Panel

Inequal­i­ties in (Men­tal) Health­care: Crit­i­cal Per­spec­tives in Med­ical Anthropology
Pan­el at World Antrhopo­log­i­cal Union Con­gress 2024
Con­venors: Sharon Gabie (Nel­son Man­dela Uni­ver­si­ty, Johan­nes­burg­burg, South Africa), Hel­mar Kurz (Uni­ver­si­ty of Muen­ster, Germany)
When: 11th – 15th Novem­ber 2024
Cfp dead­line: 13 May 2024

Pan­el Abstract:
(Men­tal) health­care sys­tems world­wide meet var­i­ous chal­lenges, par­tic­u­lar­ly the insuf­fi­cien­cy of resources for patients of low­er eco­nom­ic class­es and rur­al areas. What is more, in many places ther­a­peu­tic set­tings remain “zones of aban­don­ment” (Biehl 2005), par­tic­u­lar­ly when affil­i­at­ed with offi­cial health­care sec­tors. How­ev­er, some phil­an­thropic, reli­gious-spir­i­tu­al, and pri­vate agen­cies pro­vide “good exam­ples” of (men­tal) health­care (Basu et al. 2017).
Chang­ing gov­ern­ments and con­test­ing poli­cies have impact­ed local, translo­cal, and glob­al (men­tal) health­care sup­plies, main­tain­ing incon­sis­ten­cies in (men­tal) health­care. Fur­ther, the recent COVID-19 pan­dem­ic has clear­ly illus­trat­ed that struc­tur­al vio­lence (Farmer 2005) and chronic­i­ty of cri­sis (Vigh 2008) still shape inequal­i­ties in access to health resources in both the Glob­al North and Glob­al South. New chal­lenges may be requests regard­ing the men­tal health­care pro­vi­sion for Indige­nous and migra­to­ry communities.
In South Africa, a recent case of neg­li­gence and mal­ad­min­is­tra­tion of peo­ple with psy­chi­atric dis­or­ders is that of Life Esidi­meni. The tragedy wit­nessed 144 peo­ple die because of inap­pro­pri­ate care and the lack of equipped infra­struc­ture and staff to cater to the needs of peo­ple in men­tal health care facil­i­ties and many more suf­fer­ing trau­ma (Duro­jaye & Aga­ba 2018, Fer­l­i­to & Dhai 2018). South Africa is no excep­tion for the fact, that coun­tries across the globe neglect men­tal health care as an over­all aspect of health and well­be­ing. The results of a four-coun­try study, which includ­ed South Africa, found that there is a lack of data to con­vince pol­i­cy­mak­ers to pri­or­i­tize men­tal health, a lack of imple­men­ta­tion, and how to mobi­lize peo­ple to seek inter­ven­tion to the prob­lem at an ear­ly stage (Pil­lay 2019). In dis­ad­van­taged com­mu­ni­ties, black com­mu­ni­ties in par­tic­u­lar, the stig­ma against men­tal health issues is com­pound­ed by cul­tur­al and social chal­lenges that pre­vent many peo­ple from seek­ing ear­ly inter­ven­tion (Gumede 2021).
Phil­an­thropic orga­ni­za­tions have always been essen­tial health resources, and not only for mar­gin­al­ized social groups (for the exam­ple of Brazil­ian Spiritism, see Kurz 2024). How­ev­er, they have been wide­ly ignored in pub­lic and aca­d­e­m­ic dis­course, and how polit­i­cal insti­tu­tions con­test, reg­u­late, or inte­grate relat­ed approach­es remains a research desider­a­tum that this pan­el wants to address around the fol­low­ing lead­ing ques­tions, focus­ing on men­tal health prac­tices but inte­grat­ing all health-relat­ed aspects of human well-being:
1) Strate­gies between actors. What are the con­tem­po­rary challenges/opportunities of diverse actors with­in the field of (men­tal) health in their par­tic­u­lar local­i­ties? In which spaces do they inter­vene? Where are they exclud­ed? What trends can be iden­ti­fied, e.g., in the emer­gence of new agen­cies in the field or pow­er dis­tri­b­u­tions among exist­ing actors?
2) Con­tent of action and inter­ven­tion in the field. What is cur­rent­ly at stake? What are per­spec­tives and prac­tices? How do diver­gent actors respond to (men­tal) health challenges?
3) Polit­i­cal reg­u­la­tion. How do state and offi­cial health­care insti­tu­tions relate to con­test­ing and com­ple­ment­ing approach­es? Do forms of coop­er­a­tion exist? Do obsta­cles exist? What are polit­i­cal strate­gies at the inter­sec­tion of polit­i­cal, eco­nom­ic, and social interests?

