Chaire Anthropologie et santé mondiale

Workshop de la chaire Anthropologie et santé mondiale, Collège d'études mondiales : Embodied Being, Environing World: Local Biologies and Local Ecologies in Global Health __________________________
Journée du 6 Juin 2014
Salle EHESS Jean-Pierre Vernant, 8e étage
190 avenue de France
Paris 13e
Métro : Quai de la gare ou BNF
__________________________
The Interdisciplinary Chair in Anthropology and Global Health in the Collège d’études
mondiales and the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme seeks submissions for
a one-day symposium to be held in Paris, France on June 5 and 6. The event is
intended to spark conversation among scholars who are attempting to bring critical
studies of global health into conversation with critical environmental studies and
science and technology studies (STS). The goal is to address the increasing
entanglement of human biologies with transhuman and nonhuman ecologies: to situate
health in what Don Ihde has called “embodied being and environing world.” Through
a themed discussion of short, precirculated working papers (rather than completed
articles or chapters), a group of anthropologists, geographers, and STS scholars will
discuss the theoretical challenges and opportunities presented by, among other things,
the rise of epigenetics, the concept of the microbiome, chemical and other forms of
“exposure,” and the persistence of zoonotic and vector-borne disease. The aim of the
symposium is to build upon the body of critical scholarship on global health that has
coalesced around the concept of “local biologies,” as originally conceived by Margaret
Lock (Lock 1993; Brotherton and Nguyen 2013).
The parameters for submission are rather open. Papers should address in some way the
local variability of biological communities composed of both internal and external
biota, dynamic/volatile chemical compounds, and material forms. Authors should also
consider both an oncoming set of new technologies—from fecal transplant to
detoxification regimes—and a new set of problems, including climate-related illness,
antibiotic resistance, and intergenerational exposure—that stand to reshape health and
healing in the Global North and South in the coming decades.
Selected participants will prepare a short (2000-2500 word) working paper for precirculation. These will be read by all participants, and the symposium will be organized
into a series of topical discussions that reflect the focus of the selected participants’
work. While attendees should find these discussions useful as they develop work for
publication, an equally important goal is to form a new collective of critical scholars
around these emerging issues—one that will hopefully grow in the ensuing months and
years.
If interested, please submit a one-page CV and 200-word abstract to Alex Nading
([email protected]) by April 15. Working papers should be prepared for precirculation by May 25. Applicants should be committed to reading and discussing 8
to 10 2000-word working papers, along with members of the interdisciplinary chair and
invited senior scholars. Limited funding for travel and lodging for one night in Paris is
available through the Collège d’études mondiales for scholars coming from Europe
and the UK.
Organisation
Vinh-Kim Nguyen
Titulaire de chaire Anthropologie et santé mondiale, Collège d'études mondiales
Alex Nading
Postdoctorant chaire Anthropologie et santé mondiale, Collège d'études mondiales
Nathanaël Cretin
Coordination scientifique, chaire Anthropologie et santé mondiale, Collège d'études
mondiales
Informations
http://chiasm.hypotheses.org/
Tentative list of participants
Uli Beisel, Ph.D. is a human geographer at the University of Bayreuth. She
specializes in the study of humans and animals as well as biomedical technologies in
Africa. Most recently, she has been part of the project “Translating Global Health
Technologies,” based in Uganda and Rwanda.
Charlotte Brives, Ph.D. is an anthropologist of science, medicine and technology at
the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Bordeaux. She has studied human/nonhuman
relations, clinical trials, and biomedical technologies, with a particular focus on
Francophone Africa.
Kim Fortun, Ph.D. is Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Rennsalear
Polytechnic Institute (USA). Her work examines chemical exposure, information
technology, the science and ethics of public health, and the politics of environmental
and health risk.
Jenna Grant, Ph.D. is a postdoctoral researcher in the Health, Care, and the Body
research group at the University of Amsterdam. Her research specialties include
biomedical imaging, postcolonial theory, and Southeast Asian ethnology.
Alex Nading, Ph.D. is a Fernand Braudel Postdoctoral Fellow at the Maison des
Sciences de L’Homme. His research, focused mainly in contemporary Central America,
concerns human-nonhuman relations, infectious diseases, and microbial infrastructures.
Abigail Neely, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of
Minnesota (USA). Her research concerns the history of environment and community
health in Pholela, South Africa, human-nonhuman relations, agriculture, tuberculosis,
and HIV-AIDS.
Emily Yates-Doerr, Ph.D. is a postdoctoral researcher in the Health, Care, and the
Body research group at the University of Amsterdam. Her research, focused in
Guatemala and Europe, concerns obesity, life course development, metabolism and
climate change.