Socio­Health­Lab 2024 (Un)conference
15th May 2024.
Mean­jin / Bris­bane, Aus­tralia and online on 

Socio­Health­Lab is host­ing its 2nd ‘(Un)Conference’ for social and the­o­ry-informed researchers of health, prac­ti­tion­ers, con­sumers, and car­ers to con­nect, exchange, and ener­gise. Uncon­fer­ences pro­vide rich oppor­tu­ni­ties for par­tic­i­pants to con­nect from diverse dis­ci­plines through infor­mal and flex­i­ble pro­grammes, and through tra­di­tion­al and cre­ative pre­sen­ta­tions. Aligned with our val­ues and vision, this uncon­fer­ence will be a one-day, free, and hybrid event fea­tur­ing excit­ing pre­sen­ta­tions, pan­el dis­cus­sions, and cre­ative art work­shops to col­lec­tive­ly re-imag­ine health and care. This might be of par­tic­u­lar inter­est of who works or have lived expe­ri­ences in the space of health, med­i­cine, and care.

We invite health researchers, prac­ti­tion­ers, con­sumers, and all oth­ers rel­e­vant to health and care to con­tribute to this event by sub­mit­ting free-for­mat pro­pos­al. You can find the CFP attached and here. Dead­line for pro­pos­al is 8th April 2024 and you will be noti­fied for results on 15th April.

This event will be hold in Mean­jin / Bris­bane, Aus­tralia and online on 15th May 2024. Please reg­is­ter here if you would like to attend in per­son or online. Please direct all ques­tions and abstract sub­mis­sions to sociohealthlab@uq.edu.au.

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Annu­al Sum­mer School on Microbes
12–14.06.2024
Cen­tre for the Social Study of Microbes, Helsinki

At present, research on microbes – whether in social sci­ences or in life sci­ences and bio­med­i­cine – is under­go­ing dra­mat­ic changes. A boom of micro­bio­me research since the ear­ly 2000s has shown that microbes are vast­ly more abun­dant in the envi­ron­ment and inside our bod­ies than pre­vi­ous­ly thought. In con­trast to a Pas­teuri­an notion of bac­te­ria as mere­ly path­o­gen­ic, microbes are seen to have impor­tant sup­port­ing roles for health and well-being. Deficit of microbes is now asso­ci­at­ed with every­thing from men­tal health to autoim­mune dis­eases. There is also increas­ing aware­ness of microbes’ vital role in dif­fer­ent ecosys­tems and eco­log­i­cal rela­tions to the extent that imbal­anced micro­bial ecolo­gies are asso­ci­at­ed with glob­al warm­ing, soil deple­tion, and bio­di­ver­si­ty loss.
Recent con­tri­bu­tions from social sci­ences and phi­los­o­phy of biol­o­gy have chal­lenged the one-sided def­i­n­i­tion of microbes as path­o­gen­ic, propos­ing the advent of a ‘post-Pas­teuri­an age’ that takes into account their mul­ti­va­lent and con­text-spe­cif­ic nature. This shift in under­stand­ing human-microbe rela­tions is push­ing the emer­gence of new social forms such as fer­men­ta­tion, often anchored in cen­tu­ry-old prac­tices. These devel­op­ments high­light that microbes are not bio­log­i­cal objects only, and that we lack meth­ods and con­cepts that can account for the com­plex, mul­ti-scalar sets of prac­tices that char­ac­terise human-microbe relations.
The PhD school will last for three days 12–14 June 2024. The first two days will con­sist of group work, includ­ing the pre­sen­ta­tion and dis­cus­sion of pre-sub­mit­ted man­u­scripts, an inter­na­tion­al keynote lec­ture, and gen­er­al dis­cus­sions about the social study of microbes. On the third day, the par­tic­i­pants will take part in the CSSM Day when the expand­ed CSSM team comes togeth­er for inter­ac­tive ses­sions and con­ver­sa­tions regard­ing microbes.
We wel­come appli­ca­tions from PhD stu­dents inter­est­ed in the social study of microbes. Appli­cants from the Glob­al South and mem­bers of minori­ties are espe­cial­ly wel­come to apply.

