Workshop

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

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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.

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“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 31^st 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:

1. How has the pan­dem­ic recon­fig­ured rela­tions of care and gov­er­nance between doc­tors and patients, insti­tu­tions and sub­jects; and among neigh­bors and citizens?
2. 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?
3. 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:

1. „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?
2. 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?
3. 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 31^st 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 20^th of Sep­tem­ber 2024. 

Queries about the work­shop or the sub­mis­sion process may be sent to:

escavanblarikom@gmail.com

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 (13^th 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 (14–15^th 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.

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CfP for a work­shop on „Bod­i­ly Prac­tices Between Indi­vid­ual Well-being and Insti­tu­tion­al Regulation“.
Orga­nized by the Ger­man Asso­ci­a­tion for Social and Cul­tur­al Anthro­pol­o­gy (DGSKA)
The dead­line for sub­mis­sion is 15th Jan­u­ary 2025.

Please send ques­tions and pro­pos­als via: https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/dgska2025/p/16045

Short Abstract:
The work­shop explores bod­i­ly prac­tices at the inter­sec­tion of indi­vid­ual well-being and insti­tu­tion­al reg­u­la­tion. It focus­es on ques­tions of knowl­edge pro­duc­tion, embod­i­ment, pow­er struc­tures, and the role of reli­gious, pri­vate, or state actors in the con­struc­tion and com­mer­cial­iza­tion of com­mons. Using exam­ples such as yoga and oth­er heal­ing-ori­ent­ed prac­tices like med­i­ta­tion, Tai Chi, Sufi dance, or veg­an­ism, the work­shop high­lights the com­plex inter­con­nec­tions between indi­vid­ual bod­i­ly prac­tices, glob­al health dis­cours­es, intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty claims, and iden­ti­ty pol­i­tics. Par­tic­i­pants are invit­ed to present ethno­graph­ic case stud­ies that exam­ine these dynam­ics and the per­for­ma­tive role of such prac­tices in both local and glob­al contexts.

The pan­el will be held in Ger­man, but Eng­lish con­tri­bu­tions are most welcome

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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.

2025_BNITM_Workshop_Composing Coexistence_Flyer‑1

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Call For Papers
Health Activism: Insti­gat­ing Change in Sys­tems of Care
Host­ed by Dr. Natashe Lemos Dekker and Dr. Maria Hagan
Cen­tre for Social Sci­ence in Glob­al Health, Depart­ment of Anthro­pol­o­gy, Uni­ver­si­ty of Ams­ter­dam (UvA)
Thurs­day 20th & Fri­day 21st of Feb­ru­ary 2025 

Cracks and gaps in our health care sys­tems have been increas­ing­ly exposed in recent years, both in terms of these sys­tems’ capac­i­ty and in terms of restric­tions regard­ing whom they cater to and how. These frail­ties have been empha­sised in moments of cri­sis such as the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, but also emerge out of shift­ing polit­i­cal land­scapes which seek to restrict the rights of women, asy­lum seek­ers and peo­ple with a dis­abil­i­ty, among many oth­ers. Against this socio-polit­i­cal back­drop, revived and new­ly emerg­ing forms of health activism can be dis­tin­guished. In many coun­tries around the world, health care pro­fes­sion­als, infor­mal care­givers, and those in need of care are active­ly par­tic­i­pat­ing in move­ments and col­lec­tive actions, to address injus­tices and exclu­sion, and to fill the gaps in exist­ing health care systems.
This work­shop seeks to spark con­ver­sa­tion around acts of care and social protest, pay­ing close atten­tion to how pro­fes­sion­al and infor­mal care­givers (rang­ing from doc­tors and nurs­es to patients, fam­i­lies and sol­i­dar­i­ty actors) engage in forms of activism and gal­vanise move­ments to address health con­cerns and stim­u­late change in (pub­lic) health sys­tems. We are inter­est­ed in how health activism move­ments come into being in dif­fer­ent glob­al con­texts, and how they impact (strength­en or inter­fere with) ver­nac­u­lar modes of cop­ing with ill­ness, dis­abil­i­ty, injury and loss. Togeth­er, we will inter­ro­gate how health activism impacts nation­al health poli­cies and sys­tems, and how such ini­tia­tives trav­el beyond geo­graph­i­cal boundaries. 

