Konferenz

Bod­ies, Vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties, Empowerment
Symposium
Orgniz­ers: Aman­da Lubit, Mile­na Williamson, and Maruš­ka Svašek.
Time: Fri­day 6 March 2026
Place: Wolf­son Lec­ture The­atre, Sea­mus Heaney Cen­tre, 38–40 Uni­ver­si­ty Road, Belfast

Call for Con­tri­bu­tions (dead­line: 15 Jan 2026)

Cen­tre for Cre­ative Ethnog­ra­phy, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Sea­mus Heaney Cen­tre, invites aca­d­e­mics, stu­dents, poets and oth­ers to par­tic­i­pate in a one-day, in-per­son sym­po­sium. The objec­tive is to employ cre­ative ethnog­ra­phy, poet­ry, and oth­er modes of artis­tic explo­ration to explore how inequal­i­ties relat­ed to inter­sec­tion­al­i­ties of gen­der, sex­u­al­i­ty, race, reli­gion, class, age, and/or dis­abil­i­ty are

– embod­ied and experienced
– embed­ded in wider soci­etal structures
– politi­cised and resisted

Bod­ies: We invite sub­mis­sions that inves­ti­gate phys­i­cal­i­ty, aging, mor­tal­i­ty, emo­tion­al inter­ac­tion, indi­vid­ual bod­ies and body politics.

Vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties: Relat­ed ques­tions around inequal­i­ties, oppres­sion, inter­de­pen­dence, and expe­ri­ences of dis­em­pow­er­ment and trau­ma are high­ly relevant.

Empow­er­ment: We also wel­come con­tri­bu­tions that exam­ine broad­er themes of bod­i­ly agency, resis­tance, and transformation.

Con­trib­u­tors might sim­i­lar­ly con­sid­er rela­tion­ships between artist’s bod­ies and bod­ies of work, explor­ing how con­crete works exist in space, cul­ture and soci­ety. Anoth­er rel­e­vant ques­tion is how cre­ative prac­tice can make us as cre­ators both vul­ner­a­ble and empow­ered. What are the com­pli­ca­tions of try­ing to express

- an indi­vid­ual experience

“The days are get­ting longer now, how­ev­er many of them / I have left. / And the pen­cil I am writ­ing this with, old as it is, will eas­i­ly / out­last their end.” –Cia­ran Carson’s “Claude Mon­et, Artist’s Gar­den at Vétheuil, 1880)

- a col­lec­tive experience

(“All atti­tudes, all the shape­li­ness, all the belong­ings of my or your body or of any one’s body” –Walt Whitman’s “I Sing the Body Electric”)

We encour­age, but do not require, sub­mis­sions that incor­po­rate a per­for­ma­tive ele­ment. Per­for­mances can include, but are not lim­it­ed to, read­ings, dance, visu­al arts and crafts, sound, and film.

FORMAT: Each con­trib­u­tor will have up to 15 min­utes for their pre­sen­ta­tion, demon­stra­tion and/or per­for­mance. If you wish to con­tribute, please send a 200-word abstract and a 100-word bio to CFCE@qub.ac.uk by Jan­u­ary 15, 2025. Please spec­i­fy the for­mat of your con­tri­bu­tion. If you are doing a demon­stra­tion and/or per­for­mance please let us know what that will involve.

KEYNOTE: Bebe Ashley

Bebe lives in North­ern Ire­land. Her debut col­lec­tion Gold Light Shin­ing (Ban­shee Press) was select­ed for Read Mór in 2022. In 2023, Bebe received the Ivan Juritz Prize for Cre­ative Exper­i­ment (Text) for work which was lat­er pub­lished in her sec­ond poet­ry col­lec­tion Har­bour Doubts. In 2024, Bebe received a Cre­ative Prac­ti­tion­er Bur­sary from Belfast City Coun­cil, and in 2025, received the British Coun­cil Fel­low­ship for Bun­danon, Aus­tralia. For more details, please see here: http://www.bebe-ashley.com/

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Inter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence „For a Bet­ter Pub­lic Health and Health­care: Mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary Solutions”
Mon­te­ca­ti­ni Terme (Italy)
13–15 March 2026

Good Health and Well-being is one of the 17 UN Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals, close­ly inter­con­nect­ed with social chal­lenges, such as pover­ty and inequal­i­ty. Avoid­able poor health and inequal­i­ties in health and access to health­care per­sist across all coun­tries, while health­care costs con­tin­ue to rise. This con­fer­ence aims to stim­u­late mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary think­ing and action to devel­op solu­tions that grasp the oppor­tu­ni­ties offered by tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tion, while tack­ling the socio-eco­nom­ic deter­mi­nants of health and the effects of envi­ron­men­tal challenges.

Sus­tain­able health­care solu­tions and effec­tive pub­lic health deliv­ery require more than just stat­ed com­mit­ments — they demand con­crete action, inno­v­a­tive think­ing and sus­tained col­lab­o­ra­tion across sec­tors to enable a good patient expe­ri­ence and ensure effi­cient and sus­tain­able health ser­vices. This Inter­na­tion­al Mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary Con­fer­ence will bring togeth­er actors in the inter­con­nect­ed fields of pub­lic health, health care and envi­ron­ment to inves­ti­gate the state of health poli­cies and ser­vices across dif­fer­ent fields.
A key objec­tive is to devel­op syn­er­gies between aca­d­e­m­ic research, the man­age­ment of the phys­i­cal envi­ron­ment, pub­lic health deliv­ery, health providers, pub­lic and pri­vate investors and pol­i­cy mak­ers. The aim is to stim­u­late an inte­grat­ed approach to address both imme­di­ate chal­lenges and long-term sus­tain­abil­i­ty goals, improv­ing effi­cien­cy, resilience and ser­vice acces­si­bil­i­ty to all com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers, while pro­mot­ing a greater focus on reduc­ing demand upstream through appro­pri­ate pre­ven­tive approach­es in the phys­i­cal, eco­nom­ic and psy­choso­cial environment.

The Con­fer­ence will devel­op through work­shops and ple­nary ses­sions focused on three core areas and the com­ple­men­tary ways in which they impact the effi­cien­cy and resilience of pub­lic health poli­cies and health­care sys­tems, and people’s health and well­be­ing in a holis­tic sense. 

The three inter­con­nect­ed core areas are:
(1) Tack­ling Sys­temic Health­care Costs and Health­care Access;
(2) Pub­lic Health and the Phys­i­cal and Socio-eco­nom­ic Environment;
(3) Dig­i­tal Health Inno­va­tion and Respon­si­ble AI in Health Systems.

Fur­ther Details and Updates are avail­able at: Inter­na­tion­al Mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary Health Con­fer­ence 2026 | inter­na­tion­al urban sym­po­sium – ius

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