Veranstaltungskalender

Med­ical Anthro­pol­o­gy Europe Con­fer­ence 2025 Vien­na: „Rede­f­i­n­i­tions of Health and Well-being
Call for Pan­els and Round­ta­bles is now OPEN

RZ_­MAEC-2025_­Call-for-Papers

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Cen­tre for Dis­abil­i­ty Stud­ies Post­grad­u­ate Con­fer­ence 2025 “Dis­abil­i­ty with­in Envi­ron­ments: dis­abil­i­ty stud­ies perspectives”
17th Sep­tem­ber 2025
hybrid, Cen­tre for Dis­abil­i­ty Stud­ies, Uni­ver­si­ty of Leeds 

We are delight­ed to announce that reg­is­tra­tion for the CDS PGR con­fer­ence 2025 “Dis­abil­i­ty with­in Envi­ron­ments: dis­abil­i­ty stud­ies per­spec­tives” on the 17th Sep­tem­ber is now open. This hybrid one-day con­fer­ence will take place in-per­son at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Leeds (UK) and online via Zoom. The con­fer­ence will run from 9:30 to 16:00 BST before con­clud­ing with a post-con­fer­ence social.
This con­fer­ence will address how dis­abil­i­ty oper­ates with­in dif­fer­ent envi­ron­ments, how dis­abled peo­ple are affect­ed in these dif­fer­ent envi­ron­ments and how envi­ron­ments might be reshaped and reimag­ined to cre­ate more sus­tain­able, just, and inclu­sive futures. The four hybrid pan­el ses­sions of the con­fer­ence will focus on envi­ron­ments of 

High­er Education
Urban Spaces
Cre­ative Spaces
Social Care, Health, and Wellbeing

We intend to pro­vide a sup­port­ive space for PGRs to share their work, receive con­struc­tive feed­back, and engage in inter­dis­ci­pli­nary dis­cus­sions. Par­tic­i­pants will ben­e­fit from net­work­ing, skill devel­op­ment, and aca­d­e­m­ic exchange. 

This event is open to all PGRs at any stage of their researchers, post-doc, and ear­ly career researchers, as well as aca­d­e­mics, activists, and stu­dents from across the world.

You can reg­is­ter via the fol­low­ing link:
https://store.leeds.ac.uk/conferences-and-events/essl/conferences/centre-for-disability-studies-postgraduate-conference-2025

For detailed infor­ma­tion on how to book tick­ets, please read the doc­u­ment attached.
For infor­ma­tion on any access and dietary require­ments, please read the infor­ma­tion on the web­site as well as the doc­u­ment attached. https://disability-studies.leeds.ac.uk/events/pgrconference/
If you have any fur­ther ques­tions, please do not hes­i­tate to con­tact us. Please send any inquiries to CDSpostgraduates@leeds.ac.uk

More infor­ma­tion on the con­fer­ence will be updat­ed reg­u­lar­ly on https://disability-studies.leeds.ac.uk/events/pgrconference/

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Call for abstracts: Cen­tre for Dis­abil­i­ty Stud­ies Post­grad­u­ate Con­fer­ence 2025 

“Dis­abil­i­ty with­in Envi­ron­ments: dis­abil­i­ty stud­ies perspectives” 

17th Sep­tem­ber 2025 

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Leeds Cen­tre for Dis­abil­i­ty Stud­ies (CDS) Post­grad­u­ate Researchers invite you to sub­mit an abstract for our inter­na­tion­al hybrid con­fer­ence on the 17th Sep­tem­ber 2025. 

This con­fer­ence will focus on how dis­abil­i­ty oper­ates with­in dif­fer­ent envi­ron­ments, for exam­ple envi­ron­ments of acad­e­mia, edu­ca­tion, pol­i­tics, music and arts, green spaces, dis­as­ter and/or war zones. Con­sid­er­ing recent nation­al and inter­na­tion­al back­lash against equal­i­ty, diver­si­ty, and inclu­sion (EDI), mil­i­tary con­flicts, human­i­tar­i­an cri­sis and the glob­al cli­mate cri­sis, it is time­ly to address how dis­abled peo­ple are affect­ed in these dif­fer­ent envi­ron­ments and how envi­ron­ments might be reshaped and reimag­ined to cre­ate more sus­tain­able, just, and inclu­sive futures. The cho­sen breath of the top­ic encom­pass­es all types of envi­ron­ments that exist in our con­tem­po­rary world with the aim to high­light inter­sec­tion­al, inter‑, and trans­dis­ci­pli­nary pos­si­bil­i­ties and challenges.
This inter­na­tion­al hybrid con­fer­ence will offer an oppor­tu­ni­ty for PGRs to share their work, receive con­struc­tive feed­back, and engage in inter­dis­ci­pli­nary dis­cus­sions. Par­tic­i­pants will ben­e­fit from net­work­ing, skill devel­op­ment, and aca­d­e­m­ic exchange. We intend to pro­vide a sup­port­ive space to devel­op com­mu­ni­ty con­nec­tions and learn about the excit­ing work fel­low PGRs are pro­duc­ing. This event is open to all PGRs at any stage of their researchers and post-doc researchers from across the world. 

We wel­come a vari­ety of sub­mis­sion for­mats, includ­ing tra­di­tion­al research papers, cre­ative pre­sen­ta­tions, and prac­tice-based con­tri­bu­tions, embrac­ing diverse method­olog­i­cal approach­es. We encour­age con­tri­bu­tions that engage with empir­i­cal, the­o­ret­i­cal, method­olog­i­cal, or prac­tice-based per­spec­tives not only with­in dis­abil­i­ty stud­ies but from an inter- and trans­dis­ci­pli­nary perspective. 

Some pos­si­ble themes are: 

Inter- and trans­dis­ci­pli­nary approach­es to disability
Dis­abil­i­ty and dis­as­ter management
Dis­abil­i­ty in high­er education
Dis­abil­i­ty and green spaces
Dis­abil­i­ty and cre­ative spaces
Inclu­sive research practices 

We also wel­come any of your own top­ics linked to the broad­er over­all subject! 

Please fill out this form which requires a 300-word abstract, a 150-word bio­graph­i­cal state­ment, your insti­tu­tion­al affil­i­a­tion (if applic­a­ble), your pre­sen­ta­tion pref­er­ence (poster, paper, work­shop etc), pro­vi­sion­al online or in per­son atten­dance, and access needs. Alter­na­tive­ly, if this form is not acces­si­ble, please email this infor­ma­tion to CDSpostgraduates@leeds.ac.uk.

The clos­ing date for sub­mis­sions is 18:00 (GMT) 12th June 2025. 

Pro­vi­sion­al key dates (may be sub­ject to change)
Abstract sub­mis­sion deadline 

12th June 2025
Accep­tances com­mu­ni­cat­ed and reg­is­tra­tion opens 

27th June 2025
Reg­is­tra­tion closes 

15th August 2025
PGR conference 

17th Sep­tem­ber 2025 

More infor­ma­tion on the sub­mis­sion guide­lines and fur­ther details of the con­fer­ence will be updat­ed reg­u­lar­ly on https://disability-studies.leeds.ac.uk/events/pgrconference/

Please send any inquiries to CDSpostgraduates@leeds.ac.uk

We look for­ward to hear­ing from you! 

Ruby Good­ley (she/her); Johan­na Knebel (she/her)
CDS post­grad­u­ate representatives

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CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

CfP for Inter­gen­er­a­tional Dia­logue for Well-Being Futures: The­o­ries, Prac­tices, and Pol­i­cy Pathways

19 Sep­tem­ber 2025, Har­ris Man­ches­ter Col­lege, Uni­ver­si­ty of Oxford 

The Jour­nal of Dia­logue Stud­ies, in part­ner­ship with Glob­al Human­i­ty for Peace Insti­tute at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wales Trin­i­ty St David, the Guer­rand-Her­mès Foun­da­tion for Peace and UNESCO Col­lec­tive Heal­ing Ini­tia­tive, invites con­tri­bu­tions for a spe­cial issue explor­ing the role of inter­gen­er­a­tional dia­logue in shap­ing col­lec­tive well-being futures. 

We recog­nise that despite glob­al com­mit­ments to the UN Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals (SDGs), progress remains imped­ed by per­sis­tent bar­ri­ers, includ­ing trans­gen­er­a­tional trau­ma, struc­tur­al injus­tice, gen­der inequal­i­ty, lim­it­ed youth engage­ment, and frag­ment­ed polit­i­cal respons­es. In the face of these obsta­cles, inter­gen­er­a­tional dia­logue is increas­ing­ly impor­tant as it cre­ates facil­i­tat­ed spaces for the younger and old­er peo­ple to encounter and learn from each oth­er. Such dia­logue allows the com­mu­ni­ty to draw insights from mul­ti­ple gen­er­a­tions, diverse cul­tur­al tra­di­tions, and rich cos­mo­log­i­cal world­views towards build­ing bet­ter futures. 

