Conference: Bodies beyond Borders. The Circulation of Anatomical Knowledge, 1750-1950, 7-9 January, Leuven

After a bit of upheaval, major relocation of the Bodies in Movement headquarters and two long, painful months of internet silence (during which time most of the BiM team curled up into a tiny, modem-less ball in the corner of an empty room and rocked back and forth, wailing in pitiful denial), we are happy to announce that the BiM blog is back online and on track for constant future updates.

And, to top off the list, we present a fascinating meld of history, medicine and humanities straight from Belgium's Leuven. Celebrating the birth of anatomist Andreas Vesalius 500 years ago, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven will play host to 'Bodies beyond Borders. The Circulation of Anatomical Knowledge, 1750-1950' on 7-9 January 2015.

The conference will fit in with two larger pursuits at KU Leuven: a research project on anatomy, scientific authority and the visualised body in medicine and culture in Belgium, 1780-1930, which investigates the history of anatomy in the country during the long nineteenth century; and an exhibition, 'Unravelling the Body. The Theatre of Anatomy', commemorating Vesalius and his influence on the anatomical tradition. However, further extending its scope, the conference seeks a wider conceptual and geographical focus:

Knowledge does not move by itself - it has to be carried. To better understand how anatomical knowledge moves from place to place, we will seek to trace the trajectories of its bearers.

The call for papers is open until 1 June 2014, with notification of acceptance distributed in early July. Organisers welcome contributions concerning the transit of anatomical knowledge in the widest interpretation of the phrase - from scientists, body parts and models to films, dissections and wall maps. Confirmed speakers include Sven Dupré, Helen Macdonald and many more. See the conference website for further details.

Exhibition & Events: The Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret, London

Tucked away up the stairs of a little English Baroque church in Southwark, London lies the historic Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret, the oldest operating theatre in Europe. Built into the herb garret of St Thomas's Hospital over 180 years ago and rediscovered in 1956, this little handful of rooms crammed full of Victorian medical oddities is a modest but fascinating counterpart to the Surgeons' Hall Museum in Edinburgh.

Like that museum, the Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret also hosts a packed schedule of lectures and events on a variety of medicine-related topics, including the history of pathology, after-death photography and the operated body in film and literature. A detailed list of their events for the next two months can be found on the museum website, along with detailed histories of St Thomas's, Guy's and Evelina Children's Hospitals in London, resources for the history of medicine, a digital catalogue of the objects on display at the museum, and more.

Thanks go to the blog post on Penny Dreadful Delights for giving us the opportunity to know about this obscure but special space.

The Bodies in Movement Seminar Series presents Catherine Malabou, 21 January 2013, Edinburgh, 10:30am - 5:30pm

The Bodies in Movement Seminar organisers together with Michael O'Rourke (Independent Colleges, Dublin) and the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (Edinburgh) are pleased to announce that we will be holding an intimate, one-day seminar with Catherine Malabou at the University of Edinburgh on Monday, 21 January 2013.
 

Malabou is currently tenured at Kingston University, London and also teaches at the European Graduate School. She is renowned for moving across the fields of neuroscience, anthropology, biology, feminism, politics, literature, psychoanalysis and philosophy, as well as bringing medical and biological science and philosophy into conversation. Her philosophy has created the foundation for a wide range of current research which focuses on the intersections between medicine, (neuro- and biological) science and the humanities.

Held at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, 2 Hope Park Square, Edinburgh EH8 9NW. For further information, see the Bodies in Movement Seminar Series page. If you have any queries or wish to register your interest in attending, please contact the organisers.
 

Kamillea Aghtan (kamillea@hotmail.com)
Karin Sellberg (k.j.k.sellberg@gmail.com)
Lena Wånggren (l.e.wanggren@sms.ed.ac.uk)
Michael O'Rourke (tranquilised_icon@yahoo.com)

Conference: Body Projects Conference, 9 March 2013, York

 

The often contestatory themes of body modification and feminism meet for a day of discussion at the University of York on 9 March 2013. The "Body Projects Conference" adopts a wide definition of body modification - "from shaved legs to buttock implants; from the honed 'fit' body to 'fat-reducing' surgery; from self-tanning to pro-ana; from piercings to gender reassignment, and much more" within an interdisciplinary academic environment.