As part of the event, med­ical and envi­ron­men­tal anthro­pol­o­gist Dr. Alex Nad­ing will join us as a keynote speak­er. He will give a pub­lic lec­ture on Thurs­day the 20th of Feb­ru­ary between 15:00 and 17.00. Dr. Nad­ing is an Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Anthro­pol­o­gy at Cor­nell Uni­ver­si­ty. He is the author of Mos­qui­to Trails: Ecol­o­gy, Health, and the Pol­i­tics of Entan­gle­ment (Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia Press 2014) and of The Kid­ney and the Cane: Plan­e­tary Health and Plan­ta­tion Labor in Nicaragua, which will be pub­lished with Duke Uni­ver­si­ty Press in 2025. keynote speak­er. He will give a pub­lic lec­ture on Thurs­day the 20th of Feb­ru­ary between 15:00 and 17.00. Dr. Nad­ing is an Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Anthro­pol­o­gy at Cor­nell Uni­ver­si­ty. He is the author of Mos­qui­to Trails: Ecol­o­gy, Health, and the Pol­i­tics of Entan­gle­ment (Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia Press 2014) and of The Kid­ney and the Cane: Plan­e­tary Health and Plan­ta­tion Labor in Nicaragua, which will be pub­lished with Duke Uni­ver­si­ty Press in 2025.

By bring­ing exam­ples of health activism ini­tia­tives from dif­fer­ent con­texts into con­ver­sa­tion, we aim to shed light on the dif­fer­ent ways in which these move­ments are sparked, how they oper­ate and insti­gate change. The mul­ti-sit­ed think­ing devel­oped through­out the work­shop will form the basis for a con­crete dis­cus­sion on how col­lab­o­ra­tive knowl­edge-build­ing might stim­u­late practice. 

Papers may include, but are not lim­it­ed to, the fol­low­ing top­ics (all region­al focus­es are welcome): 

– Grass­roots ini­tia­tives pro­vid­ing (health)care to under-resourced areas and under­served communities
– Con­tem­po­rary or his­tor­i­cal stud­ies of social move­ments around issues of health inequal­i­ty and disability
– Inter­sec­tions of health, (in)justice, and the emer­gence of social movements
– Prac­tices of “patient”-led advo­ca­cy and activism
– Prac­tices of care and advo­ca­cy by pro­fes­sion­al care providers with­in spaces of care (hos­pi­tals, clin­ics, health cen­tres, homes, safehouses…) 

We will ask par­tic­i­pants to cir­cu­late short papers before the work­shop, so we can famil­iarise our­selves with each other’s work ahead of time. The work­shop will be organ­ised in the­mat­ic ses­sions deter­mined accord­ing to the papers we receive, and each par­tic­i­pant will short­ly present their work (15–20 min­utes) fol­lowed by com­ments and dis­cus­sion. In sum, the work­shop will map diverse forms of health activism by bring­ing togeth­er a selec­tion of local­ized accounts. Hon­ing in on the polit­i­cal lay­ered­ness of glob­al health poli­cies and prac­tices, it will shed light on the poten­tial val­ue for glob­al health pro­grammes to engage with local-lev­el ini­tia­tives. These con­ver­sa­tions will also form the basis for an online publication. 

If you are inter­est­ed in tak­ing part in the work­shop, please send an abstract (max. 200 words) of the paper you would like to con­tribute to the work­shop. Please send this to Maria Hagan (m.h.hagan@uva.nl) and Natashe Lemos Dekker (n.lemosdekker@uva.nl) by Mon­day the 25th of Novem­ber 2024. Appli­cants will be noti­fied of accep­tance by Mon­day the 2nd of Decem­ber 2024.
Lunch will be pro­vid­ed on both days of the work­shop. Trav­el and accom­mo­da­tion costs, how­ev­er, unfor­tu­nate­ly can­not be covered.
This event is sup­port­ed by a 2024 Social Sci­ence in Glob­al Health (SSGH) small grant. 

