CFP - The 2nd International Workshop in Medical Anthropology
July 3–4, 2019
The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Organizers:
Dr. Inna Leykin, The Open University
innale@openu.ac.il
Dr. Anat Rosenthal, Ben-Gurion University
anatros@bgu.ac.il
Dr. Guy Shalev, The Hebrew University
guy1shalev@gmail.com
Keynote Speakers:
Prof. Maurizio Meloni, Deakin University, Australia
Prof. Peter J. Brown, Emory University, USA
Thinking with Plasticity:
Health, Scientific Innovation, and the Politics of Human Bodies
Ideas about plasticity have emerged following recent discoveries in the life sciences and medical research. The fading of ideas about the genome’s boundedness and its ontological priority clears the way for conceptualizations of the intertwining of bodies and biosocial environments. Plasticity challenges biological determinism and produces new forms of relational thinking in biology in which bodies are not fully determined by biology but also not entirely detached from it. Although not always acknowledged, medical anthropological conceptions of the interrelation of the corporeal and the social, the political and the sensual, the material and the ethical have been highly influential in these developments. Ethnographies of the development and application of reproductive technologies, the concept of local biologies, research on inequality in health infrastructure, and anthropological studies of embodiment and body techniques, to name just a few, explore the structural contexts of the intergenerational transmission of injustice as well as the intertwining of biological and social matters. Inspired by these emerging ideas, the workshop proposes to think with and about plasticity and to consider the utility of the concept for medical anthropology. What are some of its productive potentialities? Can the plasticity of biological bodies and their interactions with social environments open a space for new conceptualizations of subjectivity and personhood? Can it undermine neoliberal imperatives based on the ideas of autonomy and self-management? What are the risks in utilizing the concept? How may ideas of plasticity reinforce existing processes of the privatization of health? How does the concept of plasticity correspond to the neoliberal ideas of flexibility and flexible labor? How do ideas of plasticity change policy? And finally, what are the effects of plasticity on the concept of culture in anthropology?
Building upon these issues, we aim to explore and contribute to the understanding of historical, cultural, and ideological transformations in the intertwining of bodies and their biosocial environments. The idea of plasticity serves as an intellectual device for thinking about our research in medical anthropology.
We invite proposals for papers that address themes including but not limited to:
Biological bodies and social environments
Plasticity, autonomy, and self-management
Technoscience and biomedical encounter
Migrants and health citizenship
Subjectivity and personhood in health settings
Priority-setting in health care
Health and the labor market
Bioethics
Anthropology and biology
Policy-making and health policy implementation
Culture, biology, and histories
Population politics and reproductive health
Health and neoliberal reforms
The primary goal of this workshop is to facilitate a vital intellectual exchange, continue consolidating a research community, and foster cooperation and communication, bringing medical anthropology to bear on cutting-edge research in the life sciences and the social studies of health and medicine.
Workshop Plan:
Over the course of this two-day workshop, scholars will share their research findings, offer examples of cutting-edge approaches, and engage in dynamic discussions that will help nurture intellectual dialogue and consolidate a vibrant research community. The workshop will include an introductory session, two plenary sessions consisting of two guest lectures by international experts, and several workshop sessions. In each session two pre-circulated papers will be presented in brief. An invited commentator will provide feedback, and a group discussion will follow. Papers may be selected for publication as a special issue in one of the relevant journals.
We invite proposals for papers that address themes including but not limited to:
- Biological bodies and social environments
- Plasticity, autonomy, and self-management
- Technoscience and biomedical encounter
- Migrants and health citizenship
- Subjectivity and personhood in health settings
- Priority-setting in health care
- Health and the labor market
- Bioethics
- Anthropology and biology
- Policy-making and health policy implementation
- Culture, biology, and histories
- Population politics and reproductive health
- Health and neoliberal reforms
The workshop language will be English.
The workshop will take place at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute (July 3), and at Ben Gurion University of the Negev (July 4).
Submission Guidelines:
Paper abstracts should be submitted by January 1, 2019,
to Guy Shalev guy1shalev@gmail.com
With your 250-word abstract, please include: name, affiliation, email address, and a short biography (50 words).
Notifications by email will be made by January 15.
The final drafts of accepted papers will be due on May 1, 2019.