Dr Gemma Lucas

About me

I am a human geographer whose work sits at the intersection of geographies of the body, feminist geographies, creative methodologies and pedagogies, and the medical humanities. My research focuses on developing innovative embodied and creative methods for exploring complex emotional experiences, particularly shame.

Shame is a challenging subject to research. It is often difficult to articulate and resists traditional academic approaches that rely on language and verbal expression. In response, I have developed a methodology that foregrounds embodiment and creativity. This approach acknowledges that some emotional and affective experiences are beyond words and must be engaged with through the body.

My research methodology, which I call Moving Shame, combines gentle introspective movement practices drawn from yoga, somatics, and dance movement psychotherapy with creative arts practices such as body mapping and collage. These workshops are offered in one-to-one settings or in small groups. They create a space for participants to engage with shame in a grounded, reflective, and often transformative way.

I have delivered Moving Shame workshops with a wide range of groups including yoga teachers, therapists, medical students and practitioners, and members of LGBTQ+ communities. These workshops have taken place through partnerships with organisations such as Queer Circle and as part of academic research projects. I continue to develop and co-facilitate these workshops in collaboration with Dr Chloe Asker.

My work is informed by an interdisciplinary background in gender studies and human geography. I am particularly interested in how shame, and embodiment more broadly, are shaped by intersecting structures of oppression including gender, race, class, and sexuality.

Over the past two years, as part of my connection to the the Wellcome Trust-funded Shame and Medicine project, I have collaborated with colleagues at Duke University School of Medicine. As part of this work, I have co-facilitated and evaluated Moving Shame workshops with interprofessional medical professionals and students, exploring how shame operates within medical cultures.

I am also co-developing an international teaching initiative called Global Classrooms: Health Humanities and Geographies. This project is a collaboration with colleagues at Duke University, UNC Chapel Hill, the University of South Florida Tampa, and the University of British Columbia Okanagan. The course has recently been accredited at the University of Exeter under the module code HASM031. It combines virtual and in-person learning to explore embodiment and health across different global contexts. The module uses immersive pedagogies including embodied practices and virtual reality technologies, and is delivered collaboratively across institutions and time zones. Students engage both synchronously and asynchronously in an international learning environment that nourishes interdisciplinary dialogue.

I am also really interested in the intersections between academic and artistic practice. I have collaborated with artists, yoga practitioners, and psychotherapists on several funded projects exploring how creative practices can open new ways of understanding and engaging with shame.

During a placement with Arts and Culture Exeter, I worked with two artists on a project that explored how creative practice might help address the negative mental health impacts of racial discrimination. This project included an artist residency and a series of participatory workshops, using art as a form of community engagement and collective care.

My academic path has been shaped by interdisciplinary study and international collaboration. Before beginning my PhD in human geography, I studied English language and literature at King’s College London, followed by a dual-award Erasmus Mundus Masters of Excellence in gender studies at the Universities of Oviedo in Spain and Hull in the UK. I then completed an MRes in critical human geographies at the University of Exeter.

These experiences have shaped my commitment to creative thinking, collaborative practice, and critical interdisciplinary research. I am also a qualified and practicing yoga teacher. 

My research explores shame, embodiment, movement, yoga, gender, and creative and embodied methodologies. I am particularly interested in how artistic and embodied practices can support methodologies and pedagogies of care, resistance, and transformation. I contribute to cultural geography with a focus on geographies of the body and feminist geographies, and my methodological interests include feminist, ethnographic, creative, qualitative, and nonrepresentational approaches to research.

I am a member of the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health and a collaborator on the Wellcome Trust Shame and Medicine project. In 2023, I spent three months as a visiting scholar at the Duke University School of Medicine, where I worked with Dr Will Bynum to develop and run Moving Shame workshops. I am also a Global Classrooms teaching fellow, working in collaboration with Dr Michael Flexer and international transdisciplinary colleagues.