Current Team Members
Dr Jieun Kim: Project Lead
Dr Jieun Kim is a socio-cultural anthropologist fascinated by the ways personal narratives reflect and shape social identity and belonging. Her research in Japan and South Korea focuses on how people navigate social boundaries, with a special interest in the multiple meanings of blood and blood donation. As the Project Leader of “Hematopolitics,” she is excited to listen to people’s stories and explore creative and engaging ways to share them with wider publics.
Dr Claire Turner: Digital Engagement Fellow
Dr Claire Turner is a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Society for Renaissance Studies. She is currently researching the sensory history of cancer in early modern England. She recently worked as a Research Assistant for the Wellcome-funded LivingBodiesObjects project, where she designed exhibition materials for Thackray Museum of Medicine. Claire is interested in how we convey the senses through digital media, a question she hopes to answer as Digital Engagement Fellow.
Sarah Chadwick: PhD Student and Co-Production Lead
Sarah Chadwick is a third-year CDA PhD student in the School of Languages, Cultures, and Societies. Her research,funded by WRoCAH, investigates the racial dynamics of blood donation since 1946 through public health material and the blood donation spaces of Leeds and Bradford. Sarah works in partnership with Thackray Museum of Medicine, who house a large collection of objects related to her research interests. Sarah will design and lead co-production sessions in line with Thackray’s upcoming exhibition on blood.
Steph Bennett: Collections Researcher
Steph Bennett is an archive assistant for the West Yorkshire Archive Service and has an academic background in both the historyof medicine and museum studies.She has previously worked with Leeds Museums and Galleries, Leeds Special Collections and Galleries and the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh. As Collections Researcher, Steph is keen to explore objects and share their stories with both Hematopolitics and the Thackray Medical Museum audiences.
Past Team Members
Beth Lavery: Project Support Assistant
Beth Lavery was the Project Support Assistant (2021 – 2022) on the Hematopolitics project, supporting research activities and events. Her personal research interests focused on gentrification, including the urban impact of the marketisation of higher education, as well as the different meanings of food in urban space, its commodification, role within neoliberal discourses of health, and its role as a driver of poverty.
Partners
Thackray Museum of Medicine
The Hematopolitics team are currently working with Thackray Museum of Medicine to design and deliver an exciting newtemporary exhibition. Openfrom February until June 2025, the exhibition offers members of the public the opportunity to engage with various aspects of the research project. These include the politics of blood donation and transfusion, what your blood means to you and your body, and what the future of blood donation might look like.
Located in Leeds, Thackray is one of the UK’s leading medical museums, welcoming over 53,000 visitors in 2023. Our first collaboration was in 2021 for the Halloween special, “Bloodsuckers!!”, featuring self-guided trails, guided tours and drop-in activities. In 2022, we partnered for the University’s Be Curious event, featuring our research alongside the Thackray’s collections on the interactive “The Bond of Blood” stall.
The upcoming exhibition will focus on the past, present, and future of blood donation. We are thrilled to be working in collaboration with a variety of communities in the UK, Japan, and Korea, who have designed a vast array of unique objects to be displayed at the museum. The project will also feature objects from within the museum’s collections, some of which date back to the nineteenth century and tell the early story of transfusions (in all their gory detail!).
Leigh Bowser (The Blood Bag Project)
Leigh (pronounced ‘Lee’, pronouns she/they) is a Leeds based textile artist and educator. Her use of textiles is rooted within the emotional connections we have with cloth, utilising this connection as a vehicle for storytelling and activism. In 2012, they started ‘The Blood Bag Project’, a craftivist project that aims to raise awareness of the rare blood condition Diamond Blackfan Anaemia, which her young niece, Chloe, was born with.
Korea Leukemia Patient’s Organization (KLPO)
KLPO is a Seoul-based non-profit organization which advocates for leukemia patients’ rights representing around 12,000 members. KLPO is collaborating with the Hematopolitics team on a range of engagement and exchange activities, including a textile-blood-bag-making workshop for the special exhibition at the Thackray.
Blood Cancer UK
Blood Cancer UK is a charity dedicated to funding blood cancer research and providing support for people affected by blood cancer. Workingalongside the Hematopolitics team and the KLPO, Blood Cancer UK is involved in strengthening international collaboration to advocate for the rights and support of blood cancer patients worldwide.