Veranstaltungskalender

CfP „Ethno­gra­phies of expert knowl­edges in men­tal health, neu­ro­di­ver­gence, and disability”
10th Inter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence on Ethnog­ra­phy and Qual­i­ta­tive Research Tren­to, Italy
July 10 to 12, 2025

Dead­line: 20 January

„Ethno­gra­phies of expert knowl­edges in men­tal health, neu­ro­di­ver­gence, and disability”

Nowa­days, there has been a «dis­cur­sive explo­sion» sur­round­ing men­tal health, dis­abil­i­ty, and neu­ro­di­ver­gence result­ing in a wide array of het­ero­ge­neous nar­ra­tives and rep­re­sen­ta­tions in pub­lic and aca­d­e­m­ic debates. Par­tic­u­lar­ly on dig­i­tal plat­forms, we wit­ness a rise in con­tent focused on «pos­i­tiv­i­ty» and the rever­sal of stig­ma. These can cer­tain­ly be seen as an incur­sion into the polit­i­cal sphere by mad/crip activism; how­ev­er, it is impor­tant to rec­og­nize how (part of) these dis­cours­es could be absorbed into a neolib­er­al frame­work. In a con­text of per­for­ma­tive and extrac­tivist log­ic, mad/crip/neurodivergent pos­i­tiv­i­ty risks becom­ing yet anoth­er tool that decrees the «sal­va­tion» of those with the resources to fit into the frame­work of «diver­si­ty» val­ori­sa­tion, while lead­ing to process­es of «mon­stri­fi­ca­tion» towards those who devi­ate from this con­struc­tion of subjectivity.

Cen­tral in oper­at­ing this dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion is the role of expert knowl­edge. Although men­tal health, dis­abil­i­ty, and neu­ro­di­ver­gence remain still framed with­in a pre­dom­i­nant­ly bio­med­ical par­a­digm, a range of tech­ni­cal fig­ures are inter­ven­ing in the con­struc­tion of cat­e­gories and the «take charge of users». An arch­i­pel­ago of expert knowl­edges – social work­ers, legal actors, tutors, edu­ca­tion­al ser­vices, (for­mer) patients who take on roles as «expert users», NGO vol­un­teers – thus inter­vene in iden­ti­ty and rela­tion­al con­struc­tions, defin­ing life tra­jec­to­ries, pro­duc­ing spaces and ser­vices that inher­ent­ly nav­i­gate the con­sti­tu­tive ambi­gu­i­ty between care and con­trol, treat­ment and neglect. Among these are the social sci­ences, both in their pro­duc­tion of knowl­edge and in pro­vid­ing tools for social care prac­tices. They con­tribute to defin­ing, iden­ti­fy­ing, clas­si­fy­ing, and quan­ti­fy­ing the users, posi­tion­ing them with­in the grids of «deserving/appropriate» vs «irrecov­er­able» patient, «reha­bil­itable» vs excluded.

The cur­rent con­fig­u­ra­tion, result­ing from the dis­man­tling of nation­al social pro­tec­tion sys­tems in the wake of aus­ter­i­ty poli­cies and the shift of respon­si­bil­i­ty to the pri­vate sec­tor, rep­re­sents only the lat­est phase in a long-stand­ing process of dif­fer­en­tial inclu­sion and exclu­sion, deeply embed­ded in the very struc­ture of social wel­fare and the State itself.

Ethno­graph­ic prac­tice high­lights pow­er struc­tures, fos­ter­ing crit­i­cal reflec­tion on the role of social work and expert knowl­edges. This approach chal­lenges estab­lished insti­tu­tions and mod­els while also sit­u­at­ing the process­es sur­round­ing care and treat­ment with­in rela­tion­ships, con­texts, and every­day tactics.

We invite con­tri­bu­tions that address men­tal health, dis­abil­i­ty, and neu­ro­di­ver­gence, with­in and beyond the care/control bina­ry. We ask what is the role of «expert knowl­edges» – con­sid­ered in their sin­gu­lar­i­ty or inter­sec­tions – in the con­struc­tion of sub­jec­tiv­i­ties, in the pro­duc­tion of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, and in the process­es of dis­tinc­tion and frag­men­ta­tion of the user base; and how prac­tices of sub­trac­tion or resis­tance to such devices configure.

Open ques­tions

– What process­es shape the con­struc­tion of mean­ing around the cat­e­gories of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and fragili­ty (across dis­abil­i­ty, neu­ro­di­ver­gence, and men­tal health), and how do these cat­e­gories influ­ence social work in tak­ing charge and man­ag­ing users?
– How can an ethno­graph­ic cri­tique of con­cepts such as pater­nal­ism and pietism in social wel­fare be framed, start­ing from prac­tices of care, con­trol, neglect, and treatment?
– How do prac­tices of dis­tinc­tion with­in social ser­vices (broad­ly defined) emerge between the «deserv­ing» user and the «prob­lem­at­ic» user, and how do these distinctions—simultaneously prac­ti­cal, orga­ni­za­tion­al, and moral—affect the bal­ance between care and control?
– How does the rela­tion­ship between fam­i­lies, pub­lic ser­vices, and care­givers con­fig­ure the every­day dynam­ics of care and con­trol with­in a con­text of poly-cri­sis and dis­man­tling the wel­fare state? How do the «third sec­tor», human­i­tar­i­an orga­ni­za­tions, and vol­un­teer­ing intersect
in this relationship?
– How do mad/crip/neurodivergent sub­jec­ti­va­tion process­es unfold, both with­in and beyond med­ical­iza­tion and the fram­ing of ser­vice users?
– What impact do social inequalities—based on struc­tur­al axes of class, race, gen­der, sex­u­al­i­ties, and others—have on the ratio­nale of social ser­vices? How do these process­es influ­ence street-lev­el bureau­cra­cy prac­tices, and how do they shape sub­jec­ti­va­tion with­in these systems?
– What forms of with­draw­al and detach­ment from the con­trol­ling dimen­sions of social and clin­i­cal work exist, and what pos­si­bil­i­ties do they open up?
– What are the process­es of spa­tial­iza­tion of disability/neurodivergence/mental health, and how do they relate to social and clin­i­cal work? What are the geo­gra­phies of these process­es, and what do they add to our understanding?

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Call for papers for „Ethno­gra­phies of expert knowl­edges in men­tal health, neu­ro­di­ver­gence, and disability”
10th Inter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence on Ethnog­ra­phy and Qual­i­ta­tive Research
July 10 to 12, 2025 

Dead­line Jan­u­ary 25th 

33. Ethno­gra­phies of expert knowl­edges in men­tal health, neu­ro­di­ver­gence, and disability.

Nowa­days, there has been a «dis­cur­sive explo­sion» sur­round­ing men­tal health, dis­abil­i­ty, and neu­ro­di­ver­gence result­ing in a wide array of het­ero­ge­neous nar­ra­tives and rep­re­sen­ta­tions in pub­lic and aca­d­e­m­ic debates. Par­tic­u­lar­ly on dig­i­tal plat­forms, we wit­ness a rise in con­tent focused on «pos­i­tiv­i­ty» and the rever­sal of stig­ma. These can cer­tain­ly be seen as an incur­sion into the polit­i­cal sphere by mad/crip activism; how­ev­er, it is impor­tant to rec­og­nize how (part of) these dis­cours­es could be absorbed into a neolib­er­al frame­work. In a con­text of per­for­ma­tive and extrac­tivist log­ic, mad/crip/neurodivergent pos­i­tiv­i­ty risks becom­ing yet anoth­er tool that decrees the «sal­va­tion» of those with the resources to fit into the frame­work of «diver­si­ty» val­ori­sa­tion, while lead­ing to process­es of «mon­stri­fi­ca­tion» towards those who devi­ate from this con­struc­tion of subjectivity.

