Neuromedical Configurations: Thinking Through Possibilities of Care, Neglect, and Solidarity

Datum
03. Sep­tem­ber – 07. Sep­tem­ber 2025 

In Per­son Pan­el at 4S Seat­tle conference

“Neu­romed­ical Con­fig­u­ra­tions: Think­ing Through Pos­si­bil­i­ties of Care, Neglect, and Solidarity” 

4S Seat­tle conference
Sep­tem­ber 3–7, 2025
Seat­tle, Wash­ing­ton, USA

Sub­mis­sion dead­line is *31 Jan­u­ary 2025*.
Abstracts can be sub­mit­ted using this link: https://www.4sonline.org/call_for_submissions_seattle.php (Pan­el num­ber 24).

Neu­romed­ical Con­fig­u­ra­tions: Think­ing Through Pos­si­bil­i­ties of Care, Neglect, and Solidarity

Dis­cus­sant:

Angela Mar­ques Fil­ipe, Durham University

Con­venors:

Sebas­t­ian Rojas – Navar­ro, Andres Bel­lo Uni­ver­si­ty, sebastian.rojas.n@unab.cl

Talia Fried, Ben Guri­on Uni­ver­si­ty, frita@post.bgu.ac.il

Short Abstract:

This pan­el explores the ethico-polit­i­cal stakes, expe­ri­ences and pos­si­bil­i­ties of neu­romed­ical sub­jec­tiv­i­ty. We wel­come papers that explore prag­mat­ic chal­lenges and eman­ci­pa­to­ry poten­tials of neu­romed­ical per­son­hood, while the­o­riz­ing with and beyond ‘care.’

Long Abstract:

Neu­romed­ical knowl­edge and tech­nolo­gies are increas­ing­ly reshap­ing our under­stand­ing of human expe­ri­ence, fuel­ing col­lec­tive demands, trans­form­ing notions of per­son­hood, and dri­ving mate­r­i­al, semi­otic, and infra­struc­tur­al changes across soci­eties. While advance­ments in bio­med­ical and psy­cho­log­i­cal sci­ences have opened path­ways for indi­vid­ual and col­lec­tive action, heal­ing, and sup­port, these gains are uneven­ly dis­trib­uted. Stig­ma, insti­tu­tion­al­ized indif­fer­ence, and dis­par­i­ties in health resources per­sist glob­al­ly, threat­en­ing to over­shad­ow poten­tial ben­e­fits. In this com­plex sce­nario, how does engag­ing with neu­romed­ical advance­ments allow for the cre­ation of diverse real­i­ties of care? How do forms of aban­don­ment or sol­i­dar­i­ty shape the social spaces where health, ill­ness, suf­fer­ing, and dis­abil­i­ty are neu­romed­ical­ly configured?

This pan­el exam­ines the ethico-polit­i­cal dimen­sions of neu­romed­ical sub­jec­tiv­i­ty by extend­ing the­o­ries of care (Puig de la Bel­la­casa 2010). Build­ing on stud­ies of the rela­tion­al, eth­i­cal, and polit­i­cal aspects of care, we invite researchers to explore frame­works that chal­lenge and com­ple­ment this notion, inte­grat­ing STS per­spec­tives on the (un)caring dimen­sions of neu­romed­ical knowl­edge and prac­tices with oth­er crit­i­cal lenses—such as “rights,” “sol­i­dar­i­ty,” “aban­don­ment,” and “neglect” — and draw­ing insights from fields like med­ical soci­ol­o­gy, dis­abil­i­ty stud­ies, polit­i­cal phi­los­o­phy, urban stud­ies, posthu­man­ism, crit­i­cal neu­ro­science and others.

Pre­sen­ta­tions may address ques­tions such as: How do care and neglect affect patient out­comes, iden­ti­ty for­ma­tion, and expe­ri­ences of social belong­ing with­in neu­romed­ical con­texts? How do neu­romed­ical approach­es shape prac­tices and modes ofself-know­ing, iden­ti­ty, and rela­tion­al­i­ty across dif­fer­ent social set­tings? How are the infra­struc­tur­al, mate­r­i­al, and semi­otic aspects of our soci­eties shifting—or not—to accom­mo­date diverse neu­romed­ical identities-in-the-making? 

Please feel free to direct any ques­tions to us at Talia Fried, frita@post.bgu.ac.il