Theorizing the Body in Health and Medicine
2-days workshop
26-27 November 2015
Maastricht University
For most health and medical professionals “the body” functions as a taken for granted entry point for analyzing, imaging, screening, diagnosing, curing, caring, nursing, training, and feeding people. It is also often considered as different from, and even opposed to, “the psyche” which results in sharp distinctions between somatic and mental illnesses. This biomedical idea of the body and its alleged mental counterpart has been put into question by both social constructivist oriented theories and phenomenological oriented theories. Where the first underline that the meaning of the body is intrinsically related to cultural, social and economic context, and to power relations within the health care system, the latter explain in what sense people’s lived body experiences diverge from medical conceptions of soma and psyche. While these two theoretical approaches are both crucial for reflecting on the meaning of the body in health and medicine, they are often seen as opposing and even mutually exclusive. The aim of this workshop is to explore the meaning of the body at the intersection of these two approaches. To this purpose we will discuss topical issues in contemporary health and medicine and examine how social and cultural contexts are decisive for the labeling of bodies in terms of being healthy, sick, disabled or enhanced, while simultaneously taking seriously the individual, material, and experienced body of patients and health seekers.
Program:
Thursday November 269.00-9.45 Registration + coffee tea
9..45 Opening address
10.-11: Invited speaker: Lisa Blackman, Goldsmith College, London
Embodying Voice Hearing: Challenges and Tensions
11.-11.45: Ben Belek, Cambridge University
The Sensitive Body: Articulating autistic bodies, embodying autistic articulations
11.45-12.30: Ian Tucker, University of East London
Medication bodies: Affection, distress and social media
12.30-13.30 Lunch break
13.30-14.30: Invited speaker: Kevin Aho, Florida Gulf Coast University
A Hermeneutics of the Body and Place in Health and Illness
14.30-15.15: Ana Koncul, Telemark University College
Cultural Marginalization and Constructions of Differently Able Bodies
15.15-30 Break
15.30-1615 Jonathan Mitchell, University College Dublin
Atypical Morphology and the Normative Limits of Ability and Function
16.15-1700 Else Vogel, University of Amsterdam
Practicing embodiment: Handling shifting bodily configurations through obesity surgery
17.00 Drinks
9..45 Opening address
10.-11: Invited speaker: Lisa Blackman, Goldsmith College, London
Embodying Voice Hearing: Challenges and Tensions
11.-11.45: Ben Belek, Cambridge University
The Sensitive Body: Articulating autistic bodies, embodying autistic articulations
11.45-12.30: Ian Tucker, University of East London
Medication bodies: Affection, distress and social media
12.30-13.30 Lunch break
13.30-14.30: Invited speaker: Kevin Aho, Florida Gulf Coast University
A Hermeneutics of the Body and Place in Health and Illness
14.30-15.15: Ana Koncul, Telemark University College
Cultural Marginalization and Constructions of Differently Able Bodies
15.15-30 Break
15.30-1615 Jonathan Mitchell, University College Dublin
Atypical Morphology and the Normative Limits of Ability and Function
16.15-1700 Else Vogel, University of Amsterdam
Practicing embodiment: Handling shifting bodily configurations through obesity surgery
17.00 Drinks
Friday November 27
9.30-10.30 Invited speaker: Stefan van Geelen, University Medical Center Utrecht
Somatic symptom disorders and embodiment in psychosomatics and psychiatry
10.30-11.15 Karin Eli, University of Oxford & Anna Lavis, University of Brimingham
Body and Being in Anorexia: Experiential Intersection of Culture, Medicine and the Senses
11.15-30 Break
11.30-12.00 Kaisu Koski , University of Tampere – video screening: Not to scale at all
12-13 Lunch
13-14 Invited speaker: Kristin Zeiler, Linköping University
On the Making of Altruistic Bodily Exchanges in Medicine – Why Feminist Phenomenology and Social Constructivism Not Only Can but Preferably Should Be Combined
14.14.15 Break
14.15- 15.00 Nelly Oudshoorn, University of Twente
Technologies inside the body. Rethinking agency and vulnerability of users
15-15.45: Jaana Parvianen, University of Tampere & Ilmari Kortelainen, University of Tampere
Self-knowledge through self-tracking? A phenomenological discussion of methodologies for generating knowledge from the body in the age of health technologies
15.45-16: Break
16-17: Wrap up/general discussion
9.30-10.30 Invited speaker: Stefan van Geelen, University Medical Center Utrecht
Somatic symptom disorders and embodiment in psychosomatics and psychiatry
10.30-11.15 Karin Eli, University of Oxford & Anna Lavis, University of Brimingham
Body and Being in Anorexia: Experiential Intersection of Culture, Medicine and the Senses
11.15-30 Break
11.30-12.00 Kaisu Koski , University of Tampere – video screening: Not to scale at all
12-13 Lunch
13-14 Invited speaker: Kristin Zeiler, Linköping University
On the Making of Altruistic Bodily Exchanges in Medicine – Why Feminist Phenomenology and Social Constructivism Not Only Can but Preferably Should Be Combined
14.14.15 Break
14.15- 15.00 Nelly Oudshoorn, University of Twente
Technologies inside the body. Rethinking agency and vulnerability of users
15-15.45: Jaana Parvianen, University of Tampere & Ilmari Kortelainen, University of Tampere
Self-knowledge through self-tracking? A phenomenological discussion of methodologies for generating knowledge from the body in the age of health technologies
15.45-16: Break
16-17: Wrap up/general discussion
Registration is required.
To complete registration visit our site:
Registration will close 31 October.