Cen­tral in oper­at­ing this dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion is the role of expert knowl­edge. Although men­tal health, dis­abil­i­ty, and neu­ro­di­ver­gence remain still framed with­in a pre­dom­i­nant­ly bio­med­ical par­a­digm, a range of tech­ni­cal fig­ures are inter­ven­ing in the con­struc­tion of cat­e­gories and the «take charge of users». An arch­i­pel­ago of expert knowl­edges – social work­ers, legal actors, tutors, edu­ca­tion­al ser­vices, (for­mer) patients who take on roles as «expert users», NGO vol­un­teers – thus inter­vene in iden­ti­ty and rela­tion­al con­struc­tions, defin­ing life tra­jec­to­ries, pro­duc­ing spaces and ser­vices that inher­ent­ly nav­i­gate the con­sti­tu­tive ambi­gu­i­ty between care and con­trol, treat­ment and neglect. Among these are the social sci­ences, both in their pro­duc­tion of knowl­edge and in pro­vid­ing tools for social care prac­tices. They con­tribute to defin­ing, iden­ti­fy­ing, clas­si­fy­ing, and quan­ti­fy­ing the users, posi­tion­ing them with­in the grids of «deserving/appropriate» vs «irrecov­er­able» patient, «reha­bil­itable» vs excluded.

The cur­rent con­fig­u­ra­tion, result­ing from the dis­man­tling of nation­al social pro­tec­tion sys­tems in the wake of aus­ter­i­ty poli­cies and the shift of respon­si­bil­i­ty to the pri­vate sec­tor, rep­re­sents only the lat­est phase in a long-stand­ing process of dif­fer­en­tial inclu­sion and exclu­sion, deeply embed­ded in the very struc­ture of social wel­fare and the State itself.

Ethno­graph­ic prac­tice high­lights pow­er struc­tures, fos­ter­ing crit­i­cal reflec­tion on the role of social work and expert knowl­edges. This approach chal­lenges estab­lished insti­tu­tions and mod­els while also sit­u­at­ing the process­es sur­round­ing care and treat­ment with­in rela­tion­ships, con­texts, and every­day tactics.

We invite con­tri­bu­tions that address men­tal health, dis­abil­i­ty, and neu­ro­di­ver­gence, with­in and beyond the care/control bina­ry. We ask what is the role of «expert knowl­edges» – con­sid­ered in their sin­gu­lar­i­ty or inter­sec­tions – in the con­struc­tion of sub­jec­tiv­i­ties, in the pro­duc­tion of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, and in the process­es of dis­tinc­tion and frag­men­ta­tion of the user base; and how prac­tices of sub­trac­tion or resis­tance to such devices configure.

Open ques­tions

What process­es shape the con­struc­tion of mean­ing around the cat­e­gories of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and fragili­ty (across dis­abil­i­ty, neu­ro­di­ver­gence, and men­tal health), and how do these cat­e­gories influ­ence social work in tak­ing charge and man­ag­ing users?
How can an ethno­graph­ic cri­tique of con­cepts such as pater­nal­ism and pietism in social wel­fare be framed, start­ing from prac­tices of care, con­trol, neglect, and treatment?
How do prac­tices of dis­tinc­tion with­in social ser­vices (broad­ly defined) emerge between the «deserv­ing» user and the «prob­lem­at­ic» user, and how do these distinctions—simultaneously prac­ti­cal, orga­ni­za­tion­al, and moral—affect the bal­ance between care and control?
How does the rela­tion­ship between fam­i­lies, pub­lic ser­vices, and care­givers con­fig­ure the every­day dynam­ics of care and con­trol with­in a con­text of poly-cri­sis and dis­man­tling the wel­fare state? How do the «third sec­tor», human­i­tar­i­an orga­ni­za­tions, and vol­un­teer­ing inter­sect in this relationship?
How do mad/crip/neurodivergent sub­jec­ti­va­tion process­es unfold, both with­in and beyond med­ical­iza­tion and the fram­ing of ser­vice users?
What impact do social inequalities—based on struc­tur­al axes of class, race, gen­der, sex­u­al­i­ties, and others—have on the ratio­nale of social ser­vices? How do these process­es influ­ence street-lev­el bureau­cra­cy prac­tices, and how do they shape sub­jec­ti­va­tion with­in these systems?
What forms of with­draw­al and detach­ment from the con­trol­ling dimen­sions of social and clin­i­cal work exist, and what pos­si­bil­i­ties do they open up?
What are the process­es of spa­tial­iza­tion of disability/neurodivergence/mental health, and how do they relate to social and clin­i­cal work? What are the geo­gra­phies of these process­es, and what do they add to our understanding?

For any issues, don’t hes­i­tate to con­tact the con­venors at fabio.bertoni@ics.ulisboa.pt and luca.sterchele@unito.it.

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in-per­son pan­el P100 – Towards new alter­na­tives in social care: Tran­si­tions in the domes­tic, insti­tu­tion­al and com­mu­ni­ty care scenarios
9th APA (Asso­ci­ação Por­tugue­sa de Antropologia)
Caste­lo (Por­tu­gal)
14 to 18 July 2025

Abstracts are due by Jan­u­ary 13, 2025

https://apa2025.eventqualia.net/pt/inicio/painéis/chamada-comunicações/

We invite sub­mis­sions of papers in both Span­ish and Eng­lish that pro­vide new insights on this topic.

Abstract:
Care prac­tices have sig­nif­i­cant rela­tions to people’s exis­tence and social repro­duc­tion. Care­giv­ing involves a com­plex inter­ac­tion between stake­hold­ers in var­i­ous sce­nar­ios (domes­tic, insti­tu­tion­al, and com­mu­ni­ty-based). Indeed, care is pro­vid­ed through a chang­ing con­stel­la­tion of resources across fam­i­lies, the State, the mar­ket and civ­il soci­ety, all of which com­prise the insti­tu­tion­al struc­ture of social care. Sim­i­lar­ly, care is struc­tured not only by gen­der but also by age, class, and ethnic/national ori­gin. The tra­di­tion­al care options have been between domes­tic care and res­i­den­tial facil­i­ties. Insti­tu­tion­al­iza­tion in a res­i­den­tial care home is an option that is usu­al­ly reserved for wors­en­ing sit­u­a­tions of depen­dence. Age­ing in one’s own home is an aspi­ra­tion, but this often takes place in hous­ing and neigh­bor­hoods that are not adapt­ed to the needs of the age­ing, accel­er­at­ing their vul­ner­a­ble process­es. In addi­tion, ter­ri­to­r­i­al dis­par­i­ties (urban-rur­al areas) also account for inequal­i­ties in the access of care.
Our pan­el is ori­ent­ed towards iden­ti­fy­ing the ele­ments that can give rise to alter­na­tive for­mu­las for social care, which make it pos­si­ble to shift the cen­tral role played by fam­i­lies and women, favor­ing the dig­ni­fi­ca­tion of paid and unpaid care. To under­stand the expe­ri­ences in new care envi­ron­ments that try to fos­ter new forms of artic­u­la­tion between social agents and their care sur­round­ings (cohous­ing, care ecosys­tems, com­mu­ni­ties, etc.). We are inter­est­ed in con­tri­bu­tions that, based on ethno­graph­ic work and the­o­ret­i­cal reflec­tion, ana­lyze inno­v­a­tive for­mu­las in the artic­u­la­tion of long-term care providers, iden­ti­fy­ing their scope and lim­i­ta­tions when sub­vert­ing ter­ri­to­r­i­al, social and gen­der inequalities.