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CfP Work­shop on „Health Activism: Insti­gat­ing Change in Sys­tems of Care”
20th & 21st of Feb­ru­ary 2025
Cen­tre for Social Sci­ence in Glob­al Health, Depart­ment of Anthro­pol­o­gy, Uni­ver­si­ty of Ams­ter­dam (UvA)
Host­ed by Dr. Natashe Lemos Dekker and Dr. Maria Hagan 

Details:
Cracks and gaps in our health care sys­tems have been increas­ing­ly exposed in recent years, both in terms of these sys­tems’ capac­i­ty and in terms of restric­tions regard­ing whom they cater to and how. These frail­ties have been empha­sised in moments of cri­sis such as the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, but also emerge out of shift­ing polit­i­cal land­scapes which seek to restrict the rights of women, asy­lum seek­ers and peo­ple with a dis­abil­i­ty, among many oth­ers. Against this socio-polit­i­cal back­drop, revived and new­ly emerg­ing forms of health activism can be dis­tin­guished. In many coun­tries around the world, health care pro­fes­sion­als, infor­mal care­givers, and those in need of care are active­ly par­tic­i­pat­ing in move­ments and col­lec­tive actions, to address injus­tices and exclu­sion, and to fill the gaps in exist­ing health care systems.
This work­shop seeks to spark con­ver­sa­tion around acts of care and social protest, pay­ing close atten­tion to how pro­fes­sion­al and infor­mal care­givers (rang­ing from doc­tors and nurs­es to patients, fam­i­lies and sol­i­dar­i­ty actors) engage in forms of activism and gal­vanise move­ments to address health con­cerns and stim­u­late change in (pub­lic) health sys­tems. We are inter­est­ed in how health activism move­ments come into being in dif­fer­ent glob­al con­texts, and how they impact (strength­en or inter­fere with) ver­nac­u­lar modes of cop­ing with ill­ness, dis­abil­i­ty, injury and loss. Togeth­er, we will inter­ro­gate how health activism impacts nation­al health poli­cies and sys­tems, and how such ini­tia­tives trav­el beyond geo­graph­i­cal boundaries. 

As part of the event, med­ical and envi­ron­men­tal anthro­pol­o­gist Dr. Alex Nad­ing will join us as a keynote speak­er. He will give a pub­lic lec­ture on Thurs­day the 20th of Feb­ru­ary between 15:00 and 17.00. Dr. Nad­ing is an Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Anthro­pol­o­gy at Cor­nell Uni­ver­si­ty. He is the author of Mos­qui­to Trails: Ecol­o­gy, Health, and the Pol­i­tics of Entan­gle­ment (Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia Press 2014) and of The Kid­ney and the Cane: Plan­e­tary Health and Plan­ta­tion Labor in Nicaragua, which will be pub­lished with Duke Uni­ver­si­ty Press in 2025.

By bring­ing exam­ples of health activism ini­tia­tives from dif­fer­ent con­texts into con­ver­sa­tion, we aim to shed light on the dif­fer­ent ways in which these move­ments are sparked, how they oper­ate and insti­gate change. The mul­ti-sit­ed think­ing devel­oped through­out the work­shop will form the basis for a con­crete dis­cus­sion on how col­lab­o­ra­tive knowl­edge-build­ing might stim­u­late practice. 

Papers may include, but are not lim­it­ed to, the fol­low­ing top­ics (all region­al focus­es are welcome): 

· Grass­roots ini­tia­tives pro­vid­ing (health)care to under-resourced areas and under­served communities 

· Con­tem­po­rary or his­tor­i­cal stud­ies of social move­ments around issues of health inequal­i­ty and disability 

· Inter­sec­tions of health, (in)justice, and the emer­gence of social movements 

· Prac­tices of “patient”-led advo­ca­cy and activism 

· Prac­tices of care and advo­ca­cy by pro­fes­sion­al care providers with­in spaces of care (hos­pi­tals, clin­ics, health cen­tres, homes, safehouses…) 

We will ask par­tic­i­pants to cir­cu­late short papers before the work­shop, so we can famil­iarise our­selves with each other’s work ahead of time. The work­shop will be organ­ised in the­mat­ic ses­sions deter­mined accord­ing to the papers we receive, and each par­tic­i­pant will short­ly present their work (15–20 min­utes) fol­lowed by com­ments and dis­cus­sion. In sum, the work­shop will map diverse forms of health activism by bring­ing togeth­er a selec­tion of local­ized accounts. Hon­ing in on the polit­i­cal lay­ered­ness of glob­al health poli­cies and prac­tices, it will shed light on the poten­tial val­ue for glob­al health pro­grammes to engage with local-lev­el ini­tia­tives. These con­ver­sa­tions will also form the basis for an online publication. 