To sub­mit a paper/abstract, please fol­low these guide­lines: https://waucongress.org/call-for-papers/

The con­venors are avail­able for any doubt or ques­tion in advance and through­out the CfP process:
Sharon Gabie (Nel­son Man­dela Uni­ver­si­ty, Johan­nes­burg­burg, South Africa) sharon_gabie@yahoo.ie
Hel­mar Kurz (Uni­ver­si­ty of Muen­ster, Ger­many) helmar.kurz@uni-muenster.de

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Call for Pan­els: RAI FILM Online Con­fer­ence 2025: „Where Are We Now? Visu­al and Mul­ti­modal Anthropology”
28 April – 2 May 2025 (Online only)

RAI FILM and the Film Com­mit­tee of the Roy­al Anthro­po­log­i­cal Insti­tute invites pan­el, round­table, and work­shop pro­pos­als on any facet of visu­al, mul­ti­sen­so­ry and mul­ti­modal Anthro­pol­o­gy. We want to redou­ble our efforts to achieve a bet­ter and more sus­tain­able future for all by learn­ing more about how anthro­pol­o­gists are using these meth­ods to respond to glob­al chal­lenges of our times. We encour­age pre­sen­ta­tions that explore emer­gent method­olo­gies and inter­ac­tive approach­es. We offer an inclu­sive forum to explore cre­ative and inno­v­a­tive approach­es, dis­cuss col­lab­o­ra­tive and par­tic­i­pa­to­ry meth­ods and tack­le prac­ti­cal problems.
Pos­si­ble areas of con­tem­po­rary inter­est might be dia­logues between emer­gent and exist­ing forms of film mak­ing; AI and chang­ing tech­nolo­gies (extend­ed real­i­ty (XR); sto­ry­telling and nar­ra­tive, indige­nous film­mak­ing; ani­ma­tion, and aesthetics.
In addi­tion to this open call, we are also look­ing to high­light the glob­al chal­lenges for visu­al and mul­ti­modal anthro­pol­o­gy. We ask how visu­al and mul­ti­modal meth­ods can help to address the glob­al chal­lenges of our times. We want to learn how anthro­pol­o­gists are using visu­al and mul­ti­modal tools to respond to issues such as inequal­i­ty, envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion, pover­ty, cli­mate change, war, and jus­tice. We wel­come engage­ment with top­ics such as food and hunger, water, migra­tion, forced dis­place­ment, extrem­ism and intol­er­ance, social inequal­i­ties, men­tal health, dis­abil­i­ty, dis­crim­i­na­tion and geno­cide, peace and jus­tice, cli­mate change and sus­tain­abil­i­ty, renew­ables and just economies.
This vir­tu­al con­fer­ence sits along­side the RAI FILM Fes­ti­val which is a bien­ni­al inter­na­tion­al event cel­e­brat­ing the best in doc­u­men­tary film­mak­ing from around the globe and estab­lished in 1985 by the Roy­al Anthro­po­log­i­cal Insti­tute (UK). The fes­ti­val show­cas­es new work from aca­d­e­m­ic anthro­pol­o­gists and relat­ed dis­ci­plines, and from film­mak­ers at all lev­els of expe­ri­ence from stu­dents to pro­fes­sion­als. It looks for fear­less films that ask dif­fi­cult ques­tions, build bridges, seek redress and pro­mote social jus­tice and dialogue.

To see our two most recent edi­tions see: https://festival.raifilm.org.uk/

RAI FILM Fes­ti­val 2025 will cel­e­brate our 40th anniver­sary both in per­son and online:  https://raifilm.org.uk/rai-film-festival-2025/

In per­son film fes­ti­val – 27–30 March 2025 at Water­shed & Arnolfi­ni, Bris­tol UK
Screen­ings, gala events, work­shops and talks
Fes­ti­val films avail­able online through­out April 2025
Stream­ing 80 films avail­able 24/7 worldwide
RAI FILM Con­fer­ence – 28 April‑2 May 2025
Keynotes, pan­els, round­table, work­shops and paper presentations

Join us to explore the crit­i­cal role of visu­al and mul­ti­modal anthro­pol­o­gy in address­ing con­tem­po­rary glob­al issues. Sub­mit your pro­pos­als and con­tribute to a dynam­ic and inclu­sive forum for inno­v­a­tive and cre­ative schol­ar­ly exchange.

Pan­el Sub­mis­sion Guidelines:

1. Pan­el, Round­table, and Work­shop Proposals:

• Title: Con­cise and descriptive.
• Short Abstract: a (very) short abstract of less than 300 characters,
• Long Abstract: a long abstract of 250 words

2. Impor­tant Dates:

• Call for Pan­els Clos­es: 1 Octo­ber 2024
• Call for Papers Opens: 1 Novem­ber 2024
• Call for Papers Clos­es: 17 Jan­u­ary 2025
• Reg­is­tra­tion Opens: 24 Feb­ru­ary 2025

To Sub­mit: All pro­pos­als must be made via an online form https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/raiff2025/panel-form

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