Ethics seminars for 2024
Workshop
Offered by the St. André International Center for Ethics and Integrity (France)
St. André International Center for Ethics and Integrity is pleased to announce the following Ethics seminars for 2024
Ethics of End-of-Life Care: Contributions from the Arts and Humanities (February 11–17, 2024, in Rome, Italy)
Ethics Educators Workshop (September 16–20, 2024, in Rochefort du Gard, near Avignon, France)
Bioethics Colloquium (September 23–26, 2024, in Rochefort du Gard, near Avignon, France)
Health Care Ethics: Catholic Perspectives (October 22–26, 2024, in Rochefort du Gard, near Avignon, France)
More info here
If you are interested in participating or have questions about the seminars, please contact Dr. Jos Welie MA, MMeds, JD, PhD, FACD directly: info[at]saintandre.org.
„Transition in Health”
Workshop
Workshop at VANDA (Vienna Anthropology Days) 2024
Workshop „Transition in Health”
VANDA (Vienna Anthropology Days) Conferenceni in Vienna
September 23–26, 2024
Eva-Maria Knoll, Malgorzata Rajtar
Deadline: 01.06.2024
Anthropology has long been preoccupied with transition. Transitions, famously captured by Van Gennep’s “rites of passage” or Turner’s concept of “liminality”, punctuate human life, which is embedded in culture and society. Transition may also serve as a lens to analyze change and adaptation in society (e.g. Hasan 2023) and was extensively used in the context of postsocialism (e.g. Buyandelgeriyn 2008). Building on this long-standing tradition of anthropological engagement with the concept of transition, this workshop invites social science, in particular ethnographic contributions focusing on spatial, structural, and temporal aspects of transitions in the medical field. In medicine, transition is e.g. understood as a “multi-dimensional process, involving patients, caregivers, providers, and the medical system as a whole” (Cheng et al. 2021). Due to the development of medical technologies and treatment modalities, an increasing number of people with chronic and/or rare diseases reach adulthood and experience a transition from pediatric to adult care (Jae 2018). In some instances, this is uncharted territory for both patients and care providers. Transitions, as passages of change, may also be experienced on a mundane level by patients who change their dietary and/or drug regimens or by health personnel who climb the medical career ladder. We encourage ethnographically grounded analyses that address both large-scale transitions and mundane moments of transition in health and healthcare. We are also interested in papers examining failed transitions or transitions that had to be abandoned.
Sweden-oriented meeting for Medicine and Health Phd Students
Workshop
Meeting at Umea University, Sweden
Solidary pharma? Contemporary proposals for pharma reform in the European Union
Workshop
Online webinar
Online Webinar: Solidary pharma? Contemporary proposals for pharma reform in the European Union
23rd of October
3:00 – 4:30 pm CET
Registration: Please register to receive a link to the webinar. The link will be sent to you by e‑mail a few days before the webinar.
Details: At this webinar, we will discuss and compare two current policy proposals that include calls for more solidary practices in the pharmaceutical sector: 1) The ‘Pandemic Treaty’ that is currently negotiated, tabled by the President of the European Council in autumn 2021 and carried forward by the World Health Organization, and 2) the European Commission’s proposal for regulatory reform that addresses the authorization and supervision of medicinal products published in spring 2023.
These regulatory measures seem to develop through separate processes and are rarely discussed together. However, they share similar aims of providing for more equitable access and the sharing of critical medical resources internationally – albeit by different policy measures. We seek to identify the overlaps and discrepancies between the two policy proposals and reflect on what academics and civil society together might do to help direct them toward global solidarity.
Three distinguished speakers will provide a short introduction to the policy reforms and set the scene for discussion:
- Prof. Susi Geiger, University College Dublin
– Sara Rafael Almeida, Policy Officer, European Commission
– Jaume Vidal, Senior Policy Advisor, Health Action International
“Testing under crisis / Testing the crises”
Workshop
In Person Workshop at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Workshop on “Testing under crisis / Testing the crises”
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
12–13 Dec 2024
A public health crisis, especially an epidemic, and the responses
formulated to address it are interwoven with a wide range of medical,
social and political interventions. The aim of the CrisisTesting
International Workshop is to bring together novel perspectives with
regards to the study of public health crises by attending to the role
of the development and use of diagnostic tests, to the emergence of a
multitude of testing practices and to the materialities associated
with testing infrastructure.
