Datum
04. Juni – 06. Juni 2024
Cfp for a writing Workshop at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
CALL FOR PAPERS
Anthropology Summer Writing Workshop
June 4–6, 2024
„Healthy Life, Happy Life: Immigration and Health in Post-Pandemic Times”
Nearly four years have passed since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Immigrant communities have been some of the most affected populations with regards to exposure to the virus, infection, disease, death, economic dislocation, stress, racism, as well as long-term trauma. These impacts echo what medical anthropologists have spotlighted about the social production of sickness, social suffering, and other health consequences of structural violence. Yet, a significant corpus of work has also highlighted immigrants’ resilient subjectivity and resistance to structural inequalities in their everyday production and management of health through self-care, alternative healthcare provisions, and transnational social networks, among other strategies. These immigrant subjects envision, practice, and negotiate for „good” health and for a „good” life while navigating social, structural, and material constraints in the intricacies of their lived experiences amid complex and sometimes ambiguous power dynamics.
Our three-day writing workshop focuses on ongoing anthropological work at the intersection of migration, health, and happiness. We endeavor to investigate how immigrants with their own sets of identities perceive their bodies and manage their health in pursuit of a good, happy life in post-pandemic times. Towards this end, we invite submissions from anthropologists whose ethnographic studies explore post-pandemic transformations among immigrants in understanding health and happiness across local and transnational contexts. Papers exploring the following questions are especially welcome: (1) Has the pandemic impacted immigrants’ perceptions of health’s role in the pursuit of happiness and a good life? (2) How do immigrants re-envision and renegotiate both health and happiness while navigating post-pandemic uncertainty, precarity, and inequalities? (3) How do immigrants’ health practices and healthcare encounters since the pandemic affect these biopolitical subjects’ belonging and identity making? (4) What role has the pandemic and recovery played in immigrants’ sense of health and happiness in their new nation of settlement?
Workshop Overview:
This Anthropology Summer Writing Workshop is supported by the European Commission Marie Curie Individual Fellowship. It will be hosted by Ca’ Foscari University of Venice in Italy on June 4–6, 2024.
Each participant will pre-circulate their working paper and have their work discussed by fellow participants in a supportive environment. These papers will be eventually considered for a journal special issue organized around the workshop topic.
To better facilitate this writing workshop in the format of small-group discussion, we encourage applications from participants who are able to fully attend this three-day workshop in person.
Convenors:
Grazia Deng, European Commission Marie Curie Fellow, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Andrea Flores, Assistant Professor, Brown University
Timelines:
Deadline for abstracts submission: January 19, 2024
Announcement of acceptance: February 2, 2024
Deadline for paper submission: May 3, 2024
Workshop dates: June 4–6, 2024.
Application:
To apply, please submit an abstract of no more than 250 words as well as a short bio of no more than 100 words by January 19, 2024. Abstracts can be submitted online at
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1SlbJz2eEpmIWguLi59swwjcdy6xaOsxlmWK-Wk-HRMc/prefill
Please note that participants have to arrange their own travels and accommodation. No travel grants are available. Lunches and coffee will be provided.
For questions, please email Grazia Deng (graziadeng@gmail.com) or Andrea Flores (andrea_flores@brown.edu).