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CfP for pan­el on the top­ic „Towards new alter­na­tives in social care: Tran­si­tions in the domes­tic, insti­tu­tion­al and com­mu­ni­ty care scenarios”
9th APA – Asso­ci­ação Por­tugue­sa de Antropologia
Viana do Caste­lo (Por­tu­gal)
14–18 July, 2025

Dead­line 13 Jan­u­ary 2025: https://apa2025.eventqualia.net/pt/inicio/painéis/chamada-comunicações/
We invite sub­mis­sions of papers in both Span­ish and Eng­lish that pro­vide new insights on this topic.

Abstract:
Care prac­tices have sig­nif­i­cant rela­tions to people’s exis­tence and social repro­duc­tion. Care­giv­ing involves a com­plex inter­ac­tion between stake­hold­ers in var­i­ous sce­nar­ios (domes­tic, insti­tu­tion­al, and com­mu­ni­ty-based). Indeed, care is pro­vid­ed through a chang­ing con­stel­la­tion of resources across fam­i­lies, the State, the mar­ket and civ­il soci­ety, all of which com­prise the insti­tu­tion­al struc­ture of social care. Sim­i­lar­ly, care is struc­tured not only by gen­der but also by age, class, and ethnic/national ori­gin. The tra­di­tion­al care options have been between domes­tic care and res­i­den­tial facil­i­ties. Insti­tu­tion­al­iza­tion in a res­i­den­tial care home is an option that is usu­al­ly reserved for wors­en­ing sit­u­a­tions of depen­dence. Age­ing in one’s own home is an aspi­ra­tion, but this often takes place in hous­ing and neigh­bor­hoods that are not adapt­ed to the needs of the age­ing, accel­er­at­ing their vul­ner­a­ble process­es. In addi­tion, ter­ri­to­r­i­al dis­par­i­ties (urban-rur­al areas) also account for inequal­i­ties in the access of care.
Our pan­el is ori­ent­ed towards iden­ti­fy­ing the ele­ments that can give rise to alter­na­tive for­mu­las for social care, which make it pos­si­ble to shift the cen­tral role played by fam­i­lies and women, favor­ing the dig­ni­fi­ca­tion of paid and unpaid care. To under­stand the expe­ri­ences in new care envi­ron­ments that try to fos­ter new forms of artic­u­la­tion between social agents and their care sur­round­ings (cohous­ing, care ecosys­tems, com­mu­ni­ties, etc.). We are inter­est­ed in con­tri­bu­tions that, based on ethno­graph­ic work and the­o­ret­i­cal reflec­tion, ana­lyze inno­v­a­tive for­mu­las in the artic­u­la­tion of long-term care providers, iden­ti­fy­ing their scope and lim­i­ta­tions when sub­vert­ing ter­ri­to­r­i­al, social and gen­der inequalities.

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Viva­Mente Con­fer­ence on

𝐃𝐈𝐀𝐆𝐍𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐒, 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐆𝐍𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐒, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐇

𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐬 (𝟏𝟐𝟎𝟎-𝟏𝟒𝟎𝟎)

Polo Benedet­tine – Pisa

𝟏𝟔-𝟏𝟕 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐲 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓

Organ­ised by

𝐀𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐚 𝐂𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐨, 𝐏𝐚𝐨𝐥𝐚 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐢, 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐨 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢

Keynote Speak­ers:

𝐓𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐨 𝐀𝐥𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐚, 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐳𝐚 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐨, 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐚 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐞, 𝐆𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐥𝐮𝐜𝐚 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐚, 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐚 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐢, 𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐨 𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐳𝐳𝐨, 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐚 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐫𝐚, 𝐌𝐚𝐚𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐕𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐮𝐠𝐭, 𝐆𝐚𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚 𝐙𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐧

CONFERENCE DESCRIPTION

This Viva­Mente Con­fer­ence exam­ines the inter­play between med­i­cine and soci­ety in the Late Medieval peri­od through an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary lens, assess­ing how med­ical the­o­ries, prac­tices, and lan­guage both shaped and were shaped by philo­soph­i­cal, the­o­log­i­cal, and polit­i­cal thought. It will explore how con­cepts such as diag­no­sis, prog­no­sis, and health served as con­cep­tu­al bridges con­nect­ing med­i­cine with phi­los­o­phy and the­ol­o­gy, shap­ing broad­er debates on uncer­tain­ty, anom­alies, and cri­sis man­age­ment. The con­fer­ence speak­ers will inves­ti­gate how med­ical the­o­ries, prac­tices, and lan­guage both influ­enced and were influ­enced by philo­soph­i­cal, the­o­log­i­cal, and polit­i­cal thought.

It will explore how con­cepts such as diag­no­sis, prog­no­sis, and health served as con­cep­tu­al bridges con­nect­ing med­i­cine with phi­los­o­phy and the­ol­o­gy, shap­ing broad­er debates on uncer­tain­ty, anom­alies, and cri­sis man­age­ment. The con­fer­ence speak­ers will inves­ti­gate how med­ical the­o­ries, prac­tices, and lan­guage both influ­enced and were influ­enced by philo­soph­i­cal, the­o­log­i­cal, and polit­i­cal thought. Specif­i­cal­ly, it will address the fol­low­ing key themes:

The inter­play between med­i­cine and nat­ur­al phi­los­o­phy and the inte­gra­tion of clas­si­cal Gre­co-Roman med­ical knowl­edge with Ara­bic and Jew­ish traditions.
Med­ical knowl­edge at the Fac­ul­ties of Arts and its role as a prepara­to­ry dis­ci­pline for philo­soph­i­cal and the­o­log­i­cal education
Med­ical metaphors, lan­guage, and prac­tices in medieval polit­i­cal theory.
The con­tri­bu­tion of med­i­cine and phys­iog­no­my to medieval ideas of ide­al ruler­ship and the legit­i­ma­cy of power
Med­ical doc­trines in eth­i­cal and polit­i­cal debates: ratio­nal tech­niques to under­stand and reg­u­late the inter­ac­tions between bod­i­ly and emo­tion­al dynamics.
Ratio­nal­iza­tion of dis­eases and epi­demics at the cross­road of med­i­cine, phi­los­o­phy, and social concerns.
Extra­or­di­nary bio­log­i­cal phe­nom­e­na, par­tic­u­lar­ly con­gen­i­tal anom­alies, mon­strous birth, and hered­i­tary conditions.

REGISTRATION DEADLINES

𝟑𝟎 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓: In-Pres­ence Participation

𝟏𝟒 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐲 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓: Online Participation

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐓𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐬, 𝐎𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐭: https://csmbr.fondazionecomel.org/events/vivamente-conferences/diagnosis-prognosis-and-health/

Diag­no­sis, Prog­no­sis, and Health – CSMBR
This Viva­Mente Con­fer­ence exam­ines the inter­play between med­i­cine and soci­ety in the Late Mid­dle Ages, assess­ing how med­ical the­o­ries, prac­tices, and lan­guage both shaped and were shaped by philo­soph­i­cal, the­o­log­i­cal, and polit­i­cal thought.
csmbr.fondazionecomel.org

Should you have any queries as to the logis­tics of this event, please do not hes­i­tate to con­tact the organ­is­ers or the cen­tre staff.

