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WORKSHOP – Anthropology of Hormones

Datum
30. Juni 2020 

Anthro­pol­o­gy of Hor­mones Work­shop, 30th June 2020
Co-host­ed by the Cen­tre for Bio­med­i­cine, Self and Soci­ety (CBSS) and the Edin­burgh Cen­tre for Med­ical Anthro­pol­o­gy (EdC­MA), Uni­ver­si­ty of Edinburgh
Keynote Speak­er: Pro­fes­sor Celia Roberts
Open­ing Com­ments: Pro­fes­sor Anne Pollock
Hor­mones are framed as the body’s chem­i­cal mes­sen­gers (Roberts 2002), respon­si­ble for both catalysing and reg­u­lat­ing bod­i­ly process­es. Named after the Greek word for “that which sets in motion” these com­pounds acti­vate process­es across emo­tions and phys­i­ol­o­gy, social and mate­r­i­al worlds, men­tal and phys­i­cal health, organ­ic and syn­thet­ic biol­o­gy, the gen­dered and the non-gen­dered, and the nor­mal and the pathological.
When “imbal­anced” they are under­stood to result in a diver­si­ty of patholo­gies and a raft of hor­mon­al treat­ments have emerged for re-estab­lish­ing a (nor­malised) state of “bal­ance”. Some groups are pathol­o­gised as “hor­mon­al­ly imbal­anced” yet expe­ri­ence their dis­po­si­tion instead as diverse ways of being in the world. Oth­ers’ dis­tress­ing con­di­tions are dis­missed as „nor­mal” and unwor­thy of  med­ical  atten­tion  and  care. Envi­ron­men­tal tox­i­c­i­ties are increas­ing­ly framed as “leak­ing” into our bod­ies and dis­rupt­ing endocrine reg­u­la­tion. What comes to count as the hor­mon­al­ly “bal­anced” body is deeply con­struct­ed via his­tor­i­cal­ly, polit­i­cal­ly and social­ly medi­at­ed process­es. Relat­ed­ly, the ways resources,  atten­tion,  and  tech­nolo­gies  are dis­trib­uted to address hor­mon­al states speaks to social pri­or­i­ties and arrange­ments that exceed „the  med­ical” but are inevitably woven into it.
Hor­mones are mul­ti­ple, and in their role as actors in pub­lic and bio­med­ical knowl­edges they ulti­mate­ly dis­tort, dis­rupt and tran­scend bound­aries of inside/outside, nature/culture and sex/gender. These pro­duc­tive attrib­ut­es have moti­vat­ed a surge of anthro­po­log­i­cal inter­est in hor­mones in the con­text of new fron­tiers of com­plex sys­tems biol­o­gy and pop­u­lar appeals to more holis­tic and eco­log­i­cal­ly sit­u­at­ed fram­ings of the human being. With this mul­ti­plic­i­ty in mind, this work­shop will be framed around con­sid­er­ing the over­ar­ch­ing ques­tion: ‘What is a hor­mone?’. We will use this ques­tion as an entry point to consider:
  • How are hor­mones being used in con­tem­po­rary fram­ings of the biol­o­gy-soci­ety nexus?
  • What mate­r­i­al-semi­otic flows do hor­mones set in motion or redirect?
  • What is at stake in the mol­e­c­u­lar­i­sa­tion of social rela­tions and processes?
  • Whose hor­mon­al „bal­ances” are seen to count as prob­lems requir­ing “rebal­anc­ing”?
  • What is the (cul­tur­al) dif­fer­ence between  endoge­nous “nat­ur­al” hor­mones, syn­thet­ic hor­mones used as phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals or for body design,  and endocrine dis­rupt­ing chem­i­cals encoun­tered in our environments?
This work­shop will bring 15–20 schol­ars togeth­er for a day of light­en­ing talks and con­ver­sa­tion to fos­ter col­lab­o­ra­tion and catal­yse method­olog­i­cal and con­cep­tu­al approach­es to the anthro­po­log­i­cal study of hor­mones. It will pro­vide an oppor­tu­ni­ty for net­work­ing, pro­duc­ing rel­e­vant peer-reviewed out­puts and build­ing col­lec­tive momen­tum towards a larg­er mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary con­fer­ence on hor­mones lat­er in the year.
We invite par­tic­i­pants to apply for a place in the work­shop pro­gramme by send­ing a brief overview of their exist­ing exper­tise, inter­est, or poten­tial with­in hor­mones research in anthro­pol­o­gy (or relat­ed fields such as soci­ol­o­gy, STS, gen­der stud­ies, bioethics) (250 words max.). Dead­line: 10th April, 2020
We have a small fund avail­able for trav­el bur­saries for PhD stu­dents, inde­pen­dent schol­ars, and ear­ly career researchers with­out oth­er sources of trav­el fund­ing. If you would like to be con­sid­ered for one of these, please include a sec­tion detail­ing your need in your application.