If you are inter­est­ed in tak­ing part in the work­shop, please send an abstract (max. 200 words) of the paper you would like to con­tribute to the work­shop. Please send this to Maria Hagan (m.h.hagan@uva.nl) and Natashe Lemos Dekker (n.lemosdekker@uva.nl) by Mon­day the 25th of Novem­ber 2024. Appli­cants will be noti­fied of accep­tance by Mon­day the 2nd of Decem­ber 2024. 

Lunch will be pro­vid­ed on both days of the work­shop. Trav­el and accom­mo­da­tion costs, how­ev­er, unfor­tu­nate­ly can­not be covered. 

This event is sup­port­ed by a 2024 Social Sci­ence in Glob­al Health (SSGH) small grant. 

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Call for Papers for the 10th Inter­na­tion­al Work­shop on His­tor­i­cal Epis­te­mol­o­gy: „Inter­sec­tions of Psy­cho­log­i­cal Research and Psy­chother­a­peu­tic Practices”
27–29 March 2025
IMGWF, Uni­ver­sität zu Lübeck

Orga­nized by:
EpistHist Research Net­work on the His­to­ry and the Meth­ods of His­tor­i­cal Epistemology
https://episthist.hypotheses.org/

Open­ing lecture:
Hans-Jörg Rheinberger

Ten years ago, the Research Net­work on the His­to­ry and Meth­ods of His­tor­i­cal Epis­te­mol­o­gy, EpistHist, began in Paris with its inau­gur­al work­shop on épisté­molo­gie his­torique. These work­shops have turned into an annu­al oppor­tu­ni­ty to dis­cuss key issues in the his­to­ry and phi­los­o­phy of sci­ences and engage in con­tem­po­rary method­olog­i­cal debates. By mobi­liz­ing his­tor­i­cal epis­te­mol­o­gy as a broad approach, the work­shops medi­ate between 20th-cen­tu­ry French epis­te­mol­o­gy and its recent renew­al in the Eng­lish-speak­ing world. The abstracts and pro­grams of past edi­tions are avail­able on the research network’s web­site: https://episthist.hypotheses.org/.

After edi­tions in Paris, Dijon, and Venice, EpistHist is now cross­ing the Rhine and the Elbe rivers to cel­e­brate its first decade at the Insti­tute for the His­to­ry of Med­i­cine and Sci­ence Stud­ies, Uni­ver­si­ty of Lübeck, where Hans-Jörg Rhein­berg­er once con­ceived tools for inter­lac­ing the his­to­ry of sci­ence with phi­los­o­phy through his­tor­i­cal epistemology.

This anniver­sary work­shop will focus on the top­ic of Inter­sec­tions of Psy­cho­log­i­cal Research and Psy­chother­a­peu­tic Prac­tices. Here, we aim to explore which approach­es with­in his­tor­i­cal epis­te­mol­o­gy are most suit­able for inves­ti­gat­ing the pro­duc­tion of knowl­edge and prac­tices relat­ed to the psyche.

Since Gas­ton Bachelard (1984) placed research instru­ments and tech­niques at the core of his epis­te­mo­log­i­cal his­to­ry with the con­cept of phe­nom­e­notech­nique, the role of prac­tices has become cen­tral to under­stand­ing the pro­duc­tion and trans­mis­sion of sci­en­tif­ic knowl­edge. Com­pared to micro­scopes or par­ti­cle accel­er­a­tors, psy­chol­o­gy and the psy-sci­ences might seem to lack equiv­a­lent phe­nom­e­notech­niques. How­ev­er, at a clos­er look, the psy-sci­ences make wide­spread use of ques­tion­naires, inter­views, pro­to­cols, and oth­er “paper tools” essen­tial for their knowl­edge prac­tices. Mitchell Ash and Thomas Sturm (2007), fol­low­ing Ian Hack­ing (1992) and Hans-Jörg Rhein­berg­er (2017), have espe­cial­ly point­ed to the role of instru­ments of exper­i­men­ta­tion as orga­niz­ers of psy­cho­log­i­cal research practices.