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Tris­tan Oester­mann & Matheus Alves Duarte da Sil­va will talk about „Glob­al Med­i­cine and (Post)Colonialism”
Fri­day, 18th July 2025
17h00 (Berlin time)

Please find the link to the event on the CHCMS Web­site.

For any ques­tions, please con­tact: paulina.gennermann[at]uni-marburg.de

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CfP for the spe­cial issue „Sociotech­ni­cal imag­i­nar­ies and prac­tices of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence in health­care: rev­o­lu­tion­is­ing care or ampli­fy­ing new risks?” in the Health Risk and Soci­ety, co-edit­ed by Veron­i­ca Moret­ti and Francesco Miele.

We wel­come con­tri­bu­tions that crit­i­cal­ly explore the dual nature of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI): as a tool for inno­va­tion and as a sys­tem deeply embed­ded with­in com­plex social, tech­ni­cal, and eth­i­cal infra­struc­tures. This spe­cial issue aims to bal­ance the promise of AI with a crit­i­cal exam­i­na­tion of its risks, lim­i­ta­tions, and poten­tial vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties in health­care contexts.

The full call for abstracts is attached. To par­tic­i­pate, please sub­mit a 500–800 word abstract by Feb­ru­ary 3, 2025. Authors of select­ed abstracts will be invit­ed to sub­mit full papers by July 21, 2025.

For any ques­tions or inquiries, feel free to con­tact me at our insti­tu­tion­al email: francesco.miele@dispes.units.it and veronica.moretti4@unibo.it

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„Ethnog­ra­phy for Health­care Improve­ment Sum­mer School”
23rd-25th July, 2025
Leices­ter Tigers Rug­by Club Events Cen­tre in Leices­ter, UK. 

This course is deliv­ered by expert ethno­graph­ic researchers and prac­ti­tion­ers from the Social Sci­ence, Applied Health­care & Improve­ment Research (SAPPHIRE) Group at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Leicester.

This short course is designed for expe­ri­enced researchers, method­ol­o­gy edu­ca­tors, and doc­tor­al stu­dents to crit­i­cal­ly engage with the the­o­ry and prac­tice of ethnog­ra­phy in health­care set­tings. Over 3 days, you will learn more about the use of ethnog­ra­phy for health­care improve­ment, from design­ing research to man­ag­ing improve­ment and eval­u­a­tion ten­sions, nav­i­gat­ing dif­fer­ent con­texts, reach­ing audi­ences and influ­enc­ing pol­i­cy and prac­tice. Addi­tion­al­ly, you will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to devel­op a net­work of fel­low prac­ti­tion­ers and researchers with shared method­olog­i­cal inter­ests, work with expe­ri­enced ethno­g­ra­phers as men­tors, and join an inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty of prac­tice around ethnog­ra­phy for health­care improve­ment. The cost of the 3 day course, includ­ing all edu­ca­tion mate­ri­als and activ­i­ties, plus lunch and refresh­ments both days, is £1000. Trans­port to and from the venue and accom­mo­da­tion at is not included.
Reg­is­tra­tions are strict­ly lim­it­ed, and are now open at https://shop.le.ac.uk/product-catalogue/events-at-leicester/health-sciences/ethnography-for-health-care-improvement-summer-school-2025; book­ings will close 20 June 2025. A wait­ing list will be main­tained in the event of the course being over-sub­scribed. Please for­ward any ques­tions to Jen­nifer Creese, course lead: jennifer.creese@leicester.ac.uk.

Best wish­es, Dr Jen­nifer Creese (BA, MIM, PhD, AFHEA)
Lec­tur­er, Depart­ment of Health Sci­ences (SAPPHIRE Group)
Col­lege of Life Sciences
Uni­ver­si­ty of Leicester

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Trans­dis­ci­pli­nary Event on Ances­tral Knowl­edge and Heal­ing (in Spanish)

You are invit­ed to take part in an upcom­ing online event held in Span­ish, focused on rit­u­al knowl­edge, tra­di­tion­al plant med­i­cine and Mediter­ranean spir­i­tu­al lega­cies. It brings togeth­er per­spec­tives from clin­i­cal prac­tice, eth­nob­otany, med­ical anthro­pol­o­gy and the cul­tur­al his­to­ry of health.

Title: Encuen­tro trans­dis­ci­pli­nar sobre saberes rit­uales, botáni­ca cura­ti­va y espir­i­tu­al­i­dad mediterránea

Date and time will be deter­mined through con­sul­ta­tion with par­tic­i­pants and atten­dees. Late July, at least two hours long. The ses­sion includes open space for dis­cus­sion and questions.

Speak­ers include
– Dr. Jacques Mabit, Taki­wasi Cen­ter, Peru
– Lau­ra Mon­teagu­do and Fabio, Neu­ro­sci­en­tist and folk med­i­cine expert
– Alfre­do Panivi­no, Expert on Eleusin­ian mys­ter­ies and ancient Mediter­ranean traditions

The event explores the clin­i­cal mod­el and rit­u­al prac­tices of the Ama­zon­ian Taki­wasi Cen­ter, Iber­ian folk med­i­cine and plant knowl­edge, and the lega­cy of the Eleusin­ian Mys­ter­ies in the con­text of Mediter­ranean his­to­ry and present-day recov­ery of lost ped­a­go­gies. Fuller details at: https://research.henning.md/p/encuentro-transdisciplinar-sobre

You are invit­ed to pro­pose your avail­abil­i­ty as new speak­er, cir­cu­late the invi­ta­tion, and join the dis­cus­sion. Please, sub­scribe to the pub­li­ca­tion in case you wish not to miss fur­ther news.

2. EU BEACON One Health Edu­ca­tion and Tech­nol­o­gy – Now an Award­ed COST Action

I am pleased to for­mal­ly announce that EU BEACON One Health Edu­ca­tion and Tech­nol­o­gy, a net­work I found­ed years ago dur­ing what accounts to tor­ture, the most severe abus­es dur­ing field­work in the EU, has been offi­cial­ly award­ed as a COST Action under the Euro­pean Coop­er­a­tion in Sci­ence and Tech­nol­o­gy frame­work. The action is now oper­a­tional and open to new mem­bers, includ­ing researchers, clin­i­cians, edu­ca­tors, tech­nol­o­gists and pol­i­cy actors. EU BEACON focus­es on advanc­ing trans­dis­ci­pli­nary, rights-based and open sci­ence solu­tions for human, ani­mal and plan­e­tary health. It address­es struc­tur­al vio­lence, epis­te­mo­log­i­cal gaps, eco­log­i­cal degra­da­tion and insti­tu­tion­al iner­tia through coor­di­nat­ed edu­ca­tion, field research and pol­i­cy engage­ment. This is a work­ing action, not an aspi­ra­tional ini­tia­tive. Its reach is glob­al, as we need to bridge and con­nect cul­tures with the now lack­ing respect, tools and fair, most need­ed means. It is designed for struc­tured imple­men­ta­tion, sup­port­ed by a grow­ing net­work of schol­ars and prac­ti­tion­ers across Europe and inter­na­tion­al­ly. If you wish to join EU BEACON and con­tribute to its work­ing groups, you are invit­ed to express your inter­est through the por­tal: https://health.int.eu.org

I encour­age and wel­come active engage­ment from those com­mit­ted to eth­i­cal, evi­dence-based trans­for­ma­tion in health, edu­ca­tion and tech­no­log­i­cal governance.

