Panel

„Col­lab­o­ra­tion as method in Med­ical Anthro­pol­o­gy. Fem­i­nist and decolo­nial perspectives”
EASA, Barcelona, 23–26 July 2024)
CfP Deadline:22 Jan­u­ary 2024

More Info here

Short Abstract:
What is col­lab­o­ra­tive research in Med­ical Anthro­pol­o­gy? How to have trust­ing and sym­met­ri­cal rela­tion­ships when address­ing health-relat­ed inequal­i­ties and pow­er rela­tions? From a fem­i­nist and decolo­nial approach, we dis­cuss the (im)possibilities of col­lab­o­ra­tion in Med­ical Anthro­pol­o­gy research.

Long Abstract:
Over the past decades, Med­ical Anthro­pol­o­gy has been reflect­ing on its method­olog­i­cal approach­es, espe­cial­ly in con­texts of marked inequal­i­ty and pow­er imbal­ance; as well as in con­texts where our inter­locu­tors’ sur­vival and exis­tence are at stake, and where they face suf­fer­ing and dev­as­ta­tion. How to do ethno­graph­ic research on con­di­tions of suf­fer­ing and inequal­i­ty when address­ing health-relat­ed issues with­out repro­duc­ing these conditions?
From a fem­i­nist and decolo­nial approach to research and knowl­edge prac­tices, col­lab­o­ra­tive research fig­ures as one pos­si­ble way to coun­ter­act extrac­tivist modes of field­work that feed into and per­pet­u­ate the long-last­ing matrix of pow­er. How­ev­er, if we are to engage in ‘true’ col­lab­o­ra­tion, ques­tions arise about the var­ied forms it may (and should) take. For instance, when does col­lab­o­ra­tion begin, and when and how does it end? How do dif­fer­ent forms of knowl­edge enter into dia­logue dur­ing field­work and become an inte­gral part of the research find­ings? What can col­lab­o­ra­tion look like in the con­text of aca­d­e­m­ic hier­ar­chies, espe­cial­ly when it involves ear­ly-career researchers (includ­ing stu­dents)? How can ECRs with often low paid and short-term jobs engage in time- and resource-con­sum­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion with­out increas­ing their pre­car­i­ous status?
In this round-table, we plan to crit­i­cal­ly engage with col­lab­o­ra­tive method­olo­gies which are ide­al­ly based on con­crete ethno­graph­ic case stud­ies. We aim to dis­cuss and learn from the chal­lenges of such method­olo­gies that have the poten­tial of decen­ter­ing aca­d­e­m­ic knowl­edge prac­tices by giv­ing equal room to diverse forms of knowl­edge pro­duc­tion in mat­ters of health, care, hope, body, life, and death.

Con­venors:
Han­sjörg Dil­ger (Freie Uni­ver­sität Berlin)
Lucia Mair (Uni­ver­si­ty of Vienna)

Chair:
Maria Fer­nan­da Olarte-Sier­ra (Uni­ver­si­ty of Vienna)

Feel free to email if you have any questions!

Warm wish­es on behalf of all convenors,
lucia.mair[at]univie.ac.at

Permalink

Con­fer­ence theme: Doing and Undo­ing with Anthropology
EASA con­fer­ence, Barcelona, 23–26 July 2024
Dead­line: 22.01

MAE Pan­el: Towards Health­care 3.0? Undo­ing the past and doing the future of cur­ing and healing

Oth­er MedAn­thro panels:

Un/doing foetal „via­bil­i­ty”: Nego­ti­at­ing and gov­ern­ing the bound­aries of life and death
Ambiva­lent sub­stances: Chemoso­cial­i­ties in life-death worlds
Fem­i­nist per­spec­tives on mobile essen­tial work­ers: the pan­dem­ic as turn­ing point?
Chal­leng­ing glob­al health through a socio-anthro­po­log­i­cal lens
The inter­sec­tion­al­i­ty of anthro­pol­o­gy, age­ing, and dis­abil­i­ty studies.
Doing and undo­ing reproduction

MedAn­thro roundtables:

(Un)doing the anthro­pol­o­gy of health care cri­sis: struc­tur­al com­pe­ten­cy and health care professionals
Col­lab­o­ra­tion as a method in med­ical anthro­pol­o­gy. Fem­i­nist and decolo­nial perspectives