By bringing into dialogue interdisciplinary perspectives from the
history of science, technology and medicine, the social sciences, the
medical/health humanities, Science and Technology Studies, Media
Studies and other relevant fields, we would like to explore the
significance and crucial role of testing for medical practice and
public health policy-making. The workshop has a double focus. On the
one hand, it explores the social appropriations of testing in diverse
settings and public health crises.[1] On the other hand, it
investigates possible radical changes in the history and the sociology
of testing practices, be it either about testing that “occurs inside
the social environment” or about testing that “involves the very
modification of social environments”.[2]
We invite contributions that address, but are not limited to, the
following research questions:
● How testing is being used by governments/public health
authorities to inform public health interventions and to measure their
performance?
● How can we better understand the sociotechnical tradeoffs of
testing during a crisis?
● How does the design of the testing infrastructure favor
certain public health policies in relation to the allocation of
available resources? Does the configuration of testing, afforded by
technological infrastructure, respond to the dynamics of health
crises?
● How do cases of contested testing practices affect public
health policy and the appropriations of testing in society?
● What happens in cases of disruption to the supply of
consumables that affect testing capacity? How does the availability or
lack of testing resources and associated infrastructure impact
clinical practice and policy-making during a crisis?
● In which ways testing (and screening) shapes subjectivities
and collective identities? How are the notions of health and illness
being (re)shaped by testing?
● How different uses of testing and different tests are being
promoted, judged or challenged by public health authorities and the
media in the context of science communication?
● In which ways the social preferences are reflected in the
balancing between the level of testing specificity and sensitivity?
This is the first of two workshops to be organized in the context of
the research project “Testing under crisis, a history from HIV/AIDS to
Covid-19: between public debates and health policies – CrisisTesting”
(2024–25). The aim of these workshops is to provide a space for
discussion and meaningful exchanges on the aforementioned topics. Our
plan is to publish an edited volume with contributions addressing
diverse aspects of medical testing in the context of public health
crises. The second Workshop will take place in autumn 2025.
Those interested in presenting their work, please send your abstract
(approx. 250 words) and a brief biographical note (approx. 150 words)
to crisistesting@phs.uoa.gr by the 10th of September 2024. The two-day
workshop will take place in the premises of the National and
Kapodistrian University of Athens and it is an in-person event.
Participation is cost-free; the refreshments and meals are covered by
the organizers. In exceptional cases, we will try to accommodate
hybrid solutions (virtual participation).
The workshop is organized by the research team members of the
CrisisTesting project: Katerina Vlantoni (Principal Investigator),
assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and History of
Science, NKUA; Athanasios Barlagiannis, researcher in the Modern Greek
History Research Centre, Academy of Athens; Eirini Mergoupi-Savaidou,
postdoctoral researcher; Marilena Pateraki, postdoctoral researcher;
and, Kostas Raptis, postdoctoral researcher.
[1] Beaudevin, C., Berlivet, L., Boudia, S., Bourgain, C., Cassier,
M., Gaudillière, J‑P., & Löwy, I. (2021). ‘Test, Test, Test!’:
Scarcity, Tinkering, and Testing Policy Early in the COVID-19 Epidemic
in France. Medicine Anthropology Theory, 8(2), 1–31.
https://doi.org/10.17157/mat.8.2.5116
[2] Marres, N., & Stark, D. (2020). Put to the test: For a new
sociology of testing. The British journal of sociology, 71(3),
423–443. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468–4446.12746
Details: https://crisistesting.gr/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/CfP-CrisisTestingWorkshop.pdf
The Biopolitics of Global Health after COVID-19
Workshop
PhD students only cross-disciplinary in-person workshop in New Delhi
CfP „The Biopolitics of Global Health after COVID-19”
December 13, 14, and 15, 2024
Abstract submission deadline: August 31, 2024
PhD students worldwide from across the social sciences and humanities are welcome to submit abstracts related to (re-)emergent modes of governance and the governance of health and illness during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. During the workshop, we will reflect on reconfigurations of the notion of „global” health and the reshaping of care infrastructures.
Students may respond to either of the following topics, regardless of their academic training or discipline:
Local realities of the (post-)pandemic landscape: This panel has an ethnographic focus, zooming in on situated configurations of health, illness, and governance during and after COVID-19.