Appli­ca­tions should contain:

– Cov­er let­ter with a state­ment of inter­est (max 1 page)
– Abstract of PhD project, includ­ing a reflec­tion on how the research project engages with the­o­ret­i­cal and/or method­olog­i­cal devel­op­ments for the social study of microbes (max 2 pages)
CV (max 2 pages)

Accept­ed par­tic­i­pants will be asked to sub­mit a paper or chap­ter draft (max 8.000 words) by May 29, 2024.
The appli­ca­tion should be sent as PDF to cssm@helsinki.fi by March 31, 2024.
Suc­cess­ful appli­cants will be noti­fied lat­est by April 15, 2024.
Accom­mo­da­tion dur­ing the PhD school, lunch­es and the con­fer­ence din­ner, and trav­el to Helsin­ki are ful­ly cov­ered by CSSM. Please indi­cate in the cov­er let­ter if you do not need such eco­nom­ic support.
For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact: cssm@helsinki.fi

The CSSM is a hub for social sci­en­tists and artists con­duct­ing research on human-micro­bial rela­tions. Microbes are not only bio­log­i­cal enti­ties but also shape, and are shaped by, our social worlds. The Cen­tre aims to explore how rela­tion­ships with microbes raise pro­found chal­lenges for social the­o­ry, which demand new social sci­en­tif­ic lan­guage and method­olo­gies for describ­ing and explain­ing the com­plex and entwined rela­tion­ships between human and non­hu­man ani­mals, microbes, and the envi­ron­ment. Not only is this work the­o­ret­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed, it is key to devel­op­ing sus­tain­able meth­ods of plan­e­tary co-exis­tence in the Anthropocene.

For more info fol­low the link

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Birth Rites Col­lec­tion Sum­mer School 2024
1 July to Thurs­day 4 July 2024
Uni­ver­si­ty of Kent, Can­ter­bury Campus

Birth Rites is a col­lec­tion of con­tem­po­rary art on child­birth – the first of its kind in the world. Our annu­al Birth Rites Col­lec­tion Sum­mer School is a unique pro­gramme of lec­tures, work­shops, sem­i­nars and one-to-one tuto­ri­als. Four inten­sive days will intro­duce you to the col­lec­tion and facil­i­tate a dia­logue between you, your prac­tice and the art­works. The course is led by artist & BRC Cura­tor Helen Knowles and artist Dr. Leni Dothan.
This year’s Sum­mer School explores themes such as: • Col­lab­o­rat­ing and mak­ing work with fam­i­ly members.
• Stag­ing, restag­ing and per­for­ma­tive prac­tice on themes of gen­der, birth, repro­duc­tion, and famil­ial networks.
• How the col­lec­tion informs and unpacks dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives in mid­wifery, med­i­cine and edu­ca­tion, and its poten­tial to improve prac­tice and policy.
• The Collection’s impact on fem­i­nist art prac­tices and the reha­bil­i­ta­tion of visu­al dis­cours­es of birth into art history.
• Cen­sor­ship of art­works on birth, insti­tu­tion­al respons­es, ethics and the law.

Mid­wives, aca­d­e­mics, cura­tors, artists, medics, health pro­fes­sion­als, art his­to­ri­ans, pol­i­cy advi­sors and the gen­er­al pub­lic inter­est­ed in child­birth through the lens of art, are all wel­come. As a par­tic­i­pant, you will enter the course with your own skill set and fin­ish, with a bespoke mul­ti-media pack of visu­al, tex­tu­al, audi­to­ry, pho­to­graph­ic, filmic and per­for­ma­tive mate­r­i­al, to be used there­after in your own future work.

The Birth Rites Col­lec­tion Sum­mer School attracts artists, cura­tors, film­mak­ers and thought-lead­ers as annu­al guest speak­ers. 2024 speak­ers will include: Helen Knowles, Dr. Leni Dothan, Bar­bara Rosen­thal, Puck Verkade, Ana Casas Bro­da, Sarah Maple, Dyana Grav­ina and Dr. Han­nah Ballou.

The Sum­mer School will run from Mon­day 1 July to Thurs­day 4 July at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Kent, Can­ter­bury Cam­pus. Fees start from £400 for the week, in-per­son. This year we are also offer­ing a reduced rate for online only access to a series of live and record­ed lectures.

Find out more and book your place: https://www.birthritescollection.org.uk/summer-school

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