Oth­er top­i­cal panels:

Oh my gut: anthro­po­log­i­cal path­ways to the cul­tur­al, affec­tive, med­ical and mul­ti­species entan­gle­ments of the gut
Care Mod­els in Tran­si­tion: Pub­lic Pol­i­cy Chal­lenges in Response to the Pan­dem­ic Crisis
Un/Doing repro­duc­tion: transna­tion­al repro­duc­tive jus­tice in times of (post-)pandemics and anti-gen­der campaigns

Permalink

Pan­el “Patholo­gies of Imitation”
EASA Bien­ni­al Conference
23–26 July, Barcelona
CfP dead­line: 23:59 CET on Jan­u­ary 22nd 2024

Pan­el Concept:
Imi­ta­tion is fun­da­men­tal to human social life, under­pin­ning every­thing from entrain­ment in cul­tur­al prac­tices to inter­ac­tion­al rap­port and the emu­la­tion of eth­i­cal exem­plars. Yet at times, the urge to imi­tate is con­sid­ered med­ical­ly and/or moral­ly patho­log­i­cal: when echoprax­ia (‘com­pul­sive imi­ta­tion’) is flagged as a med­ical symp­tom; in anx­i­eties around ‘copy­cat’ crimes and sui­cides, and in moral pan­ics around pla­gia­rism, online imper­son­ation, and ‘West­ox­i­fi­ca­tion’ – to name but a few. Tak­ing such ‘patholo­gies of imi­ta­tion’ as a start­ing point, this pan­el seeks to devel­op exist­ing anthro­po­log­i­cal lit­er­a­tures on mime­sis and relat­ed phe­nom­e­na by high­light­ing the affec­tive and moral com­plex­i­ties of being an imi­ta­tive subject.
We invite papers that exam­ine how, why, and to what effect cer­tain forms of imi­ta­tion are con­strued and expe­ri­enced as patho­log­i­cal in diverse con­tem­po­rary set­tings. Whose inter­ests are best served by imitation’s pathol­o­gi­sa­tion – and is this kind of polit­i­cal analy­sis suf­fi­cient for under­stand­ing the dis­tress­ing or con­flict­ed ways that peo­ple some­times expe­ri­ence their own imi­ta­tive urges and prac­tices? How and why do eth­i­cal tra­di­tions accord imi­ta­tions dif­fer­ent degrees of moral valence? Is that chang­ing as new tech­nolo­gies trans­form the labour involved in imi­ta­tion? What causal log­ics are used to account for, resolve, and pre­vent ‘inap­pro­pri­ate imi­ta­tion’, to what social worlds do they give rise, and how seri­ous­ly should anthro­pol­o­gists take them? Indeed, what can anthro­pol­o­gy ‘do’ to sup­port those suf­fer­ing in their rela­tion­ships to imi­ta­tion – and which aspects of the anthro­po­log­i­cal canon might a study of imitation’s patholo­gies sug­gest need to be ‘undone’?

Sub­mis­sion details:
Paper pro­pos­als should be sub­mit­ted online via the con­fer­ence por­tal (here)

Any queries/Questions?
Please feel free to get in touch with us on N.J.Long[at]lse.ac.uk (Nick) and jacob.copeman[at]usc.es (Jacob)

Permalink

Pan­el „Unpack­ing tem­po­ral, spa­tial and rela­tion­al dimen­sions of care tra­jec­to­ries in life-lim­it­ing illness”
EASA conference
Barcelona July 23–26, 2024

Abstract:
short abstract max 300 char­ac­ters + long abstract of max 250 words
Dead­line: Jan­u­ary 22, 2024.

Natashe Lemos Dekker (Lei­den University)
Annemarie Samuels (Lei­den University)
Rikke Sand Ander­sen (Aarhus Uni­ver­si­ty and Uni­ver­si­ty of South­ern Denmark)

Short Abstract:
This pan­el brings togeth­er anthro­pol­o­gists study­ing tem­po­ral, spa­tial and rela­tion­al dimen­sions of care tra­jec­to­ries. It invites empir­i­cal and con­cep­tu­al explo­rations that are based on ethno­graph­ic research on care for peo­ple expe­ri­enc­ing life-lim­it­ing illness.

