Clare Hickman
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drhick.bsky.social
Clare Hickman
@drhick.bsky.social
3.1K followers 1.5K following 540 posts
Environmental & medical historian at Newcastle University - hospitals, gardens, landscapes, senses, inclusive interpretation, story teller.
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drhick.bsky.social
Inspired by @draflint.bsky.social's poem, 'To all Walkers' (currently on display at the Farrell Centre in Newcastle) the Farrell are running a series of masterclasses, led by poet Anna Woodford. Info and booking here: www.farrellcentre.org.uk/whats-on/cit...
Explore language and landscape in this poetry masterclass series led by poet Anna Woodford. Join us for a poetry masterclass series inspired by the Farrell Centre’s Ideal City project. Focusing on one of the project’s exhibitions, Keep on the Grass, we will work from the urban landscape finding poetic inspiration in unsung places – from road signs to public footpaths and much more. Over the course of four sessions, facilitator and poet Anna Woodford will guide you through a series of writing exercises, prompts and walks to expand your writing practice. Open to all levels, this four-part series will help you develop your poetic voice, try new techniques, and look at your surroundings with fresh eyes.
October 9, 2025 at 9:44 AM
drhick.bsky.social
Exciting post just arrived! 🤩 Can’t wait to read this @dudleymarianna.bsky.social
Cover of Electric Wind: An Energy History of Modern Britain by Marianna Dudley
October 6, 2025 at 10:10 AM
drhick.bsky.social
YES!!! This was my first suggestion too! Would suggest this is pretty perfect also.
September 6, 2025 at 6:19 AM
drhick.bsky.social
Talking at this very exciting symposium on @draflint.bsky.social & my (hopefully - revisions dependent) forthcoming Element in the Histories of Emotions & Senses series: Sensory & Emotional Histories of Outdoor Singing in Modern Britain 🎶🥾🌳
Power point slide for Sound & Environment Research Group inaugural symposium at Newcastle University.
September 4, 2025 at 8:22 AM
drhick.bsky.social
#eahmh25 has been a great conference - huge 🙏 to organisers. Seeing old friends & meeting new ones. And for me, finally visiting Berlin. I’ve mainly been conferencing but have also managed some mini field trips to Sanssouci, the botanic gardens (Potsdam & Berlin) & a wine bar in an old pharmacy ❤️
Sanssouci palace - the gardens were vast! Sunset from the conference boat trip The interior of one of the many glasshouses at the Berlin botanic gardens Interior of an old pharmacy with dark wooden shelves & bottles. Now a wine bar & restaurant
August 29, 2025 at 6:15 PM
drhick.bsky.social
Very excited to see a hard copy of @victoriabates.bsky.social new book ‘Feeling Blue’ on the MUP stand at #eahmh25 - and in great company too 🤩
Table with books propped upright on medical history themes.
August 28, 2025 at 10:01 AM
drhick.bsky.social
Still on leave until I head to Berlin for conferencing next week but heading back south now after amazing few days in the Highlands 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🥾 After a rough few years on the health front it’s nice to discover I can once again walk 16-20km a day 🙌
The beach at Aberdeen with wind turbines in the distance Photo of me on the beach at Loch Morlich. The highest (easily accessible) beach in the UK. Cairngorms National Park Deer with magnificent antlers in front of view of purple heather covered mountains Light reflections, pine trees & mountains at Loch An Eilein, Rothemacus. Cairngorm National Park
August 20, 2025 at 1:58 PM
drhick.bsky.social
Out of office is on, university email app deleted & laptop left at home 🙌 I’m off on a mini Scottish highlands adventure by train - Aberdeen, Inverness, Aviemore ⛰️