 

Organisers are currently seeking proposals for twenty-minute presentations and ideas for performances and/or artwork, to be submitted by 10 December 2012. The call for papers can be found here. The program and guest speakers have yet to be announced, but further details will soon be posted on their website.

"It has been claimed that the unaltered female body is an unacceptable entity in the contemporary west and that the female body physically bears the marks of contemporary culture through the modification enacted upon it. The body is part of the embodied experience of an individual, but also, and increasingly, an object for critique."

 

Conference: Death, Dying and Disposal, 5-8 September 2013, Milton Keynes

The 11th biennial interdisciplinary conference Death, Dying and Disposal is set to take place under the auspices of the Faculty of Health & Social Care at the Open University in Milton Keynes from 5-8 September of next year. Revolving around the theme of "Theory Meets Practice", the organisers seek not only to address the cross-currents of theoretical and practical engagements of the field of death and dying studies, but to spotlight the underappreciated influence of practice in shaping, informing and transforming the theoretical field.

 

The call for abstracts invites presenters from across a range of disciplines and interests including professional groups involved in the area, academics and researchers. There are two deadlines for abstract submission set at 3 December 2012 and 4 March 2013.

"The underpinning rationale of the conference theme is to encourage a more overt engagement between theory and practice which moves beyond the notion that theoretical ideas are relevant to practice to highlight the iterative nature of death and dying studies. Indeed it is only through practice in all its forms, that theories can be developed, challenged and their usefulness evaluated."

 

Exhibition: "Superhuman", 19 July - 16 October, Wellcome Collection, London

The collection of curios at the Wellcome Trust (self-coined as "a free destination for the incurably curoius") organises around the theme of "Superhuman" until October of this year. Designed to overlap with the furor of the London Olympics and its celebration of engineered, amplified and sculpted athletic bodies, "Superhuman" explores the limits of corporeality through the interventions of technology, prosthetics and medicine.


Metalosis Meligna, 2006 by Floris Kaayk

Enhancements take centre stage in the Wellcome Collection's exhibition, which encompasses myth, ancient history, the comic genre, medical objects, the work of contemporary artists and more to structure its panoptic investigation. Various events are also part of the Collection's itinerary, including poetry and performance afternoons (entitled "We Are All a Cyborg"), a chance to fondle some synthetically fashioned body parts, and a symposium on "Human Limits" (28-29 September) at which will be screened one of the first films to depict space travel alongside panels of academic speakers from multiple disciplines.

"Glasses, lipstick, false teeth, the contraceptive pill and even your mobile phone - we take for granted how commonplace human enhancements are. From Icarus to i-Limbs, ‘Superhuman’, which opens at Wellcome Collection today, explores the extraordinary ways people have sought to improve, adapt and enhance their body’s performance."

Blog: Centre for Medical Humanities Blog

Durham University's Centre for Medical Humanities Blog has been going strong for over half a year now with postings which address developments in the burgeoning field of the medical humanities, including introductions to the research conducted by members of the Centre, relevant calls for papers, reviews, updates on interesting events and opinion pieces.

The blog is aimed at complementing the University's current research initiative which explores the relationship between medicine and broader social ideas of "health, well-being and flourishing" through diverse networks of interdisciplinary collaborations. Its programme of resesearch diverges into five identified research clusters: Imagination and Creativity; Practice and Practitioner; Mind/Body/Affect; Transfigurings; and Policy, Politics and the Collective. The Centre defines their titular pursuit:

"‘medical humanities’ isn’t the name of a further humanities discipline, but is simply the name of a field of enquiry. ... The disciplines actually involved in it are familiar humanities and social sciences disciplines, having in common both an interest in individual experience (which in this context means individuals’ experiences of health, illness, disability, diagnosis, treatment and care), and a recognition that subjective experience can be a legitimate source of knowledge."

Events of particular interest include an upcoming presentation given by Sara Ahmed on 11 May entitled "A Willfulness Archive" at Durham University. Further details for the night may be found here.