Konferenz

Birth Rites Collection’s Sum­mer School is a unique pro­gramme of lec­tures, work­shops, sem­i­nars and one-to-one tuto­ri­als. This inten­sive pro­gramme will intro­duce you to the col­lec­tion and facil­i­tate a dia­logue between you, your prac­tice, this year’s themes, and the art­works. The Birth Rites Col­lec­tion Sum­mer School is led by artist and BRC Cura­tor Helen Knowles and artist Dr. Leni Dothan. The course will empow­er you to artic­u­late your own prac­tice and respons­es to the col­lec­tion in a sup­port­ive envi­ron­ment whilst explor­ing crit­i­cal per­spec­tives in the field of birth.

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More Info and book­ing: https://www.birthritescollection.org.uk/summer-school

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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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„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).

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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).

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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

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