Some small compensation for not being in Uppsala for @eseh.bsky.social 😭
LNER train at Newcastle station with departures board showing destination, Aberdeen View through a train window of crossing the Forth bridge
August 16, 2025 at 9:59 AM
drhick.bsky.social
Really excited to get a copy of this book which I think is the first in our series on Environment, Health & Wellbeing at Michigan State University Press. Great mix of chapters from academics & activists. More info here: msupress.org/978161186528...
Book cover of Race and Environmental Justice in the Era of Climate Change and COVID-19 edited by Tatiana Konrad Info on book series & editorial board which can be read here: https://msupress.org/environment-health-and-well-being/
August 11, 2025 at 12:56 PM
drhick.bsky.social
Plus of course I’m delighted that Sparkie the talking budgie 🦜 is in a better home with some great permanent interpretation, alongside my temporary one. With info on his owner & teacher, Mattie Williams.
Sparkie the talking budgie (taxidermy) with both my label & a new permanent one. Mine available to read via website link. Panel with a photo of Sparkie & his owner. With a headset to listen to him talk & sing nursery rhymes.
August 7, 2025 at 1:03 PM
drhick.bsky.social
Finally made it to see our Destroying Nature trail at GNM: Hancock museum @northeastmuseums.bsky.social It looks amazing & is free! Showcasing work by our 2nd year environmental history students. More info here: www.northeastmuseums.org.uk/greatnorthmu... With thanks to @bshsnews.bsky.social 📗🗃️
Little blue penguin (taxidermied) with label. All available to read via website link. Chapman’s gazelle (head) with label & other artefacts. All available to read via website link. Label on overgrazing by deer & thr consequences in foreground. With large taxidermied animals, including 2 fighting stags in background. All available to read via website link.
August 7, 2025 at 1:03 PM
drhick.bsky.social
And then the Earth Photo 2025 exhibition in the gardens of Lamport Hall which I didn’t know was on. I was there to see the lush walled garden (and the gnomes)!
Cloth of gold Achillea plant in the walled garden at Lamport Cardoons flowering with giant purple type thistle heads in the walled garden One of the panels from the Earth Photo exhibit. A photograph of the pattern made in the fjord silt by the boat’s movement. Romain Loubeyre The Glacial Snail, Greenland (2024) | The vessel carved through the most surprising shapes as the route for the day was planned, navigating the silt deposited in Scoresby Sund by the glacial rivers from the nearby ice cap. For Romain, a single journey to Greenland marked the beginning of an enduring connection to this extraordinary land. Since that first trip. Romain has returned each year, transforming the experience into a pilgrimage to one of the most otherworldly and awe-inspiring places on Earth, The vast landscapes and near-total isolation of this region embody the essence of adventure. These pbotographs, taken in Scoresby Sund in August 2024, capture the journey around the largest fjord system on Earth, revealing the rugged beauty and raw power of this remote landscape. Cynotype of Bolivian forest affected by fire & deforestation overlaid with embroidery pattern of connecting flowers. Mateo Caballero Whisper of the Forest, Bolivia (2024) Whisper of the Forest reflects on loss, resilience, and repair in the face of environmental destruction. The proicct bogins with pbotographs taken by the artist in the Bolivian forests of TCO Tacana II in 2014, landscapes now threatened by fire and deforestation. These images are reprinted using cyanotype, transforming them into traces of what once was. Sashiko embroidery, a traditional Japanese mending technique, serves as an act of symbolic repuir. Each stitch is a gesture of care, connecting time, loss, and memory. In some pieces, the embroidery covers the image, not to erase it, but to protect what remains. The work emphasises continuity over reaffirming the link between past and present. Rather than documenting the fires, the series reflects on the forests before their disappearance, highlighting the fragile state of South American ecosystems. Each piece bears a silent imprint of persistence, a testament to the urgency of protecting what endures.
August 1, 2025 at 7:40 AM
drhick.bsky.social
On hols back at my folks in Northamptonshire where there seems to be a strong environmental arts theme this summer. First there was the Endangered & Extinct art exhibit at Northampton Art Gallery and Museum - where animals were made from recycled materials.
Gallery wall with exhibition title: Endangered and Extinct: Works by creative recycling artist Val Hunt. Below are a number of her works including a silver phoenix and a sabre toothed tiger. Coral Reef with fish made from drinks cans. Profile of Dodo made from drinks cans in a wooden frame. Sabre toothed Tiger head
August 1, 2025 at 7:40 AM
drhick.bsky.social
Lovely opening of The Ideal City exhibition at Farrell Centre last night. Featuring Keep on Grass funded by @hassfacultyncl.bsky.social impact funds w/ All Footsteps research by me & @draflint.bsky.social plus original exhibition by @catherinemax.bsky.social & Built Environment Trust 🪧🚯🚏
Owen Hopkins, Director of the Farrell opening the exhibition with a red Yes Ball Games sign & a mocked up road sign showing older people dancing Me in front of one of the walls with text & photos from the All Footsteps project People already engaging in the activities & making their own signs Me and Abbi showing off our work with jazz hands. Or at least I was doing jazz hands.
July 4, 2025 at 1:59 PM
drhick.bsky.social
Doing something a bit different today… Will be talking a bit about pine & a bit about the sensory gardens work I did with @sarahbell85.bsky.social
June 11, 2025 at 9:06 AM
drhick.bsky.social
Also pests & diseases in relation to the biodiversity crisis was excellent.
WWII film on spraying garden pests Dandelion as important food/medicine 1175 text Pesticide sprayer - Victorian I think
June 10, 2025 at 1:34 PM
drhick.bsky.social
Went to the Unearthed exhibition at the BL and I have *thoughts*. Some of my highlights though include these. Plus it was good to see discussion of colonialism, class and labour in relation to gardens/gardening 🙌
2nd world war poster showing healthy & strong vegetables including a cabbage smoking a cigar Graffiti on a wall stating: this site has been taken over by the people of Tolmers village for a garden Photo of wardian cases full of plants before being shipped to Britain Fuck lawns poster with the great phrase ‘of nothing is eating your plants then your garden is not part of the ecosystem
June 10, 2025 at 1:30 PM
drhick.bsky.social
I seem to have a surprising amount of wild orchids appearing of their own volition in my garden! The joys of being a fairly lazy organic gardener. Can anyone ID them for me? Think they’re probably common spotted ones? I’m based nr sea in N/E England #wildflowerhour #orchid
Bright pink/purple flower in a pot Purple flowers in a terracotta pot About 10 purple flowers in a pale green planter
June 6, 2025 at 8:01 AM
drhick.bsky.social
A reminder of an upcoming webinar organised by ESEH UK & Ireland region on 'New Directions in Urban Climates of the Atlantic Archipelago'