This spe­cial issue is inspired by the pow­er and poten­tial of inter­gen­er­a­tional dia­logue. It is a response to the call of the Unit­ed Nations Pact for the Future, which under­scores the neces­si­ty of equi­table inter­gen­er­a­tional process­es and col­lab­o­ra­tive approach­es to mul­ti­lat­er­al gov­er­nance to ensure sus­tain­able peace, struc­tur­al jus­tice, and inclu­sive well-being. 

Call for Abstracts
Against this back­drop, this spe­cial issue seeks to explore inter­gen­er­a­tional dialogue’s trans­for­ma­tive poten­tial in the following:

1. The­o­ries and Prac­tices: How might we under­stand inter­gen­er­a­tional dia­logue as an eth­i­cal imper­a­tive, an epis­te­mo­log­i­cal frame­work, a method­olog­i­cal process, or a trans­for­ma­tive practice?

2. Mul­ti­lat­er­al Gov­er­nance: In what ways does inter­gen­er­a­tional dia­logue fos­ter glob­al col­lab­o­ra­tion and help tran­scend polit­i­cal fragmentation?

3. Knowl­edge Co-Cre­ation: How might inter­gen­er­a­tional dia­logue sup­port the trans­mis­sion of ances­tral and tra­di­tion­al wis­dom, pre­serve cul­tur­al resources, and strength­en com­mu­nal resilience?

4. Gen­der Equal­i­ty: In response to the UN Pact’s call for gen­der-inclu­sive gov­er­nance, how can inter­gen­er­a­tional dia­logue advance jus­tice-ori­ent­ed futures?

5. Pos­i­tive Peace: What can be learned from glob­al peace­build­ing efforts that inte­grate tra­di­tion­al, indige­nous, and com­mu­ni­ty-based inter­gen­er­a­tional dia­logue mech­a­nisms to sup­port trans­for­ma­tion and shared flourishing?

6. Dig­i­tal Spaces: How might dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies facil­i­tate, or hin­der, eth­i­cal, inclu­sive, and mean­ing­ful inter­gen­er­a­tional dia­logue in the shap­ing of future societies? 

We wel­come con­tri­bu­tions from schol­ars, prac­ti­tion­ers, and pol­i­cy­mak­ers that crit­i­cal­ly exam­ine the role of inter­gen­er­a­tional dia­logue in futures-form­ing efforts. Sub­mis­sions may include orig­i­nal research arti­cles, the­o­ret­i­cal or con­cep­tu­al essays, case stud­ies, and pol­i­cy reflections. 

The Work­shop

Short­list­ed abstracts will be devel­oped into a full paper, which will be pre­sent­ed at an inter­na­tion­al work­shop for peer-to-peer dia­logue. The event will be exten­sive­ly pub­li­cised with a spe­cial issue of the Jour­nal of Dia­logue Stud­ies Vol: 13 (2025) and a pos­si­bil­i­ty of an edit­ed book, which may fol­low in the next phase. We expect this issue to attract high-cal­i­bre papers that con­tribute to the field. 

Edi­to­r­i­al Board

• Prof Patrice Brodeur, Uni­ver­si­ty of Montreal

• Prof Scher­to R. Gill, Glob­al Human­i­ty for Peace Insti­tute, Uni­ver­si­ty of Wales, TSD 

• Dr Ryan O’Byrne, Glob­al Human­i­ty for Peace Insti­tute, Uni­ver­si­ty of Wales, TSD 

• Dr Ola Osman, Uni­ver­si­ty of Cam­bridge and Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto

• Prof Gar­rett Thom­son, Woost­er Col­lege and Guer­rand-Her­mes Foun­da­tion for Peace

• Emer­i­tus Prof Paul Weller, Uni­ver­si­ties of Der­by and Coven­try, and Regent’s Park Col­lege, Uni­ver­si­ty of Oxford 

Sched­ule for Submissions

Abstract
200–300 words max, with CVs (max 2‑page), includ­ing per­son­al state­ment, pub­li­ca­tions and work experience.

30 June 2025
Shortlisting
Abstracts to be short­list­ed by the Edi­to­r­i­al Board, and papers invited.

15 July 2025
Workshop
Select­ed abstracts will be invit­ed to a one-day work­shop at Har­ris Man­ches­ter Col­lege, Uni­ver­si­ty of Oxford.

19 Sept 2025
Full paper
4,000 words min­i­mum – 8,000 words max­i­mum, exclud­ing bibliography.

27 Oct 2025
Review
Papers reviewed by the Edi­to­r­i­al Board [classed as: Accept­ed – No Rec­om­men­da­tions; Accept­ed – See Rec­om­men­da­tions; Con­di­tion­al Accep­tance – See Rec­om­men­da­tions; Not Accepted].

24 Nov 2025
Revision
Authors to take peer review feed­back into account and resub­mit arti­cles. The out­come of the review (includ­ing any rec­om­men­da­tions for revi­sions or improve­ments) com­mu­ni­cat­ed to the authors by 15th Dec 2025.

8 Dec 2025
Final Paper
Any final amend­ments to papers to be submitted.

22 Dec 2025
The Spe­cial Issue will be pub­lished in Decem­ber 2025/January 2026.
Enquiries
Please send any queries to info@dialoguestudies.org and scherto.gill@uwtsd.ac.uk

Full Paper Sub­mis­sion Procedure

Full Papers should be sub­mit­ted in Eng­lish only, as MS Word doc­u­ments attached to an email to submission@dialoguestudies.org, no lat­er than 17:00 UK time, 27th Octo­ber 2025, in order to allow suf­fi­cient time for peer review. 

Man­u­scripts should be approx­i­mate­ly 4,000 to 8,000 words, exclud­ing the bib­li­og­ra­phy. Longer man­u­scripts will be con­sid­ered only in excep­tion­al cir­cum­stances. Arti­cles will be peer-reviewed by the mem­bers of the Edi­to­r­i­al Board and exter­nal expert review­ers (Ref­er­ees | Jour­nal of Dia­logue Stud­ies). Man­u­scripts should be pre­sent­ed in a form that meets the require­ments set out in the Journal’s Arti­cle Sub­mis­sion Guide­lines, pro­vid­ed here, and Style Guide, pro­vid­ed here. 

Copy­right

The copy­right of the papers accept­ed for the spe­cial issue will be vest­ed in the Dia­logue Society.

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Jahresta­gung der GWMT 2025 in Dres­den: „ANIMAL-BASED. His­torische Per­spek­tiv­en auf Tiere in Medi­zin, Wissenschaft
und Technik”

Der Vor­stand der Gesellschaft für die Geschichte der Wis­senschaften, der
Medi­zin und der Tech­nik e.V. (GWMT) lädt in Koop­er­a­tion mit der TU Dresden
zu Vor­trags- und Sek­tion­san­mel­dun­gen für die siebte Jahresta­gung der
Gesellschaft ein. Die Tagung find­et vom 24.–26. Sep­tem­ber 2025 in Dresden
statt und hat das Rahmenthema:

„ANIMAL-BASED. His­torische Per­spek­tiv­en auf Tiere in Medi­zin, Wissenschaft
und Technik”

Die Zucht, Hal­tung und Nutzung von Tieren zur Her­stel­lung von Lebensmitteln,
Tex­tilien und Medi­z­in­pro­duk­ten oder zur Gewin­nung wissenschaftlicher
Erken­nt­nisse sind heute eben­so ver­bre­it­et wie umstrit­ten. Aktuell lassen
sich gegen­läu­fige Trends beobacht­en: Ein­er­seits belegt und unter­läuft der
immer häu­figere Ver­merk „plant-based” auf Pro­duk­ten aller Art die
Selb­stver­ständlichkeit von „ani­mal-based” im glob­alen Nor­den und Westen.
Ander­er­seits begün­sti­gen Wirtschafts- und Wohl­standswach­s­tum in Län­dern des
glob­alen Südens und Ostens eine Ausweitung von Nutztier­hal­tung und ‑kon­sum.
Zudem erfahren Wildtiere und ihre Habi­tate, ihre Rolle bei Zoonosen, ihr
Vor­drin­gen in neue Räume oder ihre „Hybri­disierung” durch
tech­no-wis­senschaftliche Mod­i­fika­tio­nen des Gen­pools verstärkte
Aufmerksamkeit. 