On a cul­tur­al and polit­i­cal lev­el, fol­low­ing Michel Foucault’s (2008) analy­sis of psy-prac­tices as dis­ci­pli­nary prac­tices, schol­ars like Ian Hack­ing (1995, 1998, 2002), Arnold I. David­son (2002), and oth­ers explored the nor­ma­tive effects of psy-sci­ences and psy-prac­tices on sub­jects, sub­jec­tiv­i­ty, and con­cep­tions of self­hood, show­ing how con­cepts and cat­e­gories shape expe­ri­ences, result­ing in new ways of “mak­ing up people.”

Nonethe­less, with the notable excep­tion of some recent works (Marks, 2017; Ros­ner, 2018), inquiries into the his­to­ry of psy-sci­ences have pri­mar­i­ly focused on the pro­duc­tion of psy-knowl­edge, often over­look­ing psy­chother­a­peu­tic prac­tices under the assump­tion that these are mere­ly appli­ca­tions of that knowl­edge. Our work­shop intends to chal­lenge this by explic­it­ly address­ing psy­chother­a­peu­tic prac­tices as equal­ly rel­e­vant for a his­tor­i­cal epis­te­mol­o­gy of psy-sci­ences. We fol­low Georges Canguilhem’s (1974) insight that med­i­cine is not the mere appli­ca­tion of knowl­edge gen­er­at­ed in the life sci­ences but a set of diag­nos­tic and ther­a­peu­tic tech­niques sit­u­at­ed at the cross­roads of dif­fer­ent dis­ci­plines and sci­ences. Bor­row­ing from Can­guil­hem, the aim of our work­shop is pre­cise­ly to explore such inter­sec­tions and cross­roads, from exper­i­men­tal psy­chol­o­gy to spir­i­tu­al exer­cis­es, and from psy­chi­atric clas­si­fi­ca­tion sys­tems to psy­chother­a­peu­tic approaches.

We wel­come pro­pos­als explor­ing the rela­tion­ship between sci­en­tif­ic inquiries pro­duc­ing knowl­edge and the tech­ni­cal devel­op­ment of psy­chother­a­peu­tic prac­tices. Key ques­tions to be addressed include, but are not lim­it­ed to:

– What approach with­in his­tor­i­cal epis­te­mol­o­gy helps to bet­ter under­stand the social, polit­i­cal, and nor­ma­tive effects of psy-practices?
– What instru­ments in the psy-field can be con­cep­tu­al­ized as “paper tools” or even phenomenotechniques?
– To what extent and how do cat­e­gories and con­cepts from psy­chother­a­py help cre­ate new “kinds of people”?
– How has the rela­tion­ship between psy­cho­log­i­cal research and psy­chother­a­peu­tic approach­es changed over time?
– How have spe­cif­ic sci­en­tif­ic inquiries shaped dif­fer­ent psy­chother­a­peu­tic practices?
– Did the sci­en­tif­ic knowl­edge pro­duced by the psy-sci­ences migrate into psy­chother­a­py, and, if so, how was it trans­lat­ed, trans­formed, and adapt­ed in the process?
– In what ways have psy­chother­a­peu­tic tech­niques con­tributed to psy­cho­log­i­cal research?
– How have dif­fer­ent sci­en­tif­ic find­ings been used to legit­imize psy­chother­a­peu­tic practices?
– What roles have cul­tur­al, insti­tu­tion­al, and polit­i­cal con­texts played in shap­ing psy-sci­ences, psy­chother­a­peu­tic prac­tices, and their interrelations?

Pro­pos­als (500 words, along with a brief bio of the can­di­date) must be sub­mit­ted by Novem­ber 30, 2024, in .doc for­mat to epistemologiehistorique@gmail.com. Noti­fi­ca­tion of accep­tance or rejec­tion will be sent by ear­ly Jan­u­ary 2025. The work­shop will be con­duct­ed in English.