All the best,

Hen­ning (né Enric) Gar­cia Torrents

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DDD17: „POLITICS OF DEATH”
27–30 August 2025
Uni­ver­si­ty of Utrecht (Nether­lands)

CALL FOR PAPERS AND PANELS

The Death, Dying and Dis­pos­al (DDD) Con­fer­ence is the bi-annu­al con­fer­ence of the Asso­ci­a­tion for the Study of Death and Soci­ety (ASDS). The next edi­tion will be host­ed at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Utrecht (Nether­lands) and online from Wednes­day 27 to Sat­ur­day 30 August 2025. For the upcom­ing DDD17 con­fer­ence, we invite ses­sions that explore the broad top­ic of the Pol­i­tics of Death. 

Despite appear­ing as a uni­ver­sal bio­log­i­cal event, death is and has nev­er been neu­tral. Instead, it is deeply entwined with issues of (in)equality, access, and pow­er dynam­ics. In today’s world, death is per­haps more politi­cized as it ever was before. Wars, envi­ron­men­tal crises, glob­al migra­tion pat­terns, and fail­ing states bring death close to our homes. At the same time, tech­no­log­i­cal, dig­i­tal, and med­ical advance­ments alter our approach­es to deal­ing with, think­ing about, research­ing, and work­ing with death. Such devel­op­ments are equal­ly inher­ent­ly polit­i­cal, both in their ori­gins and their applications.

As prac­ti­tion­ers and schol­ars, how do we nav­i­gate the polit­i­cal dimen­sions of death? How does the polit­i­cal shape our engage­ment with death? And how can we reflect on and poten­tial­ly change our own posi­tions with­in this polit­i­cal landscape?

For more infor­ma­tion on the con­fer­ence theme, please refer to our web­site: https://ddd17.sites.uu.nl/conference-theme/

We invite schol­ars and prac­ti­tion­ers to sub­mit a pro­pos­al for papers, orga­nized pan­els, round­ta­bles, work­shops, or oth­er for­mats by Sat­ur­day 30 Novem­ber 2024. No excep­tions to this dead­line are possible. 

We encour­age pro­pos­als in four types of ses­sion formats:

Organ­ised pan­els and indi­vid­ual papers

Pan­els will be struc­tured in the tra­di­tion­al man­ner of indi­vid­ual paper pre­sen­ta­tions. This will be four (4) pre­sen­ta­tions of 15 min­utes back-to-back, fol­lowed by a 30-minute dis­cus­sion on the pre­sen­ta­tions. All organ­ised pan­els are thus 90 min­utes. The pan­els will be orga­nized in a hybrid (i.e., includ­ing online par­tic­i­pants) for­mat, mean­ing paper pre­sen­ters can present from home. Dis­cus­sions will be orga­nized using chat-moderators.

Round­ta­bles

Round­ta­bles of 90 min­utes in which no more than five peo­ple dis­cuss a par­tic­u­lar theme or issue in front of (and sub­se­quent­ly with) an audi­ence. While a round­table may include short (approx. 5 min) contributions/presentations, the main idea is to cre­ate a live­ly debate, and not to focus on any one or mul­ti­ple presenter(s). To be able to cre­ate such debate, round­ta­bles will not be orga­nized in a hybrid (i.e., includ­ing online par­tic­i­pants) format.

Work­shops

Work­shops of 90 min­utes are char­ac­terised by exper­i­men­ta­tion, col­lab­o­ra­tion, inter­ac­tion and/or impro­vi­sa­tion. The aim of work­shops is to organ­ise col­lec­tive activ­i­ties that are open-end­ed and cul­ti­vate pos­si­bil­i­ties for sur­prise, nov­el­ty, and learn­ing. Work­shops will be designed as inter­ac­tive, reflex­ive ses­sions that pri­ori­tise explo­ration, rather than the dis­cus­sion of already estab­lished research results. To make true col­lab­o­ra­tion pos­si­ble and cre­ate safe space, the max­i­mum num­ber of per­sons per work­shop is 16 (includ­ing work­shop con­venors). The work­shops will not be orga­nized in a hybrid (i.e., includ­ing online par­tic­i­pants) format.

Oth­er

We wel­come you to share your ideas of oth­er pos­si­ble for­mats with us. If you would like to sug­gest a dif­fer­ent for­mat and/or are will­ing to run a ses­sion or activ­i­ty with a dif­fer­ent for­mat, please let us know by send­ing an email to DDD17@uu.nl. The DDD17 selec­tion com­mit­tee will then decide if and how to accom­mo­date your idea(s).

Perma­link

17th bian­nu­al DDD con­fer­ence „The Pol­i­tics of Death”
The Asso­ci­a­tion for the Study of Death and Soci­ety (ASDS)
Uni­ver­si­ty of Utrecht
27–30 August 2025

Details:

Despite appear­ing as a uni­ver­sal bio­log­i­cal event, death is and has nev­er been neu­tral. Instead, it is deeply entwined with issues of (in)equality, access, and pow­er dynam­ics. In today’s world, death is per­haps more politi­cized as it ever was before. Wars, envi­ron­men­tal crises, glob­al migra­tion pat­terns, and fail­ing states bring death close to our homes. At the same time, tech­no­log­i­cal, dig­i­tal, and med­ical advance­ments alter our approach­es to deal­ing with, think­ing about, research­ing, and work­ing with death. Such devel­op­ments are equal­ly inher­ent­ly polit­i­cal, both in their ori­gins and their applications.

As prac­ti­tion­ers and schol­ars, how do we nav­i­gate the polit­i­cal dimen­sions of death? How does the polit­i­cal shape our engage­ment with death? And how can we reflect on and poten­tial­ly change our own posi­tions with­in this polit­i­cal landscape?

Pol­i­tics is every­where; every­thing is polit­i­cal. It’s woven into every facet of life, shap­ing how we live, die, and make sense of the worlds in between and beyond. It is the lens through which we address our biggest chal­lenges and seize new oppor­tu­ni­ties. It shapes our sense of right and wrong, fram­ing what we see as moral or immoral. It guides deci­sions, both con­scious­ly and uncon­scious­ly, in every set­ting – from the halls of gov­ern­ment to the inti­mate spaces of home. It spans for­mal author­i­ty and hid­den social pow­er, thread­ing through the spaces we inhab­it, the rules we fol­low, and the sym­bols we embrace. It exists between peo­ple, envi­ron­ments and species, influ­enc­ing every­thing from small exchanges to glob­al reg­u­la­tions. In every inter­ac­tion and insti­tu­tion, there’s an ele­ment of pol­i­tics. Because of this, pol­i­tics is every­where, and every­thing down to the small­est detail is inher­ent­ly political.

For more infor­ma­tion on the con­fer­ence theme, please refer to our web­site: https://ddd17.sites.uu.nl/conference-theme/

We invite schol­ars and prac­ti­tion­ers to sub­mit a pro­pos­al for papers, orga­nized pan­els, round­ta­bles, work­shops, or oth­er for­mats by Sat­ur­day 30 Novem­ber 2024. No excep­tions to this dead­line are possible.

