STUDY DAY – Medical Anthropology & Disability Ethnographic perspectives

Datum
08. Novem­ber 2019 

The Med­ical Anthro­pol­o­gy & Dis­abil­i­ty group (MA&D) invites pro­pos­als for 20-minute papers as part of a study day on med­ical anthro­pol­o­gy and dis­abil­i­ty to be held on Novem­ber 8, 2019, at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Peru­gia (Italy), Depart­ment of Phi­los­o­phy, Social, Human and For­ma­tion Sci­ences (FISSUF). Papers may be deliv­ered in Ital­ian or in Eng­lish. We would like to col­lect con­tri­bu­tions about the results of the­o­ret­i­cal and ethno­graph­ic reflec­tions on the top­ic. To pro­pose your con­tri­bu­tion, you are asked to send the title and an abstract of the pro­pos­al (max. 250 words) to the e‑mail address gruppoamed@gmail.com by Sep­tem­ber 20, 2019. Con­fir­ma­tion of accep­tance of the pro­pos­al will be sent by Octo­ber 1, 2019. Abstracts should probe issues relat­ed to dis­abil­i­ty, on the basis of the ques­tions aris­ing here below.

The MA&D group devel­oped from the meet­ing of men and women research­ing in an anthro­po­log­i­cal frame­work about the sub­ject of dis­abil­i­ty, after the 2nd Nation­al Con­ven­tion of the Ital­ian Soci­ety of Med­ical Anthro­pol­o­gy (SIAM) held in Peru­gia in June 2018, enti­tled “An anthro­pol­o­gy for under­stand­ing, for act­ing, for being engaged: The les­son of Tul­lio Sep­pil­li”. Through study and research, the group intends to enhance the space of action of anthro­po­log­i­cal the­o­ry and prac­tice with­in the field of dis­abil­i­ty. The per­spec­tives of med­ical anthro­pol­o­gy that we pur­sue do not have the inten­tion of re-med­ical­iz­ing or anthro­po-med­ical­iz­ing the issue of dis­abil­i­ty, but instead evoke a crit­i­cal-polit­i­cal anthro­pol­o­gy of the body, which is dia­log­i­cal and exper­i­men­tal, focused on the process­es of embod­i­ment of well-being and, there­fore, of health. Dis­abil­i­ty emerges as a “field”, in terms of a space of mutu­al recog­ni­tion between social actors, and also as a con­test­ed ground reg­u­lat­ed by rela­tions of force. We high­light the unnat­ur­al and his­tor­i­cal­ly deter­mined nature of dis­abil­i­ty. Ethno­graph­ic prac­tice allows us to con­nect the most inti­mate expe­ri­ences of “dis­abling” con­di­tions with pub­lic and insti­tu­tion­al dis­cours­es; to ana­lyze the local effects of glob­al process­es, such as the Con­ven­tion on the Rights of Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties (CRPD) by Unit­ed Nations, and the doc­u­ments of inter­na­tion­al agen­cies; to ques­tion cat­e­gories such as “vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty”, “mar­gin­al­i­ty” and above all “func­tion­ing” and “abil­i­ty”.

The group’s sci­en­tif­ic works, in their plu­ral­i­ty, are unit­ed by the com­mon thread of a crit­i­cal and de-essen­tial­iz­ing ethno­graph­ic gaze, atten­tive to the pol­i­tics of dis­able­ment of some cat­e­gories of social actors and those of recog­ni­tion. They aim at unveil­ing embod­ied skills and denat­u­ral­ize rhetorics of empow­er­ment, auton­o­my and inde­pen­dence in con­tem­po­rary neo-lib­er­al soci­eties. They range from the study of devel­op­men­tal devices to that of active cit­i­zen­ship prac­tices, from the expe­ri­ences of the body in its con­tin­u­ous rela­tion­ship with the con­text in which it finds itself, in the infi­nite pos­si­bil­i­ties opened up by insur­gent prac­tices. In the per­spec­tive out­lined here, the MA&D group engages in “research with oper­a­tional goals aimed at estab­lish­ing self-aware­ness and lib­er­a­tion process­es” (Tul­lio Seppilli).

The AM&D group con­sists of: Vir­ginia De Sil­va (coor­di­na­tor), Fab­rizio Loce-Man­des, Mas­si­m­il­iano Minel­li, Francesca Pis­tone, Gio­van­ni Piz­za, Andrea F. Raven­da, Nico­let­ta Sciarrino.