Orga­niz­ing committee:

Car­o­line Angler­aux (iBrain U1253, INSERM de Tours)
Lucie Fab­ry (LIR3S, Uni­ver­sité de Bourgogne)
Lisa Malich (IMGWF, Uni­ver­sität zu Lübeck)
Iván Moya-Diez (IMGWF, Uni­ver­sität zu Lübeck)
Perce­val Pil­lon (IHPST, Uni­ver­sité Paris 1 Pan­théon-Sor­bon­ne/C­NRS)
Mat­teo Vag­el­li (CFS, Uni­ver­sità di Pisa)

This work­shop is fund­ed by:

Deutsche Forschungs­ge­mein­schaft (DFG, Ger­man Research Foun­da­tion) – Project Num­ber 516932573: “The cog­ni­tive rev­o­lu­tion in ther­a­peu­tic prac­tice: adapt­ing sci­en­tif­ic ideals and form­ing sub­jects in Aaron Beck’s cog­ni­tive ther­a­py, 1950–1990.”

With the sup­port of:
IMGWF, Uni­ver­sität zu Lübeck.
IHPST (UMR 8590), Uni­ver­sité Paris 1 Pan­théon-Sor­bon­ne/C­NRS.
LIR3S (UMR7366), Uni­ver­sité de Bourgogne/CNRS.

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Call for Papers for the work­shop “Queer Phar­ma: Exper­i­men­ta­tions in Bod­ies, Sub­stances, Affects”
June 4–6, 2025
Schwules Muse­um Berlin & Freie Uni­ver­sität Berlin
Co-orga­nized by Han­sjörg Dil­ger and Max Schnepf 

Queer Phar­ma: Exper­i­men­ta­tions in Bod­ies, Sub­stances, Affects

Aca­d­e­m­ic work­shop with a pub­lic keynote by Kane Race (Pro­fes­sor of Gen­der and Cul­tur­al Stud­ies, Uni­ver­si­ty of Syd­ney) & an artis­tic ses­sion led by Tomás Espinosa

Abstract sub­mis­sion: Novem­ber 24, 2024
Noti­fi­ca­tions of accep­tance: Decem­ber 6, 2024
Pre-cir­cu­la­tion of paper drafts (3.000 words): May 4, 2025

Exper­i­men­ta­tions with phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal sub­stances cra­dle queer poten­tial – bod­ies and organ­isms trans­form, rela­tions shift, emo­tions swell or fade into qui­etude. With capac­i­ties to inter­vene in life’s process­es, drugs and med­i­cines are not mere­ly prod­ucts of ‘Big Phar­ma,’ but agents of uncan­ny pos­si­bil­i­ty. How might we imag­ine minor ‘phar­mas’ in ten­sion with or on the mar­gins of the dom­i­nance, epit­o­mized by the cap­i­tal­ized ‘Big’? Tak­ing Queer Phar­ma as a coun­ter­point, this work­shop invites sub­mis­sions that ethno­graph­i­cal­ly engage with uncer­tain­ties and impro­vi­sa­tions in exper­i­ment­ing with bod­ies, sub­stances, and affects – whether through drug use or oth­er phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal prac­tices (Race 2009, 2018). What new mate­r­i­al and affec­tive con­stel­la­tions might emerge if we were to focus on exper­i­men­ta­tion as a queer prac­tice? […]

You can find the full CFP attached and also HERE.

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Work­shop „The­o­riz­ing through the mun­dane: sto­ry­ing trans­for­ma­tions in healthcare”
Depart­ment of Soci­ol­o­gy, Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich, Switzerland
04–06.06.2025
CfP Dead­line: 01.12 2024

Details:
As a ‘big sto­ry’ con­cern, trans­for­ma­tions in health­care abound: dig­i­tal­iza­tion and the intro­duc­tion of AI, major demo­graph­ic trans­for­ma­tions, antimi­cro­bial resis­tances, soar­ing health­care staff short­ages, the emer­gence of trans­gen­der care, the ‘cri­sis’ of mater­ni­ty and neona­tal care, and ever increas­ing health inequal­i­ties are just a few of them. This work­shop and spe­cial issue respond to such ‘big sto­ry’ con­cerns in health­care by the­o­riz­ing through ‘the mundane’.