We encour­age pro­pos­als in four types of ses­sion formats:

Organ­ised pan­els and indi­vid­ual papers

Pan­els will be struc­tured in the tra­di­tion­al man­ner of indi­vid­ual paper pre­sen­ta­tions. This will be four (4) pre­sen­ta­tions of 15 min­utes back-to-back, fol­lowed by a 30-minute dis­cus­sion on the pre­sen­ta­tions. All organ­ised pan­els are thus 90 min­utes. The pan­els will be orga­nized in a hybrid (i.e., includ­ing online par­tic­i­pants) for­mat, mean­ing paper pre­sen­ters can present from home. Dis­cus­sions will be orga­nized using chat-moderators.

Round­ta­bles

Round­ta­bles of 90 min­utes in which no more than five peo­ple dis­cuss a par­tic­u­lar theme or issue in front of (and sub­se­quent­ly with) an audi­ence. While a round­table may include short (approx. 5 min) contributions/presentations, the main idea is to cre­ate a live­ly debate, and not to focus on any one or mul­ti­ple presenter(s). To be able to cre­ate such debate, round­ta­bles will not be orga­nized in a hybrid (i.e., includ­ing online par­tic­i­pants) format.

Work­shops

Work­shops of 90 min­utes are char­ac­terised by exper­i­men­ta­tion, col­lab­o­ra­tion, inter­ac­tion and/or impro­vi­sa­tion. The aim of work­shops is to organ­ise col­lec­tive activ­i­ties that are open-end­ed and cul­ti­vate pos­si­bil­i­ties for sur­prise, nov­el­ty, and learn­ing. Work­shops will be designed as inter­ac­tive, reflex­ive ses­sions that pri­ori­tise explo­ration, rather than the dis­cus­sion of already estab­lished research results. To make true col­lab­o­ra­tion pos­si­ble and cre­ate safe space, the max­i­mum num­ber of per­sons per work­shop is 16 (includ­ing work­shop con­venors). The work­shops will not be orga­nized in a hybrid (i.e., includ­ing online par­tic­i­pants) format.

Oth­er

We wel­come you to share your ideas of oth­er pos­si­ble for­mats with us. If you would like to sug­gest a dif­fer­ent for­mat and/or are will­ing to run a ses­sion or activ­i­ty with a dif­fer­ent for­mat, please let us know by send­ing an email to DDD17@uu.nl. The DDD17 selec­tion com­mit­tee will then decide if and how to accom­mo­date your idea(s).

Perma­link

This is your last chance to reg­is­ter to attend our upcom­ing DDD17 Con­fer­ence: The Pol­i­tics of Death, tak­ing place 27–30 August 2025 at Utrecht Uni­ver­si­ty, the Netherlands!

🔗 Click here to register

Here’s a glimpse of what’s in store: 

🧠 Inspir­ing sessions

A wide range of pan­el ses­sions, includ­ing paper pre­sen­ta­tions, round­ta­bles, and workshops.
👉 Get a sneak peek at the cur­rent programme

🎤 Thought-pro­vok­ing plenaries

Keynote by Dr. Kami Fletcher
Expe­ri­en­tial keynote by Prof. Enny Das
A ple­nary round­table on euthana­sia in the Dutch context
👉 Read more about the ple­nar­ies here

🎉 Excit­ing extras!

A Death Book Club 📚
Guid­ed Dark Tourism tours in beau­ti­ful Utrecht 🏛️
A unique Death Muse­um excur­sion to Amsterdam 🚋
A three-course veg­e­tar­i­an Con­fer­ence dinner

👉 Read more about the addi­tion­al events here

We warm­ly invite you to join us in Utrecht this sum­mer to explore, reflect on, and dis­cuss all things death. Look­ing for­ward to see­ing you there!

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Pan­el: „Repro­duc­tive Uncer­tain­ties and Imag­ined Futures in the Anthropocene”
STS-CH Con­fer­ence this com­ing Sep­tem­ber in Zurich

Pan­el Description:
Uncer­tain­ty per­me­ates every aspect of human repro­duc­tion. Humans have tried to con­trol this bio­log­i­cal uncer­tain­ty through var­i­ous techno­sci­en­tif­ic, and sociopo­lit­i­cal mea­sures as illus­trat­ed through the vast land­scape of assist­ed repro­duc­tive tech­nolo­gies, birth con­trol tech­nolo­gies and relat­ed dynam­ic reg­u­la­tions sur­round­ing their use in the Glob­al South and North. In light of this, fol­low­ing Jasanoff and Kim’s (2015) for­mu­la­tion of ‘sociotech­ni­cal imag­i­nar­ies’ and Gins­burg and Rapp’s (2020) refram­ing using the „cul­tur­al work of repro­duc­tion” as „repro­duc­tive imag­i­nar­ies”, we ask what role repro­duc­tion-relat­ed tech­nolo­gies such as but not lim­it­ed to IVF, birth con­trol and ster­il­iza­tion tech­niques, play in the con­sti­tu­tion of par­tic­u­lar­ized con­tex­tu­al ‘repro­duc­tive imaginaries’? 

Using repro­duc­tive uncer­tain­ty as our start­ing point, in this pan­el, we ask how these repro­duc­tive things and peo­ple „hold togeth­er” to cre­ate or resist change. Giv­en that, repro­duc­tive goals change con­sid­er­ably, both at indi­vid­ual and state lev­el, how are ‘repro­duc­tive imag­i­nar­ies’ informed and in turn inform indi­vid­ual and col­lec­tive orga­niz­ing around lived and future lives- for e.g., in the child free and pro-life move­ments with respect to the cli­mate crises? How do peo­ple involve ‘repro­duc­tive imag­i­nar­ies’ to make sense of their worlds when impact­ed by the diag­no­sis of infer­til­i­ty? What sal­va­tion­ary or harm­ful aspects of these repro­duc­tive tech­nolo­gies are high­light­ed to bring cer­tain ‘repro­duc­tive imag­i­nar­ies’ to fruition while oth­ers are down­played? And what are the effects of such envi­sioned futures, both at state and indi­vid­ual lev­els? We invite papers across dis­ci­plines that con­tribute to this dis­cus­sion on the entan­gle­ments of state, indi­vid­ual and repro­duc­tive tech­nolo­gies in pro­duc­ing „repro­duc­tive imagineries”.

Pan­el Details:

🔹Abstract Dead­line: May 9, 2025
🔹Max Abstract Length: 300 words
🔹Sub­mit here: Sub­mis­sion Portal
🔹Full Pan­el Abstract: https://express.converia.de/frontend/index.php?page_id=47357#panel-125457

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CfP for the pan­el at the next con­fer­ence of the Soci­ety for Social Stud­ies of Sci­ence 2025
Seattle
3–7 September

‘Tem­po­ral­i­ties of bod­ies, tech­nolo­gies and their entan­gle­ments in the expe­ri­ence of dis­abil­i­ty and/or chron­ic illness’.

Chron­ic ill­ness and dis­abil­i­ty have become a priv­i­leged place for tech­no­log­i­cal inter­ven­tion. Both are char­ac­ter­ized by the deploy­ment of tech­no­log­i­cal devices that aim to mit­i­gate, com­pen­sate for, or even pre­vent and slow down the loss of capac­i­ties, as well as alle­vi­ate or lim­it symp­toms. In this con­text, a var­ied array of tech­nolo­gies that dif­fer­ent­ly act on or inter­vene in bod­ies and places are intro­duced in people’s lives: tech­no­log­i­cal devices that are implant­ed in the body (e.g. insulin pumps and deep brain stim­u­la­tion), tech­no­log­i­cal devices that are attached to the body (pros­the­ses and orthoses) and/or tech­no­log­i­cal devices that are con­nect­ed both to the body and to a par­tic­u­lar place (tele­care and dial­y­sis equip­ment; exoskeletons). 