Die inter­diszi­plinären Felder der Ani­mal Stud­ies und Mul­ti­species Studies
sind nicht zulet­zt durch geis­teswis­senschaftliche Impulse zum Ort des
Aus­tauschs über men­sch-tier-rel­e­vante Geschichts­forschung gewor­den. Im
Rück­griff auf Konzepte der Sci­ence Stud­ies der 1980er- und 1990er-Jahre
zeich­nen sich auch in der Wissenschafts‑, Medi­zin- und Technikgeschichte
zunehmend die Kon­turen ein­er von Tieren bewegten und belebten
Geschichtss­chrei­bung ab. Die Organisator:innen der GWMT-Tagung 2025 haken
hier ein und laden Forschende aus den Geistes‑, Kul­tur- und
Sozial­wis­senschaften sowie aus den Natur- bzw. Lebenswis­senschaften dazu
ein, ihre Pro­jek­te und Erken­nt­nisse zur his­torischen Rolle von
domes­tizierten, gezüchteten oder auch „wilden” Tieren in den Bereichen
Wis­senschaft, Medi­zin und Tech­nik vorzustellen. Uns inter­essieren Beiträge
aus allen Epochen und Weltregionen. 

Wieder­holte Pan­demien – die Influen­za von 1918, neuere Vogel- und
Schweine­grip­pen, Covid-19 – erin­nern neb­st endemis­chen Zoonosen wie Malaria
an die geschichtsmächtige Koevo­lu­tion von Tierkrankheit­en, Tiergesundheit,
Human­medi­zin und Hygiene. Vor diesem Hin­ter­grund sind Forschun­gen, die dem
One-Health-Ansatz fol­gen und etwa die Umwelt­be­zo­gen­heit von Tierseuchen in
den Blick nehmen, hochwillkommen. 

In der Tech­nik- und Mobil­itäts­geschichte seit der Indus­tri­al­isierung werden
Tiere in ihrem Ver­hält­nis zu Men­schen und Maschi­nen in den Blick genommen.
Dabei inter­essiert die Co-Agency von Tieren und Men­schen bei Arbeitsleistung
und Trans­port – in Land­wirtschaft, Gewerbe, Berg­bau, Per­so­n­en- und
Güter­verkehr – bis weit ins 20. Jahrhun­dert. Aber auch in Antike,
Mit­te­lal­ter und Früher Neuzeit wurde Wis­sen über Tiere erzeugt, das für die
Wissenschafts‑, Medi­zin- und Tech­nikgeschichte rel­e­vant ist, man denke etwa
an die Arbeit­sleis­tung der Nutztiere, tierische Mate­ria med­ica oder
Tier­meta­phern in den Wissenschaften.

Von Inter­esse ist auch, wie Men­sch-Tier-Inter­ak­tio­nen die Entwicklung
wis­senschaftlich-tech­nol­o­gis­ch­er Mess­größen sowie von Gerätschaften jenseits
von Fahrzeu­gen und Las­ten­trans­port geformt haben und wie tierliche
Eigen­schaften und Fähigkeit­en im Sinne ein­er frühen Bionik nutzbar gemacht
wurden.

Ein Desider­at stellt zudem die Auseinan­der­set­zung mit Tieren als
indus­triell-gewerbliche Rohstoff­ba­sis in der Mod­erne dar. Ob es um Waltran
als Lam­p­enöl ging, um Rinder­häute für die Led­er­pro­duk­tion oder um Gelatine
für die Lebens­mit­tel- und Fotoin­dus­trie: Solche Ver­fahren wur­den von
inge­nieur- oder biowis­senschaftlichen, vet­er­inärmedi­zinis­chen oder
hygien­isch-infek­ti­ol­o­gis­chen Forschun­gen begleit­et. Welche Verbindun­gen oder
Diskon­ti­nu­itäten ergeben sich hier etwa zu vor­mod­er­nen „Tier­stoff-Gewer­ben”
sowie zur Jagd nach und Hal­tung von Pelztieren?

Die Frage nach der ethis­chen Zuläs­sigkeit ein­er Aus­beu­tung tierlicher
Ressourcen sowie die Diskus­sion über das Konzept des Speziesis­mus verweisen
auf aktuelle Kon­flik­t­felder, deren his­torische Dimen­sion auszuleucht­en wäre.
Dabei gilt es gle­ichzeit­ig zu beacht­en, dass Tiere nicht nur als Tech­nik und
wis­senschaftliche Objek­te funk­tion­al­isiert wur­den. Vielmehr haben sie mit
ihren spez­i­fis­chen Eige­narten, Kom­pe­ten­zen und Widerständigkeiten
men­schliche Hand­lungsspiel­räume erweit­ert oder eingeschränkt.

Mit solchen Per­spek­tivierun­gen möchte die GWMT-Tagung 2025 anre­gen, in allen
Bere­ichen der Geschichtswis­senschaft nach tierischen Leer­stellen zu forschen
und diese mit empirisch oder konzep­tionell angelegten Stu­di­en zu
unter­suchen. Lei­t­end kön­nten fol­gende Fra­gen sein:

- Welche Begriffe und Konzepte sind in beson­derem Maße dazu geeignet,
his­torische Men­sch-Tier-Ver­hält­nisse in Wis­senschaft, Tech­nik und Medi­zin zu
erforschen?
– Welche Verbindun­gen und neue Ein­sicht­en zwis­chen Wis­senschaft, Medizin &
Tech­nik wer­den sicht­bar, wenn Tiere im Zen­trum der Analyse stehen?
– Ver­mag eine solche Men­sch-Tier-Geschichte die Auseinan­der­set­zung mit
über­ge­ord­neten Forschungs­diskus­sio­nen „Kolo­nial­is­mus, Postkolo­nial­is­mus und
Anthro­pozän” zu erweit­ern und zu bereichern?

Erwün­scht sind Einzel­beiträge und Bewer­bun­gen für ganze Sek­tio­nen. Auch
Beiträge, die sich mit der Vor­mod­erne und mit Ver­hält­nis­sen außerhalb
Europas und Nor­damerikas befassen, sind sehr willkom­men. Darüber hinaus
kön­nen auch Vorschläge für Vorträge und Sek­tio­nen, die sich nicht auf das
Rah­men­the­ma beziehen, ein­gere­icht werden.

Einzelvorträge sollen nicht länger als 20 Minuten dauern. Sek­tio­nen bestehen
entwed­er aus vier Vorträ­gen oder drei Vorträ­gen mit Kom­men­tar und umfassen
inkl. Diskus­sion 120 Minuten. Die Abstracts sollen pro Einzelvor­trag etwa
eine halbe Seite Länge umfassen; bei Sek­tio­nen ist neben den Abstracts der
Einzelvorträge eine kurze Ein­führung in die Sek­tion einzure­ichen. Bei
gle­ich­er Qual­ität wer­den Sek­tio­nen, die akademis­che Generationen
überspan­nen, bevorzugt. 

Reichen Sie Vorschläge für Sek­tio­nen oder Einzelvorträge bis zum 28.02.2025
über das Online-Ein­sende­for­mu­lar auf:
https://www.gwmt.de/veranstaltungen/aktuelle-jahrestagung/ ein.

Bitte beacht­en Sie: Dies ist eine Präsen­z­ta­gung; Aus­nah­men sind
auss­chließlich zum Zwecke der Bar­ri­ere­frei­heit möglich.

Kon­takt: Gisela Hür­li­mann, Flo­ri­an Bruns und Dorit Brix­ius, TU Dresden,
gwmt25@tu-dresden.de

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DTPPP Fly­er 18. Kongress

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CfP for Pan­el: “Enact­ing Hope and Desire in Men­tal Health­care: Dis­cur­sive Prac­tices and Ther­a­peu­tic Implications”
Fifth SIAC Nation­al Con­fer­ence “HOPE / DESPAIR / DESIRE” organ­ised by the Ital­ian Soci­ety of Cul­tur­al Anthro­pol­o­gy (SIAC) in the stun­ning city of Mat­era, 25–27 Sep­tem­ber 2025.

