. Charley has worked with a broad range of organisations including the NHS, BBC and different publishers.
Charley has an extensive range of publications, including Our Encounters with Self Harm (PCCS Books, edited with with Clare Shaw and Fran Biley, 2013), Health Humanities (Paul Crawford et al, Palgrave, 2015) and Madness in Post-1945 British and American Fiction (Baker et al, Palgrave, 2010). Charley is co-founder of the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded international Madness and Literature Network (www.madnessandliterature.org) and International Health Humanities Network (www.healthhumanities.org). She was awarded her PhD in 2016 from Royal Holloway, University of London - Reading 'Psychosis' in Kathy Acker's Writing: Rethinking Clinical and Critical Perspectives. Charley is Editor of Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing. She also serves on the Editorial Board for Journal of Medical Humanities.
Expertise Summary
- Representations of mental health in fiction and autobiography
- 'Psychosis', self harm, suicidality, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder
- Safeguarding
- Domestic Violence
- Welfare of students in HEIs
Teaching Summary
Faculty Lead for Safeguarding
Complaints Investigating Officer
Fitness to Practice Investigating Officer & Panel Member
PhD supervision
Mental Health Nursing (BSc) & Graduate… read more
Research Summary
I am co-founder of both the Madness and Literature Network (www.madnessandliterature.org) and the International Health Humanities Network (www.healthhumanities.org)
I have researched and spoken on issues of representations of mental illness in literature, and have research interests in self harm, suicide, 'personality disorders' and the therapeutic use of reading.
Doctoral Research, Royal Holloway, University of London: "Postmodern Psychosis - The Literary Move Towards New Perspectives". My thesis examines the intersection between psychiatric formulations of psychosis and the nature and status of psychosis in the work of Kathy Acker. I believe that her fiction can contribute towards clinical discourses on psychosis in a demythological, depathologising manner. I suggest that the postmodern fiction of Kathy Acker in particular proposes an innovative manifesto of psychosis for the postmodern age - one which can, circularly, be of clinical significance with regards increased understanding for individuals suffering from the psychotic illnesses.
Selected Publications
PAUL CRAWFORD and CHARLEY BAKER, 2009. Literature and Madness: A survey of fiction for students and professionals Journal of Medical Humanities. 30, 237-251
PAUL CRAWFORD, BRIAN BROWN, VICTORIA TISCHLER and CHARLEY BAKER, 2010. Health Humanities: The future of Medical Humanities? Mental Health Review. 15(3), 4-10
CHARLEY BAKER, PAUL CRAWFORD, BRIAN BROWN, MAURICE LIPSEDGE and RONALD CARTER, 2010. Madness in Post-1945 British and American Fiction Baisingstoke: Palgrave.
CHARLEY BAKER, 2011. “Nobody’s Meat” – Revisiting Rape and Sexual Trauma through Angela Carter. In: SUSANA ONEGA AND JEAN-MICHEL GANTEAU and , eds., Ethics and Trauma in British Fiction Since 1960 Amsterdam / New York: Rodopi. 61-83
Past Research
March 2007-June 2010 - 3 year Leverhulme Trust funded position as a Research Associate, examining representations of madness in post-war UK and US fiction.
July 2005-March 2007: Research Assistant - Perceptions of coercion: a comparison between home and hospital treatment. Role included conducting clinical interviews, obtaining consent, administering the MacArthur Admission Experience Survey, BPRS and GAF, collecting and inputting demographic data and screening clinical notes.
Future Research
On-going research areas of interest include:
- Representation of madness and mental health problems in 20th century fiction and autobiography
- Safeguarding
- Self Harm and Suicide
- The history of borderline personality disorder as a diagnosis
- Using literature and humanities in clinical education
- 20th Century Literature and literary theory, particularly the theories of Baudrillard, Lyotard, and Foucault.