CFP: Making Sense of Health, Illness and Disease 6 (UK) (3/26/07; 7/9/07-7/12/07)

full name / name of organization: 
Dr Rob Fisher

6th Global Conference
Making Sense Of: Health, Illness and Disease

Monday 9th July - Thursday 12th July 2007
Mansfield College, Oxford

Call for Papers

This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary project aims to explore
the processes by which we attempt to create meaning in health, illness
and disease. The project will examine the models and metaphors we use
to understand our experiences of health and illness (looking
particularly at perceptions of the body), and to evaluate the
diversity of ways in which we creatively struggle to make sense of
such experiences and express ourselves across a range of media.

Papers, presentations, reports and workshops are invited on any of the
following themes;

* the 'significance' of health, illness and disease for individuals
and communities; the factors which influence our perceptions of health
and illness experiences
* the concept of the 'well' person; the preoccupation with health; the
attitudes of the 'well' to the 'ill'; perceptions of 'impairment' and
disability; the challenges posed when confronted by illness and
disease; the notion of being 'cured'; chronic illness; terminal
illness; attitudes to death
* how we perceive of and conduct ourselves through the experiences of
health and illness; the effects on our sense of identity; our
relationship with our own body; how others perceive us - family,
friends, strangers, doctors, nurses, care givers
* 'models' of the body; the body in pain; biological and medical views
of illness; the ambiguous relationship with 'alternative' medicine and
therapies; the doctor-patient relationship; the 'clinical gaze'; the
body as machine and the role of technology; the rise of genetics;
manipulation of the body - transplantation, surgery; the body as
resource; 'artificial' bodies; the impact of body 'models' on the person
* the impact of health, illness and disease on biology, economics,
government, medicine, politics, social sciences; the changing
relationship between society and medical development; the potential
influences of gender, ethnicity, and class; health care, service
providers, and public policy
* the nature and role of 'metaphors' in expressing the experiences of
health, illness and disease - for example, illness as 'another
country'; the role of narrative and narrative interpretation in making
sense of the 'journey' from health through illness, diagnosis, and
treatment; the importance of story telling; dealing with chronic and
terminal illness; the 'myths' surrounding health, illness and disease
* the relationship between creative work and illness and disease: the
work of artists, musicians, poets, writers. Illness and the literary
imagination - studies of writers and literature which take health,
disability, illness and disease as a central theme

Papers are also solicited for special sessions which will be held in
common with a second research project running at the same time
entitled Making Sense Of: Dying and Death. When submitting your
abstract, please specify clearly whether you would like your paper to
be considered for a joint session presentation. Papers submitted for
joint sessions must be explicitly inter-/multi-disciplinary in nature
and/or show where the possibilities for inter-disciplinary research
and engagement could be developed.

Perspectives are sought from those engaged in;
* art and art therapy, creative writing, English literature, history
of medicine, media studies, the performing arts (dance, music,
theatre), philosophy and ethics, psychology and social psychology,
social sciences, sociology and socio-biology, theology and religious
studies
* anatomy, child care nursing, clinical psychology, counseling,
gerontology, health education, health services, hospital
administration, immunology, medical and surgical nursing, medicine and
the medical sciences, pharmaceutical sciences, public health care
* practitioners in health care fields - doctors, GP's, surgeons,
health care workers, care givers, hospice workers

Papers will be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts
should be submitted by Monday 26th March 2007. If selected for
presentation, 8 page draft conference papers should be submitted by
Friday 8th June 2006.

Papers should be submitted to the Joint Organising Chairs: these
should be sent as an email attachment in Word or WordPerfect;
abstracts can also be submitted in the body of the email text rather
than as an attachment.
Joint Organising Chairs

Prof Peter L. Twohig
Canada Research Chair
c/o Gorsebrook Research Institute
Saint Mary's University
923 Robie Street
Halifax, NS Canada B3H 3C3
E-Mail: peter.twohig_at_smu.ca

Dr Rob Fisher
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Priory House, 149B Wroslyn Road
Freeland
Oxfordshire, OX29 8HR
United Kingdom
E-mail: hid6_at_inter-disciplinary.net

All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be
published in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers accepted for and presented
at the conference will be published in a themed hard copy volume.

The conference is sponsored by Inter-Disciplinary.Net as part of the
'Probing the Boundaries' programme of research projects. It aims to
bring together people from different areas and interests to share
ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.

For further details about the project please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/mso/hid/hid.htm

For further details about the conference please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/mso/hid/hid6/cfp.htm

         ==========================================================
              From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List
                        CFP_at_english.upenn.edu
                         Full Information at
                     http://cfp.english.upenn.edu
         or write Jennifer Higginbotham: higginbj_at_english.upenn.edu
         ==========================================================
Received on Thu Feb 01 2007 - 17:34:20 EST