Pan­el 14 / SIAC 2025 • SIAC Soci­età ital­iana di antropolo­gia culturale

Pan­el Convenors:

Giu­lia Sci­ol­li, Ital­ian Nation­al Research Coun­cil (CNR)

Rober­ta Mar­ti­na Zagarel­la , Ital­ian Nation­al Research Coun­cil (CNR)

Abstract:

The role of hope and desire for life as “prac­ticed” in ther­a­peu­tic set­tings, as fac­tors shap­ing treat­ment even in sit­u­a­tions that seem to only allow for despair, has been wide­ly explored for con­di­tions like can­cer and chron­ic dis­abil­i­ties (e.g. Mat­ting­ly 1998, 2010). This anthro­po­log­i­cal lit­er­a­ture has shown that hope and desire are con­tin­u­ous­ly con­struct­ed and fos­tered through the dis­cours­es and prac­tices of pro­fes­sion­al and fam­i­ly car­ers. Less atten­tion has been giv­en to men­tal health set­tings, where despair is often per­ceived more as part of the con­di­tion being treat­ed and, grad­u­al­ly, of the very per­son who suf­fers, than as a con­se­quence of an ‘exter­nal’ dis­ease. What Mat­ting­ly (2010: 5) calls “a para­dox­i­cal bor­der prac­tice” (hope for a life beyond or notwith­stand­ing ill­ness) is there­fore even more para­dox­i­cal in men­tal health­care, espe­cial­ly for con­di­tions deemed chron­ic. And yet hope has been found to char­ac­terise recov­ery nar­ra­tives, ther­a­peu­tic rela­tion­ships and treat­ment engage­ment (Long­hofer and Flo­er­sch 2010; Mur­phy et al. 2024; Van Don­gen 1998). This pan­el wel­comes sub­mis­sions that, based on ethno­graph­ic research con­duct­ed among patients, health­care pro­fes­sion­als and/or fam­i­ly car­ers in spe­cif­ic strands of men­tal health­care, show how the dis­cur­sive con­struc­tions and enact­ments of hope and desire for life func­tion as ther­a­peu­tic tools or as points of ten­sion in care, illu­mi­nat­ing their trans­for­ma­tive poten­tial but also their lim­i­ta­tions and eth­i­cal complexities.

Key­words: hope, desire, men­tal health­care, dis­course, practice

We wel­come con­tri­bu­tions in Ital­ian and/or English 🙂

To sub­mit a con­tri­bu­tion, please send an email to: giulia.sciolli@cnr.it and robertamartina.zagarella@cnr.it by June 2, 2025 attach­ing a Word doc­u­ment containing:

Name of author(s)
Affiliation
Pan­el num­ber and title
Paper title
Abstract (1500 char­ac­ters max)

The pan­el will host a max­i­mum of eight papers organ­ised in two ses­sions, which will last 1 hour and 45 min­utes each to allow enough time for ques­tions and discussion.

Authors will be noti­fied of acceptance/rejection/possible relo­ca­tion of sub­mit­ted pro­pos­als by June 16, and the full pro­gramme of the con­fer­ence will be avail­able July 15.

N.B. SIAC believes in shar­ing knowl­edge and in main­tain­ing an inclu­sive sci­en­tif­ic com­mu­ni­ty. SIAC Con­fer­ences are open and free for both speak­ers and the pub­lic. No reg­is­tra­tion or mem­ber­ship fee is required to attend.

More info on the gen­er­al con­fer­ence theme can be found here (see sec­ond half of the page for Eng­lish descrip­tion): SPERARE / DISPERARE / DESIDERARE • SIAC Soci­età ital­iana di antropolo­gia culturale

For fur­ther logis­ti­cal infor­ma­tion on the con­fer­ence you can email: convegno.siac.2025@gmail.com

We look for­ward to receiv­ing your abstracts!

Giu­lia Sci­ol­li and Rober­ta Mar­ti­na Zagarella

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Das Insti­tut für Geschichte der Phar­mazie und Medi­zin wird 60 Jahre alt. Aus diesem Anlass lädt es her­zlich ein zu einem Sym­po­sium am 12. Okto­ber 2025.
Final_Flugblatt_Jubiläumsfeier

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2025–10_WS.CommunityProtection_Call for Abstracts

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Call for papers for a spe­cial issue on: Con­tem­po­rary Changes in Med­ical­ly Assist­ed Repro­duc­tion: The Role of Social Inequal­i­ty and Social Norms
Social Inclu­sion Journal

Dead­line for Abstracts: 15.10.2025
Dead­line for Papers: 30.03.2025

Social Inclu­sion, peer-reviewed jour­nal indexed in the Social Sci­ences Cita­tion Index (Web of Sci­ence; Impact Fac­tor: 1.4) and Sco­pus (CiteScore: 3.5), wel­comes new and excit­ing research papers for its upcom­ing issue „Con­tem­po­rary Changes in Med­ical­ly Assist­ed Repro­duc­tion: The Role of Social Inequal­i­ty and Social Norms,” edit­ed by Anne-Kristin Kuh­nt, Jörg Rös­sel, and Heike Trappe.

Since, in 1978, the first baby con­ceived by in vit­ro fer­til­iza­tion was born, fur­ther tech­no­log­i­cal advances, like egg freez­ing, pre-implan­ta­tion diag­nos­tics, and gene edit­ing (CRISPR) have rev­o­lu­tion­ized the con­di­tions for human fer­til­i­ty. This the­mat­ic issue focus­es on how the social con­text, in par­tic­u­lar social inequal­i­ties and social norms, shapes atti­tudes towards these tech­nolo­gies, their use, and their impact. We are inter­est­ed in arti­cles that explore how atti­tudes and pub­lic dis­course on these tech­nolo­gies are shaped by pre­vail­ing gen­der norms and moral ori­en­ta­tions in societies.

Authors inter­est­ed in sub­mit­ting a paper to this issue are encour­aged to read the full call for papers here

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Call_for_papers poster

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CfP for a pan­el on “Shift­ing states and their his­to­ries in insti­tu­tion­al care”
Anthrostate con­fer­ence “Shift­ing States”
22–24 Octo­ber, 2025
Ams­ter­dam, Netherlands 

✨No reg­is­tra­tion fee, in-per­son only. (EASA net­work on Anthro­polo­gies of the State conference)

If the pan­el abstract below res­onates with your research and you would like to join a bunch of friend­ly peo­ple, please send your abstract to Kris­tine Krause k.krause@uva.nl

The final pan­el includ­ing abstracts need to be sub­mit­ted 11 April, so we would like have your abstract the lat­est 9th April.

Junior and PhD researchers par­tic­u­lar­ly welcome.

Look­ing for­ward to hear­ing from you!

Shift­ing states and their his­to­ries in insti­tu­tion­al care

The anthro­pol­o­gy of the state has long argued that states do not exist as coher­ent units out there but are artic­u­lat­ed in prac­tices, spaces and effects. One of the key spaces in which states have effects on their cit­i­zens are care insti­tu­tions. They respond to cru­cial needs of humans; for instance as places where sick­ness­es are treat­ed and frail bod­ies are tak­en care of. They can also curate major tran­si­tions such as birth and death. Care insti­tu­tions such as hos­pi­tals or nurs­ing homes are places defined by par­tic­u­lar and per­sis­tent forms of inter­ac­tion. These forms – where and how things are done, when and by whom – have often coag­u­lat­ed over time. They are backed up by legit­i­ma­tions which are not easy to ques­tion, because they are part of oth­er non-tan­gi­ble soci­etal insti­tu­tions, such as gen­dered divi­sion of labour, kin­ship and fam­i­ly ide­olo­gies which are spe­cif­ic to his­tor­i­cal­ly grown care and health regimes. These regimes as part of state gov­er­nance can bear traces of pasts such as colo­nial rule, polit­i­cal regimes shifts or spe­cif­ic biopo­lit­i­cal projects of care and con­trol. Insti­tu­tion­al care can also be pro­vid­ed by non-state actors on behalf of the state includ­ing non-prof­it, reli­gious or char­i­ty organ­i­sa­tions but also com­mer­cial or even cor­po­ra­tized actors. The rea­sons why these actors per­form or have tak­en over these tasks, have again their own his­to­ries often relat­ed to shifts in ways of gov­er­nance of wel­fare state regimes.

This pan­el brings togeth­er papers that explore how shift­ing states and their his­to­ries come back resur­face, or take unex­pect­ed forms with­in the spaces and prac­tices of insti­tu­tion­al care. The papers exam­ine how his­tor­i­cal lega­cies shape and haunt care­giv­ing inter­ac­tions, insti­tu­tion­al rou­tines, and the nar­ra­tives and posi­tion­al­i­ties of those involved in these care set­tings. In ask­ing how these pasts are artic­u­lat­ed, linger on or are rep­re­sent­ed in care insti­tu­tions this pan­el under­stands his­to­ry not as some­thing wait­ing to be dis­cov­ered in the back­ground, but as active­ly brought up, mobi­lized and pre­sent­ed in the field or artic­u­lat­ed by the ethno­g­ra­ph­er. The past then becomes “his­to­ry” through prac­tices of actors in the field or through the ana­lyt­i­cal work of the ethno­g­ra­ph­er who iden­ti­fies his­to­ry as an absent pres­ence in the stud­ied sit­u­a­tion or prac­tice. The paper in this pan­el inter­ro­gate the con­sti­tu­tive moments where his­to­ry appears, or is brought up in insti­tu­tion­al care set­tings, ask­ing, which posi­tion­ings, gen­er­a­tional mem­o­ries and nar­ra­tives become artic­u­lat­ed therein.