May 20, 2025: 13:00 – 15:00 (GMT +1)

Presenters: @erikahanna.bsky.social @rebwright.bsky.social @chrisjpearson.bsky.social

Zoom link eseh.org/envhistoday-...
May 15, 2025 at 3:19 PM
drhick.bsky.social
Who’d have thought 2 seagulls & a chick would be first to find out there’s a new pope?
Screenshot of white smoke with 2 seagulls on the Sistine roof. Chick is obscured by all the smoke.
May 8, 2025 at 4:14 PM
drhick.bsky.social
When your dissertation student brings you a thank you present and it is 💯 🥹
The cover of John Green’s new book Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of our Deadliest Infection
April 29, 2025 at 9:50 AM
drhick.bsky.social
What’s Swedish for I nearly burnt my dinner because I was too busy watching moose? 👀 😅#askingforafriend
Still shot of 2 moose in a forest
April 24, 2025 at 5:35 PM
drhick.bsky.social
Went back to my parents’ for the long weekend & mainly did gardening/garden adjacent things. But I also got my Mum & brother into the best springtime TV show 🫎 #iykyk
Still of a Swedish live tv programme with a moose in a pine forest.
April 22, 2025 at 5:46 PM
drhick.bsky.social
Speaking to the Early Modern Health Humanities Research Initiative at Université de Montpellier Paul-Valéry later today.

Sadly via zoom due to restrictions on work based travel funds :(
Poster with information about the talk and an image of the cover of my book, 'The Doctor's Garden'.
April 7, 2025 at 11:37 AM
drhick.bsky.social
Thanks very much V! I’ve been hanging out at Coton Gardens with Mum & bro so all is good. Much love to you xx
Pink magnolia tree in the sunshine by a pond Bank of cowslips in grass Hellebores in the sunshine - shades of dark pink Flamingos in a pond in the sunshine
April 1, 2025 at 6:20 PM