STS has a long tra­di­tion – with dif­fer­ent begin­nings – of attend­ing to and the­o­riz­ing through ‘the mun­dane’. Think about for exam­ple the mun­dane­ness of infra­struc­tur­al work (Bowk­er and Star 1999), the fleet­ing­ly sub­tle ‘here-and-now’ (Ver­ran 1999), the every­day­ness of mar­gin­al­iz­ing ‘invis­i­ble work’ (Star/Strauss 1989) and Latour’s doorstop­per (Johnson/Latour 1988). More recent­ly, it has been cen­tral to ‘care stud­ies’ and ‘main­te­nance and repair stud­ies’ marked through an atten­tion to ‘dai­ly life matters’
and ‘tin­ker­ing’ (Mol et al. 2010), ‘exno­va­tion’ (Mes­man 2008), ‘every­day ethics’ (Pols 2023), the eas­i­ly deval­ued as ethico-polit­i­cal com­mit­ment (Puig de la Bel­la­casa 2011), and over­looked sit­u­a­tions that take place in inter­stices of rou­tine and break­down (Denis et al. 2015).

In this work­shop and spe­cial issue, we are draw­ing upon and extend­ing these rich STS accounts on ‘the mun­dane’ to empir­i­cal­ly inves­ti­gate, think about and exper­i­ment with how STS schol­ars can relate to and inter­vene in ‘trans­for­ma­tions’ in health­care. After, or in addi­tion to, the ana­lyt­i­cal sen­si­tiv­i­ties and con­cerns that have been devel­oped in the care debate (Lindén and Lydahl 2021; Mol, Moser, Pols 2021; Mar­tin, Myers, Viseu 2015; Puig de la Bel­la­casa 2011) and the field of val­u­a­tion stud­ies (Dus­sauge, Helges­son, Lee 2015), which have dom­i­nat­ed research on health­care in STS over the past decade, the spe­cial issue seeks to – empir­i­cal­ly, ana­lyt­i­cal­ly, and polit­i­cal­ly – take the next step. ‘The­o­ris­ing through the mun­dane’ offers a ver­sion of STS that stays respon­sive to the ways we are liv­ing, dying and car­ing for bod­ies and dis­eases, and their trans­for­ma­tions, in the first half of the 21st cen­tu­ry; it offers an STS that trans­forms with and through these ways now, here, and in the future.

The work­shop and spe­cial issue wel­comes papers with an empir­i­cal focus on health­care in the large sense. The con­tri­bu­tions will explore ques­tions such as:

– What counts as ‘mun­dane’ in par­tic­u­lar sit­u­a­tions, sites, prac­tices of healthcare?
– How does an atten­tion to ‘the mun­dane’ allow us to trans­form ‘big sto­ries’ about cur­rent trans­for­ma­tions in healthcare?
– How does ‘the mun­dane’ allow us to attend to modes of liv­ing and dying well?
– How to stay atten­tive to asym­met­ri­cal con­fig­u­ra­tions and the non-inno­cence of ‘the mundane’?
– How does the lens of the mun­dane trans­form and extend STS theorizing?

The work­shop will take place from the 4th to the 6th June 2025 at the Depart­ment of Soci­ol­o­gy, Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich. Par­tic­i­pants need to sub­mit a paper draft before­hand, which will be dis­cussed dur­ing the work­shop. On the third day, we will engage in
alter­na­tive for­mats (walk­ing, writ­ing, etc.) to think through the mundane.

The spe­cial issue will be based on the work­shop and sub­mit­ted to a major STS jour­nal (cur­rent­ly envis­aged S&TS).

If this speaks to you and you are inter­est­ed in sub­mit­ting a con­tri­bu­tion to the work­shop and spe­cial issue or only to the spe­cial issue, please send an abstract of no more than 250 words before the 1st Decem­ber 2024 to: theorising_through_the_mundane@etik.com
If you have fur­ther ques­tions, do not hes­i­tate to con­tact us. We are look­ing for­ward to receiv­ing your contribution.

Time­line:
2024 Decem­ber 1: Open call for con­tri­bu­tions closes
2024 Decem­ber 31: Deci­sions of edi­tors on who will par­tic­i­pate in work­shop and/or SI & com­mu­ni­ca­tion of deci­sion to applicants
2025 Begin­ning May: Sub­mis­sion of paper draft for workshop
2025 June 4–6: Work­shop in Zurich (day 1 & 2 for dis­cus­sion of paper drafts, day 3 with alter­na­tive for­mats for think­ing through the mundane)
2025 Sep­tem­ber 30: Sub­mis­sion paper to a major STS jour­nal (cur­rent­ly envis­aged: S&TS)

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