Orga­nized by the Relo­Care Team & friends from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Amsterdam
(Mar­iusz Sapieha, Matouš Jelínek, Veroni­ka Priel­er, Sha­hana Sid­diqui , Yuan Yan and Kris­tine Krause)

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CfP fpr Spe­cial Issue: Curare Teach­ing Forum
Dead­line for sub­mis­sions: Octo­ber 20, 2025

In issue 48(2025)2 of Curare, we will con­tin­ue our Teach­ing Forum series in form of a spe­cial issue and there­fore ask med­ical anthro­pol­o­gists about the texts, books, films or oth­er media that they like to use in teach­ing. We are inter­est­ed in the fol­low­ing questions: 

* Why is your favourite text or medi­um espe­cial­ly suit­able for teach­ing med­ical anthropology?
* What can be demon­strat­ed or dis­cussed par­tic­u­lar­ly well using the text or medi­um in question?
The for­mat of the texts are open, they could include short essay­is­tic texts, the­o­ret­i­cal review arti­cles and per­son­al reviews of many years of teach­ing experience. 

Any­one inter­est­ed in writ­ing a text in Ger­man or Eng­lish is wel­come to con­tact the edi­to­r­i­al board at curareteachingforum@agem.de.

Please find for­mer con­tri­bu­tions to the Curare Teach­ing Forum at the fol­low­ing links:

Eit­en­berg­er, Mag­dale­na & Lehn­er, Lisa 2022. Teach­ing Mul­ti­plic­i­ties. Von der Arbeit mit mul­ti­me­di­alen Arbeit­en. Curare 45, 2: 101–105: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1480/1500

Olarte-Sier­ra, María Fer­nan­da 2022. On Bod­ies and Our Own Bod­ies. Care and ­ Vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty When Teach­ing about Death and Loss. Curare 45, 2: 106–109: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1481/1525.

Betsch­er, Silke & Falge, Chris­tiane 2021. Kol­lab­o­ra­tiv und Online Forschen mit Studieren­den und Stadtteilforscher*innen in Zeit­en von Coro­na. Curare 44, 1–4: 176–179: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/15860

Wolf, Ange­li­ka 2021. The Spir­it Catch­es You and You Fall Down. Die Fasz­i­na­tion ethno­grafis­ch­er Fall­beispiele in der Lehre. Curare 44, 1–4: 180–183: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1587.

Irwin, Rachel 2020. Covi­dog­ra­phy. Teach­ing Ethno­graph­ic Meth­ods in a Pan­dem­ic. Curare 43, 1–4: 152–155: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1537.

Jäger, Mar­gret & Wächter, Afsaneh 2020. Teach­ing Med­ical Anthro­pol­o­gy in Front of the Screen. A Short Essay on Online Teach­ing With Med­ical Stu­dents Dur­ing Sum­mer Term 2020 in Aus­tria. Curare 43, 1–4: 156–159: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1538.

Jäger, Mar­gret (2020). Zu Besuch beim Hausarzt. Dr. Peri­no über die Schul­ter schauen. Curare 43, 1–4: 160–162: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1539.

Klinke, Nola; Brown, Shan-Estelle; Althuis, Aj; Math­ews, Jana; Namin­git, Sheryll; Pieczyn­s­ki, Jay Rollins; Rus­sel, Emi­ly Rollins & San­ti­a­go-Nar­vaez, Bren­dal­iz 2020. Teach­ing COVID-19 in a Mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary Team. Empha­siz­ing Holism and the Rel­e­vance of Anthro­pol­o­gy. Curare 43, 1–4: 163–67: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1540.

Stei­gler, Kathrin 2020. Medi­zin­sys­teme in Afri­ka. Kom­mu­nika­tion­s­the­o­retis­che und kul­tur­al­is­muskri­tis­che Per­spek­tiv­en. Curare 43, 1–4: 168–171: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1541.

Krause, Jan­i­na 2020. „The Egg and the Sperm“. Zur Gemachtheit biol­o­gis­ch­er Wis­sens­bestände über Geschlecht. Curare 43, 1–4: 172–174: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1542.

Wolff, Eber­hard, Der Benjamin’sche „Chock“ in der Lehrdi­dak­tik. Curare 43 (2020) 1–4: 175–176: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1543.

Ame­lang, Katrin 2019. Ray­na Rapp’s „Real-Time Fetus“. Aktuell gebliebene Denkanstöße eines fem­i­nis­tisch-medi­z­inan­thro­pol­o­gis­chen Blicks auf Ultra­schall­bilder in der Prä­na­tal­diag­nos­tik. Curare 42, 1+2: 91–93: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1631.

Keck, Ver­e­na 2019. Von bali­ne­sis­chen Heil­ern zu ART und „cyborgs“. Eine Ein­führung zur Band­bre­ite und Rel­e­vanz der Medi­zineth­nolo­gie. Curare 42, 1+2: 94–95: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1632.

Park, Sung-Joon. Think­ing-with favorite reads in the anthro­pol­o­gy of glob­al health and envi­ron­men­tal health. Curare 42, 1+2: 96–100: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1633.

Eeuwijk, Peter van 2019. Von Ayahuas­ca bis Crit­i­cal Glob­al Health. Wan­del und Beständigkeit in der medi­zineth­nol­o­gis­chen Lehre. Curare 42, 1+2: 101–105: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1634.

Rehs­mann, Julia 2019. Food for (Stu­dents’) Thought. Graph­ic Nov­els in der medi­z­inan­thro­pol­o­gis­chen Lehre. Curare 42, 1+2: 106–108: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1635.

Simon, Michael 2019. Arthur E. Imhofs Arbeit­en zur His­torischen Demogra­phie. In Curare 42, 1+2: 109–112: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1636.

Wöh­lke, Sabine 2019. Todo sobre mi madre. Ein Filmtipp für medi­z­inan­thro­pol­o­gis­che und ‑ethis­che Lehre zum The­ma Organtrans­plan­ta­tion. Curare 42, 1+2: 113–116: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1637.

Kind regards from the
Curare Edi­to­r­i­al Board

Curare. Zeitschrift für Medizinethnologie
Curare. Jour­nal of Med­ical Anthropology

found­ed in 1978, bilin­gual (Ger­man, English)

edit­ed by
Arbeits­ge­mein­schaft Eth­nolo­gie und Medi­zin (AGEM)
Asso­ci­a­tion for Anthro­pol­o­gy and Med­i­cine (AGEM)
Fol­low us on Instagram

https://curarejournal.org

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CfP for pan­el ‚The Bur­den of Respon­si­bil­i­ty? Ethics, Pow­er and Prac­tice in Care Settings’
World Anthro­po­log­i­cal Union (WAU) 2025 Congress
Novem­ber in Antigua, Guatemala

The Con­gress allows both online and face-to-face par­tic­i­pa­tion and we would love to receive your proposals

Dead­line for sub­mis­sion is May 3rd, 2025. More infor­ma­tion about sub­mis­sion here: Here you can find infor­ma­tion about sub­mis­sion: https://www.waucongress2025.org/call-for-papers/

The Bur­den of Respon­si­bil­i­ty? Ethics, Pow­er, and Prac­tice in Care Settings

