Dr Olivia Turner (BA (Hons), PgCert, PhD, AFHEA)
Senior Research Fellow (ACRC); Deputy Director of Edinburgh Centre for Research on the Experience of Dementia (ECRED); Deputy of PATHS (Public Health, Arts, Theory and Social Science) Research Group
Background
Dr Olivia Turner is an artist and researcher at the University of Edinburgh. She is Deputy Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Research on the Experience of Dementia (ECRED) and the PATHS (Public Health, Arts, Theory and Social Science) Research Group. She is currently working as Senior Research Fellow (Advanced Care Research Centre) and is an Associate Lecturer in Fine Art at Newcastle University, where she leads Fine Art & Anatomy Praxis.
Olivia's research is at the interstices of creative practice-led research, critical medical humanities and arts & health. In 2026, she was awarded a prestigious Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, titled 'Entangling creative practice, humanities and health'. Her arts practice moves between sculpture, performance, installation, writing and moving image. Her recent artworks perform interventions in the Shefton Collection of Greek Art and Archaeology. She has also undertaken postdoctoral research as part of the AHRC-funded IMAGINED Project (PI: Dr Katey Warran), which focused on participatory arts, co-production and social justice, meaning-making and evaluation. This has involved working in policy contexts, including Scottish Parliament and the Cross-Party Group: Culture & Communities 'Big Ambitions Report'.
Qualifications
PhD, Newcastle University, Fine Art (Recipient of the Research Excellence Academy Studentship; Title: 'Between Doctor, Patient and Cadaver: The Slippages of the Visceral Body in Medicine')
Postgraduate Certificate in Research Training, Newcastle University, Distinction with special commendation.
Alternative MFA programme, The Collective Studio, The NewBridge Project.
BA (Hons), Newcastle University, Fine Art (First Class)
Responsibilities & affiliations
Associate Fellow status of the Higher Education Academy
(2023) Medical Humanities Early-Career Advisory Group Member, Wellcome Trust
(2022-Present) Peer-reviewer for the British Medical Journal
(2023-Present) Peer-reviewer for Interconnections: journal of posthumanism
(2022-Present) Member of The Votives Project
(2019-Present) Member of the Northern Network for Medical Humanities
(2022-2024) Board member for Newcastle Medical Humanities Network
(2019-2022) Board member for Institute for Creative Arts Practice, Newcastle University
(2018-2019) Lead for Arts and Medical Research Cluster, Newcastle University