Nordic Conference in Medical Anthropology - Call for Papers

Nordic Conference in Medical Anthropology
Call for Papers

The 6th Nordic Conference in Medical Anthropology will be held June 10-13, 2009, under the auspices of the University of Gothenburg and on site at The Nordic School of Public Health, Göteborg, Sweden. The conference is organized by: the Section for Science and Technology Studies, University of Gothenburg; the School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg; and The Nordic School of Public Health.

Confirmed Keynote Speaker:
Professor Mark Nichter, University of Arizona
Professor Nichter has broad research interests in the topical areas of: Anthropology of health and development; medical anthropology; the interface between anthropology and epidemiology; ecosocial epidemiology and political ecology; ethnomedicine and approaches to healing inclusive of alternative and complementary medicine in the USA; medical anthropology in clinical settings; health disparity and the politics of responsibility; globalization; the marketing of desire; governance projects and processes; the study of risk, harm reduction, and trust. His fieldwork has focused on the following ethnographic regions: South Asia (especially South India), Southeast Asia (especially the Indonesia, Philippines and N.E. Thailand); and the USA. Professor Nichter’s current research involves: multilevel ethnographic study of pharmaceutical and diagnostic test-related behavior; infectious and vector borne disease; tobacco use, dependence and marketing; the outsourcing of clinical trials to developing countries.

Brief History of Network
The Network of Nordic Medical Anthropologists was established in September 1997 in Gothenburg. The workshop was a kind of inventory of anthropologists working within the subfield of medical anthropology in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland. The second meeting was held in Denmark in February 2000. It had three main themes: 1) Body, senses, and experience, 2) Health systems, medicines, and tech­­nology, and 3) Handicap, rehabilitation, and competence. The third conference, under the heading Expressions of suffering was held in February 2002 in Finland. The fourth conference was held in Norway, August 2004 with a title Health and Identity in Risky Times. The fifth conference was held in June 2007 in Iceland, with a title Medical Anthropology in the 21st Century.

Theme and Rationale of Conference
For the 6th Nordic Conference in Medical Anthropology, we have chosen the theme of ethics and culture, entitled Ethics and Medical Anthropology: Probing Moral Universes and Pinpointing Moral Dilemmas. As the organizers of the 6th Nordic Medical Anthropology Conference, we envisage this occasion as an opportunity to reflect upon, analyze, discuss, debate, evaluate and otherwise exchange experiences and insights at the intersection of ethics and medical anthropology/ethnology. This theme situates ethnographic inquiry with respect to multiple and far-reaching ethical issues spanning from the micro-contexts to the macro; from intimate patient-practitioner relations to the tools of government, NGOs, pharmaceutical industries and universities; from personal illness narratives to global health inequalities.
We hereby anticipate papers and presentations on any and all aspects of this theme – contemporary or historical, applied or theoretical. Contributions might explore, for example, the cultural scripting of local worlds (and the transactional ethics linking traditional healers and sufferers in frameworks of spirit possession, sorcery, trance, and contagion); or, conversely, they might interrogate the classical logic and presumed neutrality/universality of conventional bioethics (and the construction of human ‘subjects’, of ‘informed consent’, of ‘scientific’ research protocols, and of profit-driven health ‘care’). Relevant questions pertain to: how moral cosmologies of suffering and well-being interdigitate with concepts of ‘the person’, with intersubjectivity, with corporeality and/or phenomenologies of embodiment; how ethical dilemmas are negotiated in the meeting ground of antithetical healing agendas and their therapeutic coordination; how conventional ontologies and normative categories are being de- and re-naturalized by ‘advances’ in the biotech industry. Topics will include (but are not limited to): allopathic, homeopathic and/or traditional medical systems; biopiracy, bioprospecting, and the commodification and circulation of somatic parts; preventive medicine under modernity (i.e. immunizations and hygiene) or under postmodernity (self-governance and medico-moral imperatives); life-style drugs, state-manufactured (generic) drugs, direct-to-consumer advertising; medicalization, surveillance, governmentality and technologies of the self; health activism and changes in patienthood; new technologies of medical imaging, information processing, genetic and tissue engineering, statistical modeling, organic simulations and risk assessments; and so forth.

Abstracts, no more than 300 words in length, should be submitted to: kyra.landzelius@sts.gu.se and johan.wedel@globalstudies.gu.se
Deadline for submission of abstracts is March 15, 2009.
Submitters will be notified by April 1, 2009.

Conference Registration:
Full details regarding registration, accomodation and costs will be sent upon announcement of accepted abstracts. Registration costs will not exceed 100 Euros (and may be less, depending on final accounting). Registration costs will cover lunches, coffee breaks, opening reception and banquet.

For the Nordic Network in Medical Anthropology:
Kyra Landzelius, University of Gothenburg.
Johan Wedel, School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg.
Marita Eastmond, University of Gothenburg/ The Nordic School of Public Health.