Regard­ing this ‘tech­no­log­i­cal care’ (Lancelot & Guchet, 2023), research in STS and empir­i­cal phi­los­o­phy of tech­nol­o­gy has main­ly focused on tech­no­log­i­cal use and appro­pri­a­tion, includ­ing the dif­fi­cul­ties there­of. How­ev­er vital and essen­tial these tech­nolo­gies may be in sus­tain­ing peo­ple in dai­ly life, atten­tion has scarce­ly been paid to their fragili­ty and people’s result­ing vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty when they mal­func­tion, wear and tear, break and/or thus can no longer be used or have to be adjust­ed and/or used dif­fer­ent­ly (Oud­shoorn, 2020). 

These mate­r­i­al and exis­ten­tial dis­rup­tions and con­straints call for inquir­ing about the entan­gle­ments of dif­fer­ent tem­po­ral­i­ties of chron­ic liv­ing and dis­abil­i­ty: of bod­ies adjust­ing to chron­ic ill­ness, dis­abil­i­ty and/or to tech­no­log­i­cal care; of the tech­nolo­gies them­selves (from their devel­op­ment to their every­day use, adap­ta­tion, mal­func­tions and main­te­nance) and the socio-mate­r­i­al infra­struc­tures that sup­port them; and of the rela­tions between them. We invite con­tri­bu­tions that address, empir­i­cal­ly and/or con­cep­tu­al­ly, tech­no­log­i­cal care and its temporalities.

Dead­line of the call for abstracts:

- Jan­u­ary 31, 2025
– Noti­fi­ca­tion of acceptance:
– March 15, 2025
– 4S 2025 in-per­son conference:
– Sep­tem­ber 3–7, 2025

Abstracts (250 words max) should be sub­mit­ted on the 4S web­site: https://bit.ly/3BtgXPh

Perma­link

CfP for a pan­el on “Data, Care and Learn­ing in Datafied Worlds”
4S con­fer­ence in Seat­tle and online
3–7 Sep­tem­ber 2025

The extend­ed dead­line for abstract sub­mis­sions is 2 Feb­ru­ary 2025. Please see below for more infor­ma­tion and get in touch with any ques­tions. Abstracts can be sub­mit­ted here.

Short Abstract:

How do data, care, and learn­ing shape each oth­er? Bring­ing togeth­er empir­i­cal work and the­o­ret­i­cal con­sid­er­a­tions across dis­ci­plines and con­texts, this pan­el aims to think broad­ly about the prac­tices that make up the dynam­ic data-care-learn­ing nexus and the impor­tant ques­tions they raise for STS. 

Long Abstract:

In an era of dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion, how do data, care and learn­ing prac­tices mutu­al­ly define each other? 

As social­ly-sit­u­at­ed and the­o­ry-laden phe­nom­e­na, data prac­tices are sub­ject to oper­a­tions of scal­ing and manip­u­la­tion, under­pinned by sys­tems of log­ic and val­ue, and co-pro­duced with cul­tur­al, polit­i­cal, and socioe­co­nom­ic real­i­ties. Data are a prin­ci­pal medi­um through which we come to learn, care, and know about our worlds. 

Fem­i­nist STS has estab­lished the crit­i­cal impor­tance of care for sus­tain­ing our worlds, direct­ing atten­tion toward who cares, about what, and how. Con­tin­u­ing to crit­i­cal­ly the­o­rize and empir­i­cal­ly inves­ti­gate care opens up ques­tions of main­te­nance, vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and inter­de­pen­dence. Trac­ing data prac­tices with care in mind is like­ly to extend some of these insights and con­test others. 

Learn­ing is the­o­rised dif­fer­ent­ly across fields from STS and Inno­va­tion Stud­ies to Psy­chol­o­gy and Edu­ca­tion. Fun­da­men­tal ques­tions about the nature of learn­ing under­pin assump­tions about knowl­edge, exper­tise, and ped­a­gogy. What we care to learn about and how we learn to care have impli­ca­tions for our under­stand­ing of data prac­tices since those prac­tices both shape what can be learned and must them­selves be learned. 

Organ­ised by the DARE team, this pan­el seeks to build on and con­tribute to these lit­er­a­tures by bring­ing togeth­er work across data tech­nolo­gies, con­texts of use, intel­lec­tu­al fields, and com­mu­ni­ties of prac­tice to exam­ine the data-care-learn­ing nexus. 

Sub­mis­sions might offer insights into, for example: 

– What data, care, and learn­ing come to mean through their mutu­al entanglement 

– Where process­es of learn­ing and car­ing are locat­ed in data practices 

– Dis­tin­guish­ing between car­ing, learn­ing, and know­ing in rela­tion to data practices 

– How data are cared for, and how data enable or con­strain care 

– What and how we learn through data practices 

– How the nexus of data, care and learn­ing are the­o­rised across dif­fer­ent sites, and with dif­fer­ent publics 

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“Neu­romed­ical Con­fig­u­ra­tions: Think­ing Through Pos­si­bil­i­ties of Care, Neglect, and Solidarity” 

4S Seat­tle conference
Sep­tem­ber 3–7, 2025
Seat­tle, Wash­ing­ton, USA

Sub­mis­sion dead­line is *31 Jan­u­ary 2025*.
Abstracts can be sub­mit­ted using this link: https://www.4sonline.org/call_for_submissions_seattle.php (Pan­el num­ber 24).

Neu­romed­ical Con­fig­u­ra­tions: Think­ing Through Pos­si­bil­i­ties of Care, Neglect, and Solidarity

Dis­cus­sant:

Angela Mar­ques Fil­ipe, Durham University

Con­venors:

Sebas­t­ian Rojas – Navar­ro, Andres Bel­lo Uni­ver­si­ty, sebastian.rojas.n@unab.cl

Talia Fried, Ben Guri­on Uni­ver­si­ty, frita@post.bgu.ac.il

Short Abstract:

This pan­el explores the ethico-polit­i­cal stakes, expe­ri­ences and pos­si­bil­i­ties of neu­romed­ical sub­jec­tiv­i­ty. We wel­come papers that explore prag­mat­ic chal­lenges and eman­ci­pa­to­ry poten­tials of neu­romed­ical per­son­hood, while the­o­riz­ing with and beyond ‘care.’

Long Abstract:

Neu­romed­ical knowl­edge and tech­nolo­gies are increas­ing­ly reshap­ing our under­stand­ing of human expe­ri­ence, fuel­ing col­lec­tive demands, trans­form­ing notions of per­son­hood, and dri­ving mate­r­i­al, semi­otic, and infra­struc­tur­al changes across soci­eties. While advance­ments in bio­med­ical and psy­cho­log­i­cal sci­ences have opened path­ways for indi­vid­ual and col­lec­tive action, heal­ing, and sup­port, these gains are uneven­ly dis­trib­uted. Stig­ma, insti­tu­tion­al­ized indif­fer­ence, and dis­par­i­ties in health resources per­sist glob­al­ly, threat­en­ing to over­shad­ow poten­tial ben­e­fits. In this com­plex sce­nario, how does engag­ing with neu­romed­ical advance­ments allow for the cre­ation of diverse real­i­ties of care? How do forms of aban­don­ment or sol­i­dar­i­ty shape the social spaces where health, ill­ness, suf­fer­ing, and dis­abil­i­ty are neu­romed­ical­ly configured?