Co-con­venors: Dr Son­ja Erikainen, Dr Andrea Ford, Dr Roslyn Malcolm.
Please send appli­ca­tions to: Roslyn.Malcolm@ed.ac.uk 


Anthro­pol­o­gy of Hor­mones Work­shop, 30th June 2020
Co-host­ed by the Cen­tre for Bio­med­i­cine, Self and Soci­ety (CBSS) and the Edin­burgh Cen­tre for Med­ical Anthro­pol­o­gy (EdC­MA), Uni­ver­si­ty of Edinburgh
Keynote Speak­er: Pro­fes­sor Celia Roberts
Open­ing Com­ments: Pro­fes­sor Anne Pollock
Hor­mones are framed as the body’s chem­i­cal mes­sen­gers (Roberts 2002), respon­si­ble for both catalysing and reg­u­lat­ing bod­i­ly process­es. Named after the Greek word for “that which sets in motion” these com­pounds acti­vate process­es across emo­tions and phys­i­ol­o­gy, social and mate­r­i­al worlds, men­tal and phys­i­cal health, organ­ic and syn­thet­ic biol­o­gy, the gen­dered and the non-gen­dered, and the nor­mal and the pathological.
When “imbal­anced” they are under­stood to result in a diver­si­ty of patholo­gies and a raft of hor­mon­al treat­ments have emerged for re-estab­lish­ing a (nor­malised) state of “bal­ance”. Some groups are pathol­o­gised as “hor­mon­al­ly imbal­anced” yet expe­ri­ence their dis­po­si­tion instead as diverse ways of being in the world. Oth­ers’ dis­tress­ing con­di­tions are dis­missed as „nor­mal” and unwor­thy of  med­ical  atten­tion  and  care. Envi­ron­men­tal tox­i­c­i­ties are increas­ing­ly framed as “leak­ing” into our bod­ies and dis­rupt­ing endocrine reg­u­la­tion. What comes to count as the hor­mon­al­ly “bal­anced” body is deeply con­struct­ed via his­tor­i­cal­ly, polit­i­cal­ly and social­ly medi­at­ed process­es. Relat­ed­ly, the ways resources,  atten­tion,  and  tech­nolo­gies  are dis­trib­uted to address hor­mon­al states speaks to social pri­or­i­ties and arrange­ments that exceed „the  med­ical” but are inevitably woven into it.
Hor­mones are mul­ti­ple, and in their role as actors in pub­lic and bio­med­ical knowl­edges they ulti­mate­ly dis­tort, dis­rupt and tran­scend bound­aries of inside/outside, nature/culture and sex/gender. These pro­duc­tive attrib­ut­es have moti­vat­ed a surge of anthro­po­log­i­cal inter­est in hor­mones in the con­text of new fron­tiers of com­plex sys­tems biol­o­gy and pop­u­lar appeals to more holis­tic and eco­log­i­cal­ly sit­u­at­ed fram­ings of the human being. With this mul­ti­plic­i­ty in mind, this work­shop will be framed around con­sid­er­ing the over­ar­ch­ing ques­tion: ‘What is a hor­mone?’. We will use this ques­tion as an entry point to consider:
  • How are hor­mones being used in con­tem­po­rary fram­ings of the biol­o­gy-soci­ety nexus?
  • What mate­r­i­al-semi­otic flows do hor­mones set in motion or redirect?
  • What is at stake in the mol­e­c­u­lar­i­sa­tion of social rela­tions and processes?
  • Whose hor­mon­al „bal­ances” are seen to count as prob­lems requir­ing “rebal­anc­ing”?
  • What is the (cul­tur­al) dif­fer­ence between  endoge­nous “nat­ur­al” hor­mones, syn­thet­ic hor­mones used as phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals or for body design,  and endocrine dis­rupt­ing chem­i­cals encoun­tered in our environments?
This work­shop will bring 15–20 schol­ars togeth­er for a day of light­en­ing talks and con­ver­sa­tion to fos­ter col­lab­o­ra­tion and catal­yse method­olog­i­cal and con­cep­tu­al approach­es to the anthro­po­log­i­cal study of hor­mones. It will pro­vide an oppor­tu­ni­ty for net­work­ing, pro­duc­ing rel­e­vant peer-reviewed out­puts and build­ing col­lec­tive momen­tum towards a larg­er mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary con­fer­ence on hor­mones lat­er in the year.
We invite par­tic­i­pants to apply for a place in the work­shop pro­gramme by send­ing a brief overview of their exist­ing exper­tise, inter­est, or poten­tial with­in hor­mones research in anthro­pol­o­gy (or relat­ed fields such as soci­ol­o­gy, STS, gen­der stud­ies, bioethics) (250 words max.). Dead­line: 10th April, 2020
We have a small fund avail­able for trav­el bur­saries for PhD stu­dents, inde­pen­dent schol­ars, and ear­ly career researchers with­out oth­er sources of trav­el fund­ing. If you would like to be con­sid­ered for one of these, please include a sec­tion detail­ing your need in your application.

Co-con­venors: Dr Son­ja Erikainen, Dr Andrea Ford, Dr Roslyn Malcolm.
Please send appli­ca­tions to: Roslyn.Malcolm@ed.ac.uk