CONFERENCES:

 28 September, 2012, JFK Library, Boston, MA

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Call for Abstracts

Second Annual Western Michigan University Medical Humanities Conference
September 27-28, 2012; Kalamazoo, Michigan

Overview: Proponents of medical humanities contend that the humanistic
dimensions of medicine and health are a critical component of those
disciplines; not only do these dimensions help us to understand the very
nature of medicine and health, their apprehension allows caregivers to
relate to their patients, to treat those patients with respect and dignity,
and to provide more holistic and empathetic care. The Western Michigan
University Medical Humanities Conference aims to explore a range of themes
within the medical humanities, though a primary focus will be on how medical
professionals are influenced by the humanities in their daily practices.
This includes values and ethics, and extends to humanities such as music,
poetry, and so forth. We are interested in how this informs the care giver’s
practice of medicine, nursing, or other health care duties, and how it
affects patient outcomes. Proposals in any area of medical humanities are
welcome, but priority will be given to quality proposals from health care
professionals who can relate the humanities to their practices.

The conference is meant to be highly interdisciplinary, drawing participants
from a wide range of backgrounds, including those from both academic and
medical communities. Submissions are welcome on topics that engage some
facet of the medical humanities, including their importance and conceptual
scope. Furthermore, we welcome submissions that engage any of the following:
medical ethics, history of medicine, religious and/or spiritual perspectives
on medicine, health care communication, medical anthropology, sociology of
medicine, cross-cultural approaches to medicine, medicine in literature
and/or poetry, musical therapy, or medicine as represented in the visual
arts.

Submission Guidelines: Submissions should include name,
departmental/institutional affiliation, project title, and an abstract not
to exceed 500 words. Proposals should be submitted electronically by July
15-in either .doc/.docx or .pdf format-to medical-humanities@wmich.edu.
Acceptances will be announced by August 1, and further details will appear
on the http://www.wmich.edu/medicalhumanities/conference2012/ as they are
available.

About Us: Under the direction of Dr. Fritz Allhoff and Mr. David Charlton,
the Medical Humanities Workgroup is a new initiative on the campus of
Western Michigan University, coordinating individuals from the campus and
broader Kalamazoo community with interests in the humanistic dimensions of
medicine and health. For more information, please see
www.wmich.edu/medicalhumanities.

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Call for Papers: Beyond ‘Them’ and ‘Us’? Enacting Social Science
Within the Public Health Research Agenda on Chronic Illness

Tuesday 18 September 2012. Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Keynote Speakers: Professor David Armstrong, King’s College London;
Professor Rose Barbour, Open University

For social scientists employed in public health settings, the
activities, institutions and practices marked by the term ‘public
health research’ may be approached conceptually in at least three
different ways:

(a) as a ‘field of work’ within which they are located, for example as
doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers and in more permanent
posts (‘us’)

(b) as a ‘topic of enquiry’ (an aspect of society) they are called
upon to investigate (‘them’)

(c) as a recursive activity, in which they, along with every other
individual, form part of the research object as well as its agent,
that is by being members of a population or ‘public’ (‘we’).

Beyond Them and Us aims to unpack and critically explore this triple
dimension. As early career sociologists employed in a public health
setting, we observe that colleagues from biomedically-oriented
disciplines sometimes express the expectation that ‘our’ contribution
‘add meaning’ to ‘their’ findings, for instance data derived from
controlled trials or policy initiatives based on models of ‘complex
intervention’. Yet social science approaches prompt a critical
evaluation of how such methods and epistemic practices themselves
operate. Similarly, within the field of chronic illness, there is
often a hiatus between ‘our’ and ‘their’ understandings of the
nominally designated goal of research. For instance, the shared
starting point of the ‘obesity epidemic’ is interpreted in different
ways.

Such differences frequently seem to lead to misunderstanding and even
conflict at institutional and/or personal levels. They are inseparable
from wider social and political trends, and deeply entangled with
issues of the power and status of different sciences. More easily
overlooked is the extent to which we are all inescapably participant
subjects as well as protagonists of public health research
enterprises. This further problematises any easy distinction between
lay, biomedical and social-scientific orientations.

Within academic commentary, these issues are frequently framed in
terms of the respective theoretical merits of ‘qualitative’ and
‘quantitative’ approaches, or proposed reconciliations between the
two. In contrast, ongoing entanglements and discriminations of ‘us’,
‘them’ and ‘we’ suggest a far messier, dynamic and literally informal
picture. Key questions concern whose is the social science
contribution within public health research, who or what is that
contribution for, and how best to enact and communicate that
contribution in the real world? Discussion of these questions tends to
be reserved to ‘off-page’ and ‘off-stage’ settings (e.g. frustrations
shared over coffee). A more explicit articulation involves rethinking
how we might theoretically and practically work with multiple and
fluctuating demands, aspirations and ways of seeing.

Beyond Them and Us aims to recover the notion of ‘enacting social
science within public health’ as in itself a legitimate field of
social enquiry and to begin to explore a range of creative and
constructive restatements, responses and/or possible resolutions. The
symposium is targeted especially at early career (doctoral and
postdoctoral) social scientists working within public health who face
issues and dilemmas similar to those described, although proposed
contributions may come from those working in any setting and from any
disciplinary background. Contributions focusing on specific empirical
contexts (whether ‘successes’ or ‘failures’) and/ or taking a wider
critical or reflective stance are equally welcome.

Submission Process: Abstracts of not more than 300 words should be
e-mailed to socsciinph@medschl.cam.ac.uk by Friday 15 June 2012. When
sending the abstract please state full title of proposed paper,
author(s’) name(s), affiliation, and e-mail contact details. You will
be informed by early July whether your paper has been selected for the
symposium.

As a second stage of the process, authors of selected papers will be
requested to provide a written version (at least in summary form) of
their contribution by Monday 3 September 2012 at the latest so that
this can be circulated to other participants prior to the symposium.
The purpose of this is to encourage a fuller cross-fertilisation of
ideas and to stimulate richer and more productive discussion on the
day.

Other: Subject to the outcome of funding applications, it is possible
a charge may need to be imposed for participation in the symposium
(including for speakers selected via this CFP) in order to cover
costs. However this will be no more than £40 (with a reduced rate of
£20 for all students including PhDs).

The event is organised by Emily Taylor and Paul Stronge, Research
Associates, based at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care,
University of Cambridge.

All enquiries to socsciinph@medschl.cam.ac.uk please.

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