Long Abstract:
This pan­el aims to bring togeth­er anthro­pol­o­gists study­ing tem­po­ral, spa­tial and rela­tion­al dimen­sions of care tra­jec­to­ries of peo­ple expe­ri­enc­ing life-lim­it­ing ill­ness. The bur­geon­ing anthro­po­log­i­cal lit­er­a­ture on care con­cep­tu­al­izes care­giv­ing across insti­tu­tion­al and non-insti­tu­tion­al bound­aries and as both a form of labour and an affec­tive force (e.g. Buch 2018, Strong 2020, McK­ear­ney and Amrith 2021) and high­lights the embod­i­ment of care (Auli­no 2016; Jack­son 2021) as well as a resis­tance against total­iz­ing con­cep­tu­al­iza­tions (Cubel­lis 2020; Steven­son 2020). Invit­ing empir­i­cal and con­cep­tu­al explo­rations of care tra­jec­to­ries, we seek to high­light tem­po­ral, spa­tial and rela­tion­al move­ments of care prac­tices (cf. Solomon 2022), par­tic­u­lar­ly for and by peo­ple affect­ed by life-lim­it­ing illness.
In a con­text of chang­ing wel­fare states and increas­ing glob­al imple­men­ta­tions of forms of Uni­ver­sal Health Cov­er­age, we ask: How do care rela­tions and care needs change dur­ing ill­ness tra­jec­to­ries? How do care­givers and patients move across bor­ders and insti­tu­tions to pro­vide and access care? What expec­ta­tions do they have of care tra­jec­to­ries and what alter­na­tive tra­jec­to­ries do they envi­sion? And how may ethno­graph­ic research on care tra­jec­to­ries lay bare the inter­sec­tion­al inequal­i­ties that shape people’s pos­si­bil­i­ties to give and access care over time? We invite pan­el con­trib­u­tors to unpack the con­cept of care tra­jec­to­ries based on ethno­graph­ic research, and to con­tribute to ongo­ing dis­cus­sions on the con­cep­tu­al­iza­tion of care.

Permalink

2nd Inter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence on Car­ing for Elder­ly and Depen­dent People
5–6 Sep­tem­ber 2024
Rovi­ra i Vir­gili Uni­ver­si­ty, Tar­rag­o­na (Spain)

We would like to inform you that we have extend­ed the dead­line for sub­mit­ting pro­pos­als for papers for the 2nd Inter­na­tion­al Con­gress on Care for the Elder­ly and Depen­dents until 20 May.
You can sub­mit your abstract by using the fol­low­ing link: https://www.congressos.urv.cat/cuidado-mayores-dependientes/important-dates. The 2nd Inter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence “Car­ing for Elder­ly and Depen­dent Peo­ple: Social and Polit­i­cal Com­mit­ments for a Care Mod­el in Tran­si­tion” will be held on 5–6 Sep­tem­ber 2024 at Rovi­ra i Vir­gili Uni­ver­si­ty (Tar­rag­o­na, Spain).

More detailed infor­ma­tion on the con­fer­ence can be found here: https://www.congressos.urv.cat/cuidado-mayores-dependientes/home

If you have any ques­tions, please con­tact caremodel@urv.cat

Permalink

Inequal­i­ties in (Men­tal) Health­care: Crit­i­cal Per­spec­tives in Med­ical Anthropology
Pan­el at World Antrhopo­log­i­cal Union Con­gress 2024
Con­venors: Sharon Gabie (Nel­son Man­dela Uni­ver­si­ty, Johan­nes­burg­burg, South Africa), Hel­mar Kurz (Uni­ver­si­ty of Muen­ster, Germany)
When: 11th – 15th Novem­ber 2024
Cfp dead­line: 13 May 2024