The (post-)pandemic biopolitics of global health: This panel has a biopolitical focus, inviting conceptual reflections on social care, power, territorializations, populations, and citizenship; exploring the biosocial forms of life emerging during and after the pandemic.
Please see the attached CfP for further details.
Submission Details:
Submit your abstracts to: escavanblarikom@gmail.com; tcc9@cornell.edu; yasmeen.arif@snu.edu.in
Workshop Schedule:
December 13: Public event and keynote in central Delhi; dinner will be provided.
December 14–15: Roundtables and student presentations; accommodation and hospitality on campus (Shiv Nadar University) will be provided.
We are able to offer limited travel support for students traveling from outside of India and within India. Please note that this support may not fully cover roundtrip expenses for international students.
The Biopolitics of Global Health after COVID-19
Workshop
New Delhi-based workshop
“The Biopolitics of Global Health after COVID-19”
December 13,14, and 15th, 2024
New Delhi
Shiv Nadar and Cornell University are excited to invite doctoral students to participate in our upcoming workshop in New Delhi, India, exploring “The Biopolitics of Global Health after COVID-19”.
Call for Papers: “The Biopolitics of Global Health after COVID-19”
Doctoral students from around the globe are welcome to submit a 500-word abstract responding to one of two themes, as explained below, before the deadline of the 31st of August 2024.
The Workshop
The COVID-19 pandemic threw taken-for-granted notions into (temporary) disarray; reterritorializing imaginations of “global” health, sharpening neocolonial relations and divides, transforming hemispheric vulnerabilities and reconfiguring the governance of illness and health. At the same time, one year after the WHO stopped considering COVID-19 a global health emergency, the longer-term effects of the event of the pandemic have not yet fully been accounted for.
Our New Delhi-based workshop, taking place in-person on December 13,14, and 15th, 2024, will be a cross-cultural and transdisciplinary laboratory of thinking about where the pandemic has left us and what could be future vectors of concern. A double foundation grounds the overall project – biopolitical approaches and located anthropological work. Few concepts gained as much traction in reflecting on the pandemic as “biopolitics”, as the relations between “life” and “politics” were rapidly reconfigured in the wake of emergency measures the COVID-19 pandemic instigated. At the same time, “biopolitics” soon became a contentious concept, dividing scholars in various ways across the political spectrum in the (post-)pandemic global health arena. The challenges were many, including but not limited to understanding immunities anew and rethinking governance under crises. Anthropological efforts across the world revised concepts such as care, social infrastructures, and community.
Through a biopolitical framework in conversation with anthropological and sociological perspectives, this workshop will enable a much-needed conversation between philosophical interventions and empirical research. Rather than smoothing over the fault lines that appeared in biopolitical thinking and among anthropological deliberations in particular geographies and ecologies during and post-COVID-19, we want to take these ruptures as a fertile starting point for a renewed, collaborative conversation, investigating potentially changed perceptions of illness, health, science, society and ethics.
The workshop intends to assemble scholars from across the humanities and social sciences to rethink the notion of biopolitics from the ruins of global health in the post-pandemic era. Engaging researchers from around the globe, we intend to investigate how the pandemic has recast understanding of the governance of health and populations in the global south and north.
Participating students are invited to engage in discussions with peers working on post-pandemic biopolitics and global health, as well as with the workshops’ roundtable panel members, who will provide reflections and questions on their work – offering students an opportunity to connect with leading international scholars on biopolitics and global health.
The Workshops Themes
We invite responses focusing on two themes, enabling a comparative analysis of pandemic realities to emerge.
Theme 1: “Local realities of the (post-)pandemic landscape”
On the first day of the workshop, we will zoom in on situated configurations of health, illness and governance. We are particularly interested in contributions that engage with the pandemic’s impact on care infrastructures and institutions, as well as social responsiveness. Contributions to this theme may be ethnographic or focus on context-specific narratives, events, spaces or experiences. The aim here is to provide snapshots of (post-)pandemic life.
Submissions to this theme may engage with one or several of the following questions:
- How has the pandemic reconfigured relations of care and governance between doctors and patients, institutions and subjects; and among neighbors and citizens?
- How can we understand, criticize and/or work with novel modes of surveillance, forms of citizenship, and population groups emerging through the event of the pandemic?
