Paul Crawford

Professor Paul Crawford is a novelist, academic and editor. He is the founder and first professor of the global, interdisciplinary field of health humanities. He developed and directs the Centre for Social Futures at the Institute of Mental Health, The University of Nottingham, UK (2013-current).

He has contributed to policy development in the UK, advising senior politicians on the importance of social and cultural assets to advancing healthcare, mental health and wellbeing. He consults on public mental health, health care environments, health communication, and has spearheaded the notion of creative public health—democratising arts and humanities knowledge and practices to advance mental health and wellbeing.

He has written over 200 publications (peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, short papers or commentaries and 16 books; see www.paulcrawfordauthor.com).

His first novel, Nothing Purple, Nothing Black (2002) about psychosis achieved critical acclaim with fellow writers David Lodge, Roy Porter, Sara Maitland and Paul Sayer; the novel was also optioned for film with award-winning filmmaker Jack Emery (The Drama House). Professor Crawford’s second novel, The Wonders of Doctor Bent (2025) is about a controversial attempt to humanise a high-security psychiatric hospital.

His work in film includes leading the production of a new series of animations supporting the mental health of young people with Academy-award winning Aardman, called What's Up With Everyone (See Aardman YouTube channel and www.whatsupwitheveryone.com). This reached over 17m in the first four months alone and won Best Design and Content in the 2021 Design Week Awards, multi-categories in the 2021 PR Week Pride Awards and Best Public Engagement Initiative in 2024 Institute for Policy and Engagement Awards. He also produced the research bible for Astronaut, a forthcoming disabilities-related feature film by Chi Thai (Raging Grace, winner of the Narrative Grand Jury Award at SXSW; Little Miss Sumo).

His most recent non-fiction books include Mental Health Literacy and Young People (Emerald, 2022); Cabin Fever: Surviving Lockdown in the Coronavirus Pandemic (Emerald, 2021); Florence Nightingale at Home (Palgrave, 2020) [won Best Achievement in The People's Book Prize 2021 and was longlisted for the B.S.Hughes Prize for science-related writing]; The Routledge Companion to Health Humanities (Routledge, 2020); and Humiliation: Mental Health and Public Shame (Emerald, 2019).

He is Joint Editor-in-Chief for the Palgrave Encyclopedia of Health Humanities (Springer, New York, 2021-2024; 2 vols) and Commissioning Editor for two book series: Routledge Studies in Literature and Health Humanities (Routledge, 14 volumes); and Arts for Health (Emerald, 16 volumes) which provides the public with key information on how different creative practices or engagement can support health and wellbeing. His book Health Humanities (Palgrave, 2015) is now available in Mandarin (People’s Medical Publishing House, 2019). His other books are Madness in Post-1945 British and American Fiction (Palgrave, 2010), Evidence-based Health Communication (Open University Press, 2006), Communication in Clinical Settings (Nelson Thornes, 2006), Storytelling in Therapy (Nelson Thornes, 2004), Evidence Based Research (Open University Press, 2003) [Highly Commended, British Medical Association Book Awards 2002] and Politics and History in William Golding: The World Turned Upside Down (University of Missouri Press, 2002).

Professor Crawford’s work has attracted multiple awards and recognition, not least Fellowships of the Royal Society of Arts, Academy of Social Sciences and Royal Society for Public Health. His pioneering work in health humanities has attracted over £7m research funding from Arts Humanities and Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, ESRC/MRC, Cross-Council UKRI, The Leverhulme Trust and British Academy. He has led numerous AHRC funded research networks related to the arts and dementia, the representation of mental state in literature, and in the broader health humanities. His innovative approach to health communication education achieved a Lord Dearing award in 2008. He has supervised 16 PhDs to completion.

He is currently co-investigator for both a new ESRC-funded investigation, Influencer Narratives and Mental Health. He was also the consultant for Lockdown Landscapes, a creative display on the pandemic to support the public at the National Memorial Arboretum, the UK’s year-round place to remember https://www.thenma.org.uk/what's-on/exhibitions/lockdown-landscapes.

Professor Crawford has held multiple visiting professorships or advisory board appointments in the UK and overseas.