JT Welsch, Senior Lecturer in Literature and Creative Industries, Department of English and Related Literature
JT joined the University in September 2016 as Lecturer in English and Creative Industries.
Prior to that, he was a lecturer, then Head of Creative Writing at York St John University, and before that an associate lecturer with the Open University and taught at the University of Manchester, while completing his PhD.
email: jt.welsch@york.ac.uk
Our 60-second interview with JT:
What do you do in the field of mental health?
I’m currently working on a research project that explores the relationship between suicide and poetry, doing my best to look beyond the mythology around poets’ tragic deaths to read poetry as a record of suicide’s changing meanings.
What do you find most rewarding and inspiring in this work?
It’s hard not to be moved by the language poets use to articulate philosophical or ethical ideas around suicide and their own experiences of mental illness and suicidality. In some cases, you see them literally negotiating their death, but you can also see where this same language sustains them. For me, the search for meaning when we encounter suicide feels very similar to the search for meaning when we encounter a poem. But as a literary scholar and suicide survivor, poetry also helps me come to terms with the fact that suicide also has no correct and final meaning.
What is the most challenging or complicated aspect of this work?
Like many areas of mental health research, the subject of suicide often feels very loaded. Despite a lessening stigma around it in some parts of the world, there is still a strong sense that we need to be careful with how we discuss it – both publicly and in academic research. In media depictions or reporting around suicide, for instance, there are now fairly strict guidelines for what can be shown or said. Poets don’t necessarily follow these social rules, and there are times when engaging closely with their difficult words and difficult lives can have an emotional toll on the research.
What impact do you hope your work is having - or can potentially have?
I’m very interested in changing public perceptions around suicide, and the diversity of cultural and historical attitudes around it. So I suppose my hope is that this work, or the work of poets I research, might be part of that evolving conversation. This seems like an important moment for opening up our approach to topics like suicide or mental health more generally, and I’ve been excited by how interdisciplinary approaches are starting to filter into wider conversations.
Could you share with us one piece of advice that you follow for your own mental health?
As I suggested above, it feels important to recognise the personal and emotional labour behind any kind of research. Like most jobs, the work can be inspiring and difficult. For good and bad, I try to be honest with myself about the ways it affects my mental health.