Abstract
Med­ical anthro­pol­o­gists have long inter­ro­gat­ed the mean­ings and prac­tices of care, from inti­mate forms of care­giv­ing to insti­tu­tion­al sys­tems that admin­is­ter and with­hold care (Klein­man 1997; Mol 2008). Like­wise, respon­si­bil­i­ty with­in health set­tings has been exam­ined in terms of blame, account­abil­i­ty, and moral oblig­a­tion (Farmer 2004; Fassin 2012; Demi­an, Fuman­ti, Lyn­teris 2023). How­ev­er, we think that the inter­sec­tion of the­o­ries of care and of respon­si­bil­i­ty could ben­e­fit from fur­ther explo­ration. We begin by ask­ing: What do we mean when we speak of respon­si­bil­i­ty in con­texts of care? We encour­age con­trib­u­tors to crit­i­cal­ly reflect on the speci­fici­ties that the term ‚respon­si­bil­i­ty’ assumes in care set­tings com­pared to oth­er con­texts, as well as on the ambi­gu­i­ties and dif­fi­cul­ties involved in defin­ing what respon­si­bil­i­ty con­sists of in such set­tings. How are prac­tices of care entan­gled with respon­si­bil­i­ties, both assumed and imposed? How do indi­vid­u­als and insti­tu­tions nego­ti­ate the bur­den of care, and who is deemed respon­si­ble when care falls short or results in harm? What hap­pens when respon­si­bil­i­ty is frag­ment­ed or resist­ed, and how are these process­es shaped by pow­er rela­tions, gen­dered expec­ta­tions, and neolib­er­al policies?
This pan­el seeks con­tri­bu­tions that inves­ti­gate the inter­sec­tions of care and respon­si­bil­i­ty in health con­texts glob­al­ly. We invite paper pro­pos­als focus­ing on the intri­cate and often con­test­ed rela­tion­ship between care and respon­si­bil­i­ty with­in (but not lim­it­ed to) health and heal­ing prac­tices. In an era marked by increas­ing­ly com­plex health sys­tems, struc­tur­al inequal­i­ties, and glob­al crises, the ethics and pol­i­tics of care have tak­en on renewed sig­nif­i­cance. At the same time, notions of respon­si­bil­i­ty are being rede­fined, dis­trib­uted, and resist­ed across mul­ti­ple actors, includ­ing patients, fam­i­lies, health­care pro­fes­sion­als, com­mu­ni­ties, and states
We encour­age sub­mis­sions that crit­i­cal­ly exam­ine the ways in which care is both an eth­i­cal prac­tice and a site of pow­er, and how respon­si­bil­i­ty is ascribed, inter­nal­ized, or con­test­ed in dif­fer­ent med­ical and socio-polit­i­cal landscapes.

We wel­come papers engag­ing with, but not lim­it­ed to, the fol­low­ing themes:

- Moral economies of care and the dis­tri­b­u­tion of respon­si­bil­i­ty (Mol 2008; Han 2012);
‑Care work and the bur­dens of respon­si­bil­i­ty with­in fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties (Tick­tin 2011; The­len 2015);
‑Inter­sec­tions between care, respon­si­bil­i­ty and gen­dered expec­ta­tions (Glenn 2012);
‑Insti­tu­tion­al care prac­tices and sys­temic fail­ures in assum­ing respon­si­bil­i­ty (Gar­cia 2010; Liv­ingston 2012);
‑The impact of neolib­er­al reforms and poli­cies on shap­ing respon­si­bil­i­ties (Muehle­bach 2012);
– Health poli­cies and the del­e­ga­tion of respon­si­bil­i­ty to patients and care­givers (Biehl 2013);
– Indige­nous, fem­i­nist, and decolo­nial per­spec­tives on care and respon­si­bil­i­ty (Brig­gs and Man­ti­ni-Brig­gs 2003; Puig de la Bel­la­casa 2017);
– The role of the state in care pro­vi­sion and the pol­i­tics of neglect (Das 2015; Red­field 2013);
– Glob­al health inter­ven­tions and transna­tion­al respon­si­bil­i­ties (Nguyen 2010; Adams 2016).

More info at https://www.waucongress2025.org/panel/?id=892

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As part of the „Age­ing and Life­course” IUAES affil­i­a­tion, we are pleased to announce that the Call for Papers for the World Anthro­po­log­i­cal Union (WAU) 2025 Con­gress is now open! The Con­gress will take place in a hybrid format—both onsite in Antigua, Guatemala, and online—from Novem­ber 3–8, 2025. More info here: https://www.waucongress2025.org/call-for-papers/

Anthro­po­log­i­cal Per­spec­tives on Well-being (Track 13)

Both qual­i­ty of life and people’s abil­i­ty to con­tribute towards mean­ing and pur­pose in every­day life are essen­tial in under­stand­ing well-being (WHO, 2021). Nonethe­less, it has pri­mar­i­ly been approached through a bio­med­ical lens, fore­ground­ing phys­i­cal health and dis­ease pre­ven­tion. Although there is a grow­ing recog­ni­tion of the psy­cho­log­i­cal and social aspects of well-being (and, by that exten­sion, health), these aspects remain under­mined. At the same time, there have been numer­ous shifts and con­ti­nu­ities with increas­ing health inequal­i­ties in glob­al health gov­er­nance and health-relat­ed knowl­edge pro­duc­tion expe­ri­enced across the life course. For instance, well-being is increas­ing­ly medi­at­ed through dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies, leisure activ­i­ties, and con­sumer mar­kets. To empha­sise the deeply embed­ded nature of well-being and health in cul­tur­al, polit­i­cal, and his­tor­i­cal con­texts, there is a des­per­ate need to probe new­er approach­es to holis­tic social and cul­tur­al deter­mi­nants of health and the over­all well-being of indi­vid­u­als and populations.

This pan­el aims to crit­i­cal­ly engage with med­ical plu­ral­ism, struc­tur­al inequal­i­ties, care­giv­ing prac­tices, and new infra­struc­tures catered to well-being, and biopo­lit­i­cal dimen­sions of well-being and health. We invite papers that focus on the lived expe­ri­ences of ill­ness, care­giv­ing, eth­i­cal dilem­mas in med­i­cine and dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies, and the role of the state and mar­kets in shap­ing well-being and health in con­tem­po­rary soci­eties. By bring­ing togeth­er schol­ars work­ing broad­ly in (but not lim­it­ed to) Med­ical Anthro­pol­o­gy, this pan­el aims to fos­ter dis­cus­sions on how med­ical cul­tures, the tech­no­log­i­cal turn, and cap­i­tal flows shape over­all well-being and health out­comes, influ­ence care­giv­ing and cre­ate new real­i­ties. Over­all, we are inter­est­ed in the inter­sec­tion of med­ical anthro­pol­o­gy, med­ical sys­tems and polit­i­cal econ­o­my, espe­cial­ly con­cern­ing pop­u­la­tions in the mar­gins (e.g. age­ing pop­u­la­tions, dis­abled bod­ies, indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties, and others).

This leads us to such impor­tant ques­tions, like:

1. How do expe­ri­ences (struc­tur­al inequal­i­ties and care­giv­ing respon­si­bil­i­ties) through­out the life course shape meaning(s) and experience(s) of well-being?
2. Do glob­al health poli­cies rein­force or chal­lenge exist­ing health inequal­i­ties (espe­cial­ly in the wake of grow­ing pan­demics and epi­demics) and their inter­ac­tion with his­tor­i­cal and polit­i­cal con­texts in (re)defining med­ical pluralism?
3. How do dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies medi­ate the expe­ri­ence of well-being among mar­gin­alised sec­tions? Does it con­tribute towards grow­ing social inequal­i­ties in health­care across the world?
4. How do non-med­ical spaces (leisure, com­mu­ni­ty clubs, online groups) con­tribute towards improved health out­comes, and what pol­i­cy impli­ca­tions do they hold for indi­vid­u­als across age groups and societies?
5. What could be the method­olog­i­cal pos­si­bil­i­ties for under­stand­ing lives in grow­ing com­mod­i­fied and mar­ke­tised ideals of well-being (well-ness indus­tries, self-care markets)?
We look for­ward to bring­ing togeth­er ethno­graph­ic, his­tor­i­cal and the­o­ret­i­cal con­tri­bu­tions from anthro­pol­o­gy, soci­ol­o­gy, pub­lic health, and allied dis­ci­plines. Papers address­ing region­al or transna­tion­al dynam­ics of health and med­i­cine from the Glob­al South are encouraged.

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CfP for Pan­el „Rethink­ing health in the face of the bioso­cial chal­lenges of the Capitalo/Anthropocene”
World Anthro­po­log­i­cal Union (WAU) Congress
Novem­ber 3–8, 2025.
Antigua, Guatemala, and online

Sub­mis­sion Dead­line: May 3, 2025

Pan­el: Rethink­ing health in the face of the bioso­cial chal­lenges of the Capitalo/Anthropocene

Info: https://www.waucongress2025.org/panel/?id=315
World Anthro­po­log­i­cal Union (WAU) 2025 Con­gress – Unearthing Human­i­ty: Crit­i­cal and Urgent Epis­temic Rede­f­i­n­i­tions in World Anthropologies

Pan­el Abstract
(Non-) human pop­u­la­tions are inter­twined with indus­tri­al sub­stances with health impacts. Bio­physic­o­chem­i­cal trans­for­ma­tions are accom­pa­nied by biopo­lit­i­cal process­es that fos­ter inequal­i­ties and psy­choso­cial suf­fer­ing, chal­leng­ing the epis­temic, onto­log­i­cal and eth­i­cal premis­es of anthro­pol­o­gy. How does the anthropocene/capitalocene rethink stud­ies from med­ical anthro­pol­o­gy and how does this sub­dis­ci­pline ques­tion and/or inter­pret the cur­rent epoch?