This pan­el exam­ines the ethico-polit­i­cal dimen­sions of neu­romed­ical sub­jec­tiv­i­ty by extend­ing the­o­ries of care (Puig de la Bel­la­casa 2010). Build­ing on stud­ies of the rela­tion­al, eth­i­cal, and polit­i­cal aspects of care, we invite researchers to explore frame­works that chal­lenge and com­ple­ment this notion, inte­grat­ing STS per­spec­tives on the (un)caring dimen­sions of neu­romed­ical knowl­edge and prac­tices with oth­er crit­i­cal lenses—such as “rights,” “sol­i­dar­i­ty,” “aban­don­ment,” and “neglect” — and draw­ing insights from fields like med­ical soci­ol­o­gy, dis­abil­i­ty stud­ies, polit­i­cal phi­los­o­phy, urban stud­ies, posthu­man­ism, crit­i­cal neu­ro­science and others.

Pre­sen­ta­tions may address ques­tions such as: How do care and neglect affect patient out­comes, iden­ti­ty for­ma­tion, and expe­ri­ences of social belong­ing with­in neu­romed­ical con­texts? How do neu­romed­ical approach­es shape prac­tices and modes ofself-know­ing, iden­ti­ty, and rela­tion­al­i­ty across dif­fer­ent social set­tings? How are the infra­struc­tur­al, mate­r­i­al, and semi­otic aspects of our soci­eties shifting—or not—to accom­mo­date diverse neu­romed­ical identities-in-the-making? 

Please feel free to direct any ques­tions to us at Talia Fried, frita@post.bgu.ac.il

Perma­link

Join us for the AgeNet 2025 work­shop in Bratisla­va, Sep­tem­ber 11–12, 2025. Small, inter­ac­tive and cross-dis­ci­pli­nary, it will be an excel­lent oppor­tu­ni­ty to col­lec­tive­ly reimag­ine par­tic­i­pa­to­ry approach­es in age­ing research as well as to con­sol­i­date and expand AgeNet’s community. 

Dead­line for appli­ca­tions: May 16, 2025 – more details below, and under this link: https://ageneteasa.org/2025/04/29/agenet-workshop-2025-in-bratislava-call-for-applications-now-open/

📅 When? Sep­tem­ber 11–12, 2025
📍 Where? Bratisla­va, Slovakia

With an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary team of experts, we will engage in explorato­ry exer­cis­es and prac­ti­cal skill-build­ing in:

✅ Co-design­ing and shared deci­sion-mak­ing with old­er adults and peo­ple with spe­cial needs

✅ Using audio­vi­su­al, cre­ative, and mul­ti­sen­so­ry methods
✅ Shar­ing expe­ri­ences and refin­ing meth­ods together

📝 How to apply? 

If you are inter­est­ed in par­tic­i­pat­ing, please sub­mit your appli­ca­tion via the Google Form https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfRpO-co63zd7CyKROgPOHx-nfzsc__amdPxPRfU9OIcvfNwg/viewform?usp=header by May 16, 2025. 

The appli­ca­tion must include a short CV/motivation state­ment (max­i­mum 500 words)

Appli­cants will be noti­fied of the out­come by May 23, 2025.

L’u­bi­ca Vol’an­ská, Francesco Dio­dati, Chris­tine Ver­bruggen, and Mar­ti­na Laganà (Agenet con­venors and mem­bers of the Sci­en­tif­ic and Orga­ni­za­tion­al Committee)

Agenet work­shop 2025 Cfa

Perma­link

Dig­i­tal Spaces and DIY Health: Infra­struc­tures, Activism, and Networks
Sep­tem­ber 12, 2025
Queen Mary Uni­ver­si­ty of London 

We seek abstracts for a work­shop at Queen Mary Uni­ver­si­ty of Lon­don on dig­i­tal health com­mu­ni­ties, infor­mal care path­ways, treat­ment activism, and con­test­ed illness. 

Dig­i­tal spaces pro­vide meet­ing places for peo­ple who are expe­ri­enc­ing symp­toms, man­ag­ing ill­ness­es, and/or seek­ing med­ica­tion through infor­mal routes. Lit­er­a­ture in this area has often con­cen­trat­ed on dig­i­tal com­mu­ni­ties that emerge around con­test­ed ill­ness­es because peo­ple expe­ri­enc­ing a con­test­ed ill­ness are like­ly to have been turned away by a doc­tor and resort to seek­ing infor­ma­tion and sup­port online. How­ev­er, dig­i­tal health com­mu­ni­ties also emerge around a wide vari­ety of groups whose med­ical needs are stig­ma­tized, whether that’s because of their sex­u­al­i­ty, gen­der iden­ti­ty, or con­tro­ver­sy around the treatment/medication they seek. These types of com­mu­ni­ties self-organ­ise in dig­i­tal spaces where they share expe­ri­ences, pro­vide sup­port, devel­op forms of exper­tise, advise each oth­er on pre­ferred med­ical providers, strate­gise for greater vis­i­bil­i­ty, and facil­i­tate each other’s access to phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals that they can­not or do not want to obtain through for­mal channels. 

We seek papers that address these types of dig­i­tal health com­mu­ni­ties, across the spec­trum of med­ical needs that they address and political/geographical con­texts where they reach. We espe­cial­ly seek papers that con­tribute to method­olog­i­cal con­ver­sa­tions around research­ing dig­i­tal health plat­forms which are fast evolv­ing and raise thorny ques­tions about the ethics of research in online spaces.

Poten­tial top­ics may include but are not lim­it­ed to: 

· Online forums and social media as spaces for infor­mal health support

· Infor­mal phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal net­works and online buy­ers’ clubs for HIV pre­ven­tion (e.g., PrEP, PEP, DoxyPEP)

· Self-man­aged repro­duc­tive health (fer­til­i­ty, con­tra­cep­tion, abortion) 

· Trans health care online spaces, espe­cial­ly those for DIY trans care 

· Dig­i­tal plat­forms sup­port­ing com­mu­ni­ties with con­test­ed or chron­ic ill­ness­es (e.g., long COVID, endometrio­sis, chron­ic Lyme)

· Bio­hack­ing inter­ven­tions (e.g. DIY insulin) 

· Activism and polit­i­cal mobil­i­sa­tion by dig­i­tal health communities

· Method­olog­i­cal inter­ven­tions for study­ing dig­i­tal DIY health

· The­o­ret­i­cal con­tri­bu­tions around self-man­aged health or infor­mal care networks 

We see con­tri­bu­tions from schol­ars across dis­ci­plines (and at any career stage), but this call might be most rel­e­vant to peo­ple in geog­ra­phy, soci­ol­o­gy, anthro­pol­o­gy, pub­lic health, STS, and gen­der stud­ies. We also wel­come papers from practitioners/ activists/ non-aca­d­e­mics. We aim to sub­mit a jour­nal spe­cial issue from the papers fol­low­ing the workshop.

If you’d like to par­tic­i­pate, please sub­mit your abstract (max 300 words) and a short biog­ra­phy to s.calkin@qmul.ac.uk and a.martinezlacabe@qmul.ac.uk by Fri­day June 13, 2025. 

Perma­link

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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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

Perma­link

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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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 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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