Please find below the full pro­gramme for the BSA New Mate­ri­alisms and Lon­don Med­soc Study Group con­fer­ence. Every­one is welcome. 

Reg­is­ter here: 

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Pan­el “Embody­ing the Immea­sur­able: Mate­r­i­al Prospec­tions on Pain, Ill­ness, and Suf­fer­ing in Crisis”
Part of the track “Method­olo­gies Anchored in Design, Pro­to­types, and Mate­r­i­al Cre­ation” at the XVI ESOCITE Con­fer­ence (Aso­ciación Lati­noamer­i­cana de Estu­dios Sociales de Cien­cia y Tecnología)
June 24 to 26, 2026
Bogotá, Colombia 

In times of glob­al crises—pandemics, con­flicts, envi­ron­men­tal disasters—pain, ill­ness, and suf­fer­ing tra­verse bod­ies, sens­es, and mate­ri­al­i­ties. This pan­el invites explo­ration of how the human is con­sti­tut­ed under these extreme con­di­tions and how the (in)material, togeth­er with Futures Design, can offer tools to envi­sion and project pos­si­ble envi­ron­ments and sce­nar­ios that shape the expe­ri­ence of suf­fer­ing (Fry, 2009).
We wel­come sub­mis­sions address­ing these issues from diverse the­o­ries of sub­jec­tiv­i­ty and epis­te­mo­log­i­cal approach­es: embod­ied cog­ni­tion (Varela, Thomp­son & Rosch, 1991); phe­nom­e­no­log­i­cal and med­ical anthro­pol­o­gy approach­es (Rouse, 2009; Klein­man, 1997, 2020; Biehl, 2005); the exis­ten­tial dimen­sion and bod­i­ly vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty (Cos­melli, 2025); as well as the inter­ac­tion between tech­nol­o­gy, mate­ri­al­i­ty, and invis­i­ble worlds, show­ing how envi­ron­ments and objects shape expe­ri­ences that tran­scend the tan­gi­ble (Espíri­to San­to, 2020,2021,2025) and crit­i­cal analy­ses of pow­er rela­tions and ontolo­gies of the human (Povinel­li, 2021).
The STS com­mu­ni­ty is invit­ed to con­tribute papers that cre­ative­ly and rig­or­ous­ly con­nect expe­ri­ences, the­o­ries, and projections—such as applied projects, media-based work, the­o­ret­i­cal papers, and lit­er­a­ture reviews—that con­tribute to crit­i­cal think­ing in Futures Design, inte­grat­ing expe­ri­ences, the­o­ries, and mate­ri­al­i­ties to gen­er­ate new hori­zons in rela­tion to pain, ill­ness, and suffering.

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Embod­ied knowl­edge cre­ation: EASA online work­shop on dis­abil­i­ty, neu­ro­di­ver­gence and accessibility
Wednes­day, 24 June 2026, 4pm CEST / 3pm BST / 10am EDT

Click here to reg­is­ter and receive the zoom link: https://nomadit-co-uk.zoom.us/meeting/register/A08sKpWITRCqcR8eYfMIqg

This work­shop explores how embod­ied, dis­abled, sen­so­ry, cre­ative, and com­mu­ni­ty-based prac­tices can reshape anthro­po­log­i­cal knowl­edge-mak­ing. Through Julia Sauma’s work on qui­eten­ing and the unspo­ken, and Petra Kup­pers’ eco-somat­ic com­mu­ni­ty media exper­i­ments, the ses­sion asks how research meth­ods can become more atten­tive to access, vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, and col­lec­tive forms of participation.

The two speak­ers will give pre­sen­ta­tions of approx­i­mate­ly 30 min­utes each, fol­lowed by around 30 min­utes for discussion:

Petra Kup­pers (Uni­ver­si­ty of Michigan)
Dis­abil­i­ty, Plant Lives, Com­mu­ni­ty Media Exper­i­ments: Eco Soma Approach­es to Embod­ied Artis­tic Research

Julia F. Sauma (Gold­smiths, Uni­ver­si­ty of London)
Qui­eten­ing: on meth­ods for cap­tur­ing the unspoken

Speak­ers
Pro­fes­sor Petra Kup­pers, Uni­ver­si­ty of Michigan

Prof Petra Kup­pers (she/her) is a dis­abil­i­ty cul­ture activist and a com­mu­ni­ty per­for­mance artist. She grounds her­self in dis­abil­i­ty cul­ture meth­ods, and uses somat­ics, per­for­mance, media work, visu­al art, and spec­u­la­tive writ­ing to engage audi­ences toward more social­ly just and enjoy­able futures. Her lat­est aca­d­e­m­ic study is the award-win­ning Eco Soma: Pain and Joy in Spec­u­la­tive Per­for­mance Encoun­ters (UoMin­neso­ta Press, 2022, open access). She teach­es at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Michi­gan, was a 2022 Dance/USA Fel­low, and a 2023 Guggen­heim Fellow.

Dr Julia F. Sauma, Gold­smiths, Uni­ver­si­ty of London

Dr Julia F. Sauma (she/her) is a Hard of Hear­ing Brazil­ian researcher who exam­ines dif­fer­ent method­olo­gies, such as ethnog­ra­phy, draw­ing, writ­ing and per­for­mance, for under­stand­ing what it means to “be col­lec­tive” with­in and against vio­lent infra­struc­tures in Brazil­ian cities, the Ama­zon region and in aca­d­e­m­ic insti­tu­tions. Her lat­est co-edit­ed book, with Lydia Gib­son, is The Ethics of Par­tic­i­pa­tion in Envi­ron­men­tal Field Research: Inclu­sion, Col­lab­o­ra­tion and Trans­for­ma­tion (Rout­ledge, 2025). She is a Lec­tur­er in Anthro­pol­o­gy at Gold­smiths, Uni­ver­si­ty of London.

Chair
Dr Panas Karam­pam­pas, Durham University

Dr Panas Karam­pam­pas is a social anthro­pol­o­gist at Durham Uni­ver­si­ty. His work address­es intan­gi­ble her­itage gov­er­nance, knowl­edge-mak­ing, dance and move­ment, goth scenes, and inclu­sive learn­ing in pri­ma­ry and high­er edu­ca­tion, with par­tic­u­lar atten­tion to the fric­tions between pol­i­cy frame­works and lived prac­tice. With­in EASA, he serves as Pub­lic Anthro­pol­o­gy, Pre­car­i­ty, and Pub­li­ca­tions Liai­son, and is involved in ini­tia­tives con­cerned with acces­si­bil­i­ty, men­tor­ing, and more inclu­sive aca­d­e­m­ic spaces.

Con­tacts: panas.karampampas@easaonline.org

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