Pan­el Abstract:
(Men­tal) health­care sys­tems world­wide meet var­i­ous chal­lenges, par­tic­u­lar­ly the insuf­fi­cien­cy of resources for patients of low­er eco­nom­ic class­es and rur­al areas. What is more, in many places ther­a­peu­tic set­tings remain “zones of aban­don­ment” (Biehl 2005), par­tic­u­lar­ly when affil­i­at­ed with offi­cial health­care sec­tors. How­ev­er, some phil­an­thropic, reli­gious-spir­i­tu­al, and pri­vate agen­cies pro­vide “good exam­ples” of (men­tal) health­care (Basu et al. 2017).
Chang­ing gov­ern­ments and con­test­ing poli­cies have impact­ed local, translo­cal, and glob­al (men­tal) health­care sup­plies, main­tain­ing incon­sis­ten­cies in (men­tal) health­care. Fur­ther, the recent COVID-19 pan­dem­ic has clear­ly illus­trat­ed that struc­tur­al vio­lence (Farmer 2005) and chronic­i­ty of cri­sis (Vigh 2008) still shape inequal­i­ties in access to health resources in both the Glob­al North and Glob­al South. New chal­lenges may be requests regard­ing the men­tal health­care pro­vi­sion for Indige­nous and migra­to­ry communities.
In South Africa, a recent case of neg­li­gence and mal­ad­min­is­tra­tion of peo­ple with psy­chi­atric dis­or­ders is that of Life Esidi­meni. The tragedy wit­nessed 144 peo­ple die because of inap­pro­pri­ate care and the lack of equipped infra­struc­ture and staff to cater to the needs of peo­ple in men­tal health care facil­i­ties and many more suf­fer­ing trau­ma (Duro­jaye & Aga­ba 2018, Fer­l­i­to & Dhai 2018). South Africa is no excep­tion for the fact, that coun­tries across the globe neglect men­tal health care as an over­all aspect of health and well­be­ing. The results of a four-coun­try study, which includ­ed South Africa, found that there is a lack of data to con­vince pol­i­cy­mak­ers to pri­or­i­tize men­tal health, a lack of imple­men­ta­tion, and how to mobi­lize peo­ple to seek inter­ven­tion to the prob­lem at an ear­ly stage (Pil­lay 2019). In dis­ad­van­taged com­mu­ni­ties, black com­mu­ni­ties in par­tic­u­lar, the stig­ma against men­tal health issues is com­pound­ed by cul­tur­al and social chal­lenges that pre­vent many peo­ple from seek­ing ear­ly inter­ven­tion (Gumede 2021).
Phil­an­thropic orga­ni­za­tions have always been essen­tial health resources, and not only for mar­gin­al­ized social groups (for the exam­ple of Brazil­ian Spiritism, see Kurz 2024). How­ev­er, they have been wide­ly ignored in pub­lic and aca­d­e­m­ic dis­course, and how polit­i­cal insti­tu­tions con­test, reg­u­late, or inte­grate relat­ed approach­es remains a research desider­a­tum that this pan­el wants to address around the fol­low­ing lead­ing ques­tions, focus­ing on men­tal health prac­tices but inte­grat­ing all health-relat­ed aspects of human well-being:
1) Strate­gies between actors. What are the con­tem­po­rary challenges/opportunities of diverse actors with­in the field of (men­tal) health in their par­tic­u­lar local­i­ties? In which spaces do they inter­vene? Where are they exclud­ed? What trends can be iden­ti­fied, e.g., in the emer­gence of new agen­cies in the field or pow­er dis­tri­b­u­tions among exist­ing actors?
2) Con­tent of action and inter­ven­tion in the field. What is cur­rent­ly at stake? What are per­spec­tives and prac­tices? How do diver­gent actors respond to (men­tal) health challenges?
3) Polit­i­cal reg­u­la­tion. How do state and offi­cial health­care insti­tu­tions relate to con­test­ing and com­ple­ment­ing approach­es? Do forms of coop­er­a­tion exist? Do obsta­cles exist? What are polit­i­cal strate­gies at the inter­sec­tion of polit­i­cal, eco­nom­ic, and social interests?

To sub­mit a paper/abstract, please fol­low these guide­lines: https://waucongress.org/call-for-papers/

The con­venors are avail­able for any doubt or ques­tion in advance and through­out the CfP process:
Sharon Gabie (Nel­son Man­dela Uni­ver­si­ty, Johan­nes­burg­burg, South Africa) sharon_gabie@yahoo.ie
Hel­mar Kurz (Uni­ver­si­ty of Muen­ster, Ger­many) helmar.kurz@uni-muenster.de

Permalink