- How can we reflect on the specific temporalities brought about by the pandemic and after, including the blurring of the notions of crisis and chronicity; aging, the end of life, death and dying; and the experience of the everyday?
Theme 2: “The (post-)pandemic biopolitics of global health”
On the second day of the workshop, we will reflect on the biopolitics of post-pandemic global health with a focus on the conceptual or theoretical plane. Here, we are keen to receive contributions taking a distinctly philosophical and analytical approach, providing conceptual reflections on topics such as the social, care, power, territorializations, populations, and citizenship. These reflections will further a comparative discussion, exploring the biosocial forms of life emerging during and after the pandemic.
Submissions for this second theme may respond to the following questions or related themes:
- „What does ‚global’ mean, specifically in the context of ‚global health,’ when considering the different impacts at both territorial and local levels during and after the pandemic?
- How, if at all, has the pandemic reconfigured the domain of the social and the boundaries of population groups; in other words, transformed the object of biopolitics?
- What novel or renewed dimensions of living and dying, and affiliated forms of social and governance infrastructures, have emerged during and after the pandemic?
Submission guidelines:
Interested students are invited to submit an abstract (max. 500 words) before the 31st of August 2024.
Submissions must clearly indicate which theme they are responding to. Students from different backgrounds are encouraged to respond to any of the two themes regardless of their disciplinary training.
We will let participants know about our decision by the 20th of September 2024.
Queries about the workshop or the submission process may be sent to:
Submission may be sent to:
escavanblarikom@gmail.com; tcc9@cornell.edu; yasmeen.arif@snu.edu.in
Eligibility and audience
Doctoral students from across the globe working in the social sciences and humanities on related topics are welcome to submit abstracts. The workshop audience will consist of international scholars and non-academics who work in fields related to the biopolitics of global health post-COVID-19.
The first day (13th of Dec) will be a public event at a central venue in Delhi, dinner is included in that event. Accommodation and hospitality on campus during the final two days (14–15th of Dec) of the workshop will be provided.
We are able to offer limited travel support for students traveling from outside of India as well as within India. Please indicate in your submission whether you would like to be considered for this support.
The full student’ papers will be uploaded to the wider project’s digital repository (Cornell eCommons) after the workshop.
Composing Coexistence: Challenges in Research on More-than-Human Health
Workshop
In person workshop at Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg
Doctoral workshop „Composing Coexistence: Challenges in Research on More-than-Human Health”
20–21 Feb 2025
Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg
Organized by the research group Medical Anthropology at the BNITM
Environmental disasters and the (re-)emergence of infectious diseases require human health to be considered in relation to the health of animals and the environment. A growing number of social scientists investigate multispecies contact zones and how these are bound up with anthropogenic processes, such as climate change, land use, resource exploitation, pollution and toxicity. Their studies have had an enormous impact on the development of biosocial approaches to multispecies relations.
Anthropological ambitions to compose coexistence in a sensitive way are higher than ever. However, multispecies researchers face several challenges and barriers, for example with regard to inter- or transdisciplinary work. While emphasizing the interconnectedness of humans, animals and the environment, concepts like ‘One Health’ or ‘Planetary Health’ ultimately revolve around questions of human health and well-being. As a result, anthropocentric and human exceptionalist approaches are often promoted, neglecting the perspectives and needs of non-human beings. How can social scientists debunk such approaches? How can we ensure that we do not reproduce these perspectives? How can we address issues of translation, advocacy and agency concerning non-human beings?
With this workshop, we seek to address doctoral researchers from the social sciences and humanities with a keen interest in the study of more-than-human health. Over two days, we will present and discuss our research projects, and engage in creative exercises considering current debates on multispecies methodologies and related obstacles. Furthermore, we are delighted that Giorgio Brocco (University of Vienna) will give a talk on chemicality and toxicity in the plantation world of the French Caribbean.
We warmly welcome applications from doctoral students who are at an early stage of their research or in the post-fieldwork phase. As early-career researchers, our aim is to create a supportive environment where we can strengthen our research topics and connect with researchers who share an interest in exploring the entanglements between human, animal and environmental health.
The workshop will be held in English. If you would like to participate, please send a description of your research project (max. 750 words) and your academic CV to vivien.barth(at)bnitm.de or to erik.zillmann(at)bnitm.de by 30 September 2024.