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CfP for Pan­el: „Rethink­ing health in the face of the bioso­cial chal­lenges of the Capitalo/Anthropocene”
World Anthro­po­log­i­cal Union (WAU) Con­gress, which will take place as a hybrid con­gress in Antigua, Guatemala, Novem­ber 3–8, 2025

Info: https://www.waucongress2025.org/panel/?id=315
World Anthro­po­log­i­cal Union (WAU) 2025 Con­gress – Unearthing Human­i­ty: Crit­i­cal and Urgent Epis­temic Rede­f­i­n­i­tions in World Anthropologies 

Pan­el Abstract: (Non-) human pop­u­la­tions are inter­twined with indus­tri­al sub­stances with health impacts. Bio­physic­o­chem­i­cal trans­for­ma­tions are accom­pa­nied by biopo­lit­i­cal process­es that fos­ter inequal­i­ties and psy­choso­cial suf­fer­ing, chal­leng­ing the epis­temic, onto­log­i­cal and eth­i­cal premis­es of anthro­pol­o­gy. How does the anthropocene/capitalocene rethink stud­ies from med­ical anthro­pol­o­gy and how does this sub­dis­ci­pline ques­tion and/or inter­pret the cur­rent epoch?

Sub­mis­sion Dead­line: May 3, 2025

Con­tact:
Ivana Teix­eira: ivanasteixeira@gmail.com
Lau­ra Mon­te­si: laumontesi@gmail.com

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Call for Papers für die inter­diszi­plinäre Fach­ta­gung „Heil und Heilung. Zwis­chen The­olo­gie, Pop­u­lar­fröm­migkeit und Medizin”

Die Kom­mis­sion für Reli­giosität und Spir­i­tu­al­ität in der DGEVW ver­anstal­tet die Tagung in Koop­er­a­tion mit der Evan­ge­lis­chen Erwach­se­nen­bil­dung Mün­ster und dem Muse­um Relí­gio in Tel­gte. Sie wird vom 20. bis 22. Novem­ber 2025 im Muse­um Relí­gio in Tel­gte stattfinden.

Der Aufruf richtet sich sowohl an etablierte an Wissenschaftler*innen als auch an den akademis­chen Nach­wuchs aus Forschung und Kul­turin­sti­tu­tio­nen. Da alle Beiträge der Tagung in einem Sam­mel­band pub­liziert wer­den, sollen ins­beson­dere neue oder diskus­sion­swürdi­ge Forschungsergeb­nisse präsen­tiert wer­den. Kurze Abstracts vom max­i­mal 5.000 Zeichen mit ein­er Kurzvi­ta senden Sie bitte bis zum 11. Mai an fol­gende Adresse : Heike.Plass@ev-kirchenkreis-muenster.de oder anja.schoene@telgte.de. Die Auswahl wird bis zum 30. Mai 2025 getroffen.

Die Coro­na-Pan­demie hat Vorstel­lun­gen von Krankheit als Sünde oder Strafe her­vorgerufen, die spätestens seit der Mitte des 20. Jahrhun­dert als the­ol­o­gisch über­holt gel­ten. Im Dom­ra­dio wurde 2020 gefragt: Gibt es eine religiöse Dimen­sion von Krankheit­en? Peter Schal­len­berg, Pro­fes­sor für Moralthe­olo­gie an der The­ol­o­gis­chen Fakultät Pader­born, antwortete: „Wir wür­den heute sagen: Krankheit und Lei­den sind keine Sün­den­strafen, son­dern sind Ereignisse, die zum natur­wis­senschaftlichen Bere­ich des Men­schen und unser­er Welt gehören (…).“ Nichts­destotrotz pil­gern etwa 6 Mil­lio­nen Men­schen jährlich nach Lour­des, viele um das wun­dertätige Heil­wass­er zu trinken. Und der Besteller des Komik­ers Hape Ker­kel­ing „Ich bin dann mal weg“ aus dem Jahr 2006 über seine Erfahrun­gen auf dem Jakob­sweg nach San­ti­a­go de Com­postela ist auf eine über­wälti­gende Res­o­nanz gestoßen. Offen­sichtlich sind viele Men­schen auf der Suche nach Sinn und Heilung, die sie auch auf Pil­ger­reisen suchen. Es lohnt sich also, über die religiöse Dimen­sion von Krankheit und Gesund­heit zu diskutieren.

In der Bibel wird vielfach über Krankheit­en und Heilun­gen berichtet. Über Jahrhun­derte ver­fügte die Kirche über das Heilungsmonopol Gottes. Die Heilung erfol­gte in der Regel durch religiöse Mit­tel wie Gebete, Gelübde oder Opfer. Die Entwick­lung der mod­er­nen Medi­zin im 19. und 20. Jahrhun­dert führte dazu, dass die ther­a­peutis­che Kom­pe­tenz, die vorher den Kirchen zugeschrieben wurde, nun durch die Medi­zin über­nom­men wurde. So wird Krankheit nicht mehr als Sünde und Strafe gedeutet. Vielmehr begleit­en die The­olo­gien heute die Medi­zin mit ethis­chen Leitgedanken, wenn es beispiel­sweise um Fra­gen der Ster­be­hil­fe geht.

In der Volkskunde/Empirischen Kul­tur­wis­senschaft gehören Volksmedi­zin, medikale All­t­agskul­tur und Fröm­migkeits­geschichte zum Kanon des Fach­es. Viele Museen ver­fü­gen über Sachzeug­nisse zu Heil und Heilung und nicht zulet­zt in Wall­fahrtsmuseen spielt das The­ma eine wichtige Rolle. Darüber hin­aus sind in den let­zten Jahren Forschung­spro­jekt zwis­chen The­olo­gie und Medi­zin ent­standen, die den heilen­den Charak­ter von Spir­i­tu­al­ität erforschen.

Die Tagung „Heil und Heilung. Zwis­chen The­olo­gie, Pop­u­lar­fröm­migkeit und Medi­zin“ soll sich dem The­ma aus the­ol­o­gis­ch­er, kul­tur­wis­senschaftlich­er, medi­zinis­ch­er und psy­chol­o­gis­ch­er Per­spek­tive näh­ern. Da die Tagung im Muse­um Relí­gio stat­tfind­et, sind muse­ol­o­gis­che oder objek­t­be­zo­gene Beiträge beson­ders erwünscht:

Mögliche The­men kön­nten sein:

Krankheit und Gesund­heit aus the­ol­o­gis­ch­er Per­spek­tive (christlich, jüdisch, muslimisch…)
Spir­i­tu­al­ität als Ressource
Spir­i­tu­al Care
Self-Care-Praktiken
Wall­fahrt und Pilgern
Wunderheilungen
Heilungsgottesdienste
Gesundbeter:innen, Geistheiler:innen
Magis­che Heilungspraktiken
Zusam­men­spiel von The­olo­gie und Medi­zin am Lebensende
Votive und Anliegenbücher
Sachzeug­nisse zu Heil und Heilung aus kul­turgeschichtlichen Museen
Beschnei­dung aus medi­zinis­ch­er und religiös­er Perspektive
Spir­ituelle Bedeu­tung von Tätowierungen

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Nar­ra­tives of Care
20–21 Novem­ber 2025
Hybrid Sym­po­sium, Mel­bourne Aus­tralia; Online

