Dr Gemma Lucas (she/her)

I am a health geographer working at the intersections of cultural and feminist geographies, and the medical humanities. My research develops engaged, embodied, and creative methodologies for exploring complex emotional experiences—particularly shame—within a wide range of contexts. I am committed to research as a relational and participatory practice, where knowledge is co-created through collaboration, creativity, and care.

Research

My work centres on Moving Shame, a trauma-informed engaged methodology combining movement practices from yoga, somatics, and dance movement psychotherapy with creative arts methods such as body mapping and collage. These workshops were co-developed with a team of collaborators who have expertise in embodied practice and/or identify as having lived experiences of shame, and they invite participants to explore shame through the body in reflective, supportive, and often transformative ways. I have run Moving Shame workshops as one-to-one sessions and in groups, with medical students, healthcare practitioners, therapists, LGBTQ+ communities and the general public. 

I have continued to co-develop and deliver Moving Shame workshops with Dr Chloe Asker and through collaborations with organisations such as Queer Circle and the Wellcome Trust-funded Shame and Medicine project.

Working with colleagues at Duke University School of Medicine, I have adapted this methodology for interprofessional medical education, examining how shame operates within medical cultures and professional identity formation.

Teaching and Collaboration

I am an experienced HE lecturer and teach across Undergraduate and Postgraduate programmes in Human Geography, Liberal Arts and Medical Humanities.

I co-convene Global Classrooms: Health Humanities and Geographies, an international teaching initiative that brings together students from Exeter, Duke University School of Medicine, UNC Chapel Hill, University of South Florida, Tampa, and UBC Okanagan. Accredited at Exeter (HASM031), this module uses immersive and participatory pedagogies—including embodied practice and virtual reality—to explore embodiment, health, and care across global contexts.

Artistic and Interdisciplinary Practice

My research is also shaped by artistic collaboration. I have worked with artists, yoga practitioners, and psychotherapists on projects exploring how creative practices can support community wellbeing and social justice. With Arts and Culture Exeter, I co-led a project addressing the mental health impacts of racial discrimination through participatory art and collective care.

Background

I hold degrees in English (King’s College London), a dual Erasmus Mundus Master’s in Gender Studies (Universities of Oviedo and Hull), and an MRes in Critical Human Geographies (University of Exeter) and a PhD in Human Geography (University of Exeter).

I am also a qualified trauma-informed yoga teacher, and my movement practice continues to inform both my research and teaching.

Research interests

Engaged and participatory research methodologies

Embodiment, emotion, and shame in health and care contexts

Feminist and cultural geographies of the body

Trauma-informed and shame-sensitive research

Embodied and arts-based pedagogies

Interdisciplinary approaches bridging geography and the medical humanities

Geographies of health and wellbeing

Affiliations

Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health

Shame and Medicine project (Wellcome Trust)

Visiting Scholar, Duke University School of Medicine 

Global Classrooms Teaching Fellow