The Med­ical Anthro­pol­o­gy & Dis­abil­i­ty group (MA&D) invites pro­pos­als for 20-minute papers as part of a study day on med­ical anthro­pol­o­gy and dis­abil­i­ty to be held on Novem­ber 8, 2019, at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Peru­gia (Italy), Depart­ment of Phi­los­o­phy, Social, Human and For­ma­tion Sci­ences (FISSUF). Papers may be deliv­ered in Ital­ian or in Eng­lish. We would like to col­lect con­tri­bu­tions about the results of the­o­ret­i­cal and ethno­graph­ic reflec­tions on the top­ic. To pro­pose your con­tri­bu­tion, you are asked to send the title and an abstract of the pro­pos­al (max. 250 words) to the e‑mail address gruppoamed@gmail.com by Sep­tem­ber 20, 2019. Con­fir­ma­tion of accep­tance of the pro­pos­al will be sent by Octo­ber 1, 2019. Abstracts should probe issues relat­ed to dis­abil­i­ty, on the basis of the ques­tions aris­ing here below.

The MA&D group devel­oped from the meet­ing of men and women research­ing in an anthro­po­log­i­cal frame­work about the sub­ject of dis­abil­i­ty, after the 2nd Nation­al Con­ven­tion of the Ital­ian Soci­ety of Med­ical Anthro­pol­o­gy (SIAM) held in Peru­gia in June 2018, enti­tled “An anthro­pol­o­gy for under­stand­ing, for act­ing, for being engaged: The les­son of Tul­lio Sep­pil­li”. Through study and research, the group intends to enhance the space of action of anthro­po­log­i­cal the­o­ry and prac­tice with­in the field of dis­abil­i­ty. The per­spec­tives of med­ical anthro­pol­o­gy that we pur­sue do not have the inten­tion of re-med­ical­iz­ing or anthro­po-med­ical­iz­ing the issue of dis­abil­i­ty, but instead evoke a crit­i­cal-polit­i­cal anthro­pol­o­gy of the body, which is dia­log­i­cal and exper­i­men­tal, focused on the process­es of embod­i­ment of well-being and, there­fore, of health. Dis­abil­i­ty emerges as a “field”, in terms of a space of mutu­al recog­ni­tion between social actors, and also as a con­test­ed ground reg­u­lat­ed by rela­tions of force. We high­light the unnat­ur­al and his­tor­i­cal­ly deter­mined nature of dis­abil­i­ty. Ethno­graph­ic prac­tice allows us to con­nect the most inti­mate expe­ri­ences of “dis­abling” con­di­tions with pub­lic and insti­tu­tion­al dis­cours­es; to ana­lyze the local effects of glob­al process­es, such as the Con­ven­tion on the Rights of Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties (CRPD) by Unit­ed Nations, and the doc­u­ments of inter­na­tion­al agen­cies; to ques­tion cat­e­gories such as “vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty”, “mar­gin­al­i­ty” and above all “func­tion­ing” and “abil­i­ty”.

The group’s sci­en­tif­ic works, in their plu­ral­i­ty, are unit­ed by the com­mon thread of a crit­i­cal and de-essen­tial­iz­ing ethno­graph­ic gaze, atten­tive to the pol­i­tics of dis­able­ment of some cat­e­gories of social actors and those of recog­ni­tion. They aim at unveil­ing embod­ied skills and denat­u­ral­ize rhetorics of empow­er­ment, auton­o­my and inde­pen­dence in con­tem­po­rary neo-lib­er­al soci­eties. They range from the study of devel­op­men­tal devices to that of active cit­i­zen­ship prac­tices, from the expe­ri­ences of the body in its con­tin­u­ous rela­tion­ship with the con­text in which it finds itself, in the infi­nite pos­si­bil­i­ties opened up by insur­gent prac­tices. In the per­spec­tive out­lined here, the MA&D group engages in “research with oper­a­tional goals aimed at estab­lish­ing self-aware­ness and lib­er­a­tion process­es” (Tul­lio Seppilli).

The AM&D group con­sists of: Vir­ginia De Sil­va (coor­di­na­tor), Fab­rizio Loce-Man­des, Mas­si­m­il­iano Minel­li, Francesca Pis­tone, Gio­van­ni Piz­za, Andrea F. Raven­da, Nico­let­ta Sciarrino.