** abstracts due 19 Sep­tem­ber 2025**

In recent years, care has received con­sid­er­able atten­tion both with­in acad­e­mia and in the pub­lic sphere. On one hand, care has emerged as a con­tem­po­rary buzz­word and fuzz­word (Corn­wall 2007) with­in wide­ly cir­cu­lat­ed pop­u­lar dis­cours­es where it is often suf­fused with moral val­ues and nar­row ideals of per­son­hood. At the same time, care, care­work, and care prac­tices rep­re­sent con­test­ed sites and spaces of pol­i­cy inter­ven­tion, reg­u­la­tion, and insti­tu­tion­al man­age­ment. Yet, as has been not­ed, along­side such trends we may also iden­ti­fy sys­temic and per­va­sive cul­tures of care­less­ness, both banal and destruc­tive, that obscure, silence, and ren­der invis­i­ble the log­ics, pat­terns, and con­struc­tions that inform prac­tices and nar­ra­tives of care (Chatzi­dakas et al, 2020). While a pro­lif­er­a­tion of impor­tant recent schol­ar­ship has shed light on the prag­mat­ics and tech­nolo­gies of care in diverse set­tings (Mol 2008, Park and Fitzger­ald 2011, Seo 2020), less atten­tion has been paid to the nar­ra­tives that under­pin them, or to those nar­ra­tives and counter-nar­ra­tives that respond to diver­gent ethos and ethics of care.
As Arendt (1958) not­ed, atten­tion to sto­ry­telling, nar­ra­tive and dia­logue can be a crit­i­cal tool for under­stand­ing pow­er rela­tion­ships and con­test­ed per­spec­tives. By trac­ing how care is sto­ried in pub­lic dis­course, pol­i­cy doc­u­ments, media and artis­tic rep­re­sen­ta­tions, cul­tur­al texts, archives, or every­day con­ver­sa­tions, we uncov­er the log­ics and imag­i­nar­ies that shape care prac­tices and allow them to gain trac­tion or lose ground. Nar­ra­tives of care reveal the eth­i­cal com­mit­ments, cre­ativ­i­ty, and ide­o­log­i­cal frame­works that enable care, as well as the medi­ums, con­ven­tions, and gen­res through which care finds expres­sion. Care can be con­veyed through myth­ic tales, mun­dane descrip­tions, well-worn clich­es, bureau­crat­ic codes, unspo­ken sto­ries, endur­ing truths or per­sis­tent lies, mem­o­ry work, aspi­ra­tional polit­i­cal dec­la­ra­tions, or hero­ic sagas of human redemp­tion. Nar­ra­tives are not mere­ly descrip­tive; they weave mean­ing into care events, active­ly con­fig­ur­ing how care is under­stood, dis­trib­uted, and val­ued (Phillips et al2024). Nar­ra­tives can be recon­sti­tut­ed or repur­posed, lost and found (McGrana­han 2010, Roberts 2024). Their pow­er is in “autho­riz­ing, found­ing, and set­ting in place ways of expe­ri­enc­ing the world” (Cruick­shank 2000: 1). Nar­ra­tives legit­imise prac­tices of sol­i­dar­i­ty and respon­si­bil­i­ty, while also nat­u­ral­is­ing hier­ar­chies and exclu­sions (Bell 2020, Cook and Trun­dle 2020, Mul­li­gan 2014). Under­stand­ing nar­ra­tives of care, there­fore, pro­vides a crit­i­cal lens for explor­ing how care prac­tices are enabled, resist­ed, or reimagined.

The Nar­ra­tives of Care sym­po­sium and asso­ci­at­ed edit­ed vol­ume recog­nise the impor­tant con­tri­bu­tion of nar­ra­tive to inter­ro­gat­ing the pol­i­tics and prac­tices of care. This inter­dis­ci­pli­nary sym­po­sium and edit­ed vol­ume will bring togeth­er researchers who approach care nar­ra­tives and nar­ra­tives of care from a range of dis­ci­pli­nary and method­olog­i­cal per­spec­tives, includ­ing: soci­ol­o­gy; pol­i­tics; anthro­pol­o­gy; lin­guis­tics; his­to­ry; Indige­nous stud­ies; lit­er­ary and film stud­ies; phi­los­o­phy; reli­gious stud­ies; devel­op­ment stud­ies; and gen­der, sex­u­al­i­ty and diver­si­ty stud­ies. We wel­come paper pro­pos­als on top­ics that cen­tre the role of nar­ra­tive not as abstract rep­re­sen­ta­tion, but as thread­ed into the enact­ment of care. In par­tic­u­lar, we seek pro­pos­als that address:

• The role of moral econ­o­my in nar­ra­tives of care
• The role of reli­gion and spir­i­tu­al­i­ty in the con­struc­tion of nar­ra­tives of care
• Craft­ing care and meth­ods, includ­ing dia­log­i­cal nar­ra­tives of cares, the incor­po­ra­tion of poly­phon­ic voic­es, decen­tring author­i­ty, and voice in nar­ra­tives of care.
• Non-lan­guage-based nar­ra­tives of care
• The pol­i­tics of sto­ry­telling and nar­ra­tive in rela­tion to care, includ­ing the pol­i­tics of cru­el­ty and cyn­i­cism as well as of care and trust
• More-than-human nar­ra­tives of care
• The role of insti­tu­tions, risk, and reg­u­la­tion in nar­ra­tives of care
• Silences, omis­sions, and over­sights in the artic­u­la­tion of nar­ra­tives of care
• Tem­po­ral­i­ty, lin­ear­i­ty, and log­ic or illog­ic in nar­ra­tives of care

Con­venors:
Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor Tim­o­thy Jones (t.jones@latrobe.edu.au)
Dr. Natal­ie Araújo (n.araujo@latrobe.edu.au)
Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor Tar­ryn Phillips (tarryn.phillips@latrobe.edu.au
Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor John Tay­lor (john.taylor@latrobe.edu.au)
Dr Cather­ine Trun­dle (c.trundle@latrobe.edu.au)

Sub­mis­sion Guidelines

Abstracts of no more than 200 words should be sub­mit­ted via email to the con­venors by 19 Sep­tem­ber 2025. Sym­po­sium papers should be 2000–3000 words (20-minute papers). The sym­po­sium will be con­vened in hybrid for­mat online and at La Trobe Uni­ver­si­ty, Mel­bourne, Aus­tralia. Fol­low­ing the sym­po­sium, par­tic­i­pants may be invit­ed to con­tribute to an edit­ed vol­ume. Please con­tact the con­venors with any questions.
Please send abstracts to john.taylor@latrobe.edu.au (cc. tarryn.phillips@latrobe.edu.au)

REFERENCES

Bell, L. A. (2020). Sto­ry­telling for social jus­tice: con­nect­ing nar­ra­tive and the arts in antiracist teach­ing. Routledge.
Ben­jamin, W. (1969). The Sto­ry­teller. In Illu­mi­na­tions: Essays and Reflec­tions, ed.
Han­nah Arendt, trans. Har­ry Zohn. New York: Schocken.
Chatzi­dakis, A., Hakim, J., Lit­ter, J., Rot­ten­berg, C., & Care Col­lec­tive. (2020). The care man­i­festo: The pol­i­tics of inter­de­pen­dence. Ver­so Books.
Corn­wall, A. (2007). Buzz­words and fuzz­words: decon­struct­ing devel­op­ment dis­course. Devel­op­ment in Prac­tice, 17(4–5), 471–484. https://doi.org/10.1080/09614520701469302
Cook, J., & Trun­dle, C. (2020). Unset­tled care: Tem­po­ral­i­ty, sub­jec­tiv­i­ty, and the uneasy ethics of care. Anthro­pol­o­gy and Human­ism, 45(2), 178–183.
Cruik­shank, J. (2000). The social life of sto­ries: Nar­ra­tive and knowl­edge in the Yukon Ter­ri­to­ry. UBC Press.
McGrana­han, C. (2010). Nar­ra­tive dis­pos­ses­sion: Tibet and the gen­dered log­ics of his­tor­i­cal pos­si­bil­i­ty. Com­par­a­tive Stud­ies in Soci­ety and His­to­ry, 52(4), 768–797.
Mol, A. (2008) The Log­ic of Care: Health and the Prob­lem of Patient Choice. Lon­don, UK: Routledge.
Mul­li­gan, J. (2014) Unman­age­able Care: An Ethnog­ra­phy of Health Care Pri­va­ti­za­tion in Puer­to Rico. New York: New York Uni­ver­si­ty Press.
Park, J., and R. P. Fitzger­ald (2011) Biotech­nolo­gies of Care. In Blackwell’s Com­pan­ion to Med­ical Anthro­pol­o­gy, edit­ed by Mer­rill Singer, and Pamela Erick­son, pp. 425–442. Oxford, UK: Wiley Blackwell.
Phillips, T., Araújo, N., Jones, T. W., & Tay­lor, J. (2024). Inter­ro­gat­ing ‘well­be­ing’ through a nar­ra­tive frame. In Nar­ra­tives of well­be­ing (pp. 1–15). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.
Roberts. M. K. (2024) Care as sur­vival and resis­tance for pre­car­i­ous lives. Fem­i­nist Anthro­pol­o­gy 5: 284–292
Seo, B. K. (2020) Elic­it­ing Care: Health and Pow­er in North­ern Thai­land. Madi­son: Uni­ver­si­ty of Wis­con­sin Press.

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