The 2023 Association of Social Anthropologists Conference (Web)

11.-14.04.2023
Venue: University of London
Proposals by: 07.01.2023

Longstanding feminist debates about the undervaluing and exploitation of caring labour came into focus in 2020, as the Covid pandemic closed schools and workplaces across the globe, and placed the lowest paid care workers on the frontlines of harm. This renewed and amplified interest in the politics, economics and social repercussions of care has moved beyond critique to alternatives conceptions of how care should be centred and interdependence celebrated.
This panel for the 2023 Association of Social Anthropologists Conference will focus in particular on the caring labour involved in looking after children, from the perspective of those providing the care. Looking at the recent and more distant past, we invite ethnographic and historical contributions that address the life-worlds agency and well-being of those who care for children. The organizers are particularly interested in how shifting forms of remunerated childcare – domestic and institutional; informal and professionalised; for cash or in-kind payments – enact or produce different norms, relations and reciprocities. For example, if workers become autonomous commercial providers of care, rather than being incorporated into households as junior dependents, what effect does this have on gendered, racialised and class-based hierarchies? Do different types of attachments, interests and subjectivities become possible in different child caring arrangements, and are others curtailed?
In the spirit of the call for repair over critique, the organizers are calling for papers that address future solutions and imagined alternatives, despite the challenges involved in formalising and organising this intimate form of work.

The conference will take place from 11-14 April 2023 at SOAS, University of London. The submission deadline for paper proposals is 7 January 2023. Paper proposals should be submitted to the panel organisers via the conference portal: (Web)
The organizers are happy to answer any questions in advance of the formal submission deadline. Sarah Howard and Sacha Hepburn (Birkbeck, Univ. of London, sarah.howard@bbk.ac.uk, s.hepburn@bbk.ac.uk)

Source: H-Net Notifications

Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Studies at TU Dresden (HAIT) (Web)

Zeit: 26.-28.09.2023
Ort: Dresden
Einreichfrist: 15.01.2023

Up to today the post-1989 transformation has had long-lasting effects on lives and biographies in postsocialist societies. The biographical disruptions caused by the postsocialist reconfigurations created many so-called ‚losers‘ of the transformation, who have not had the chance or were unable to create biographical coherence across the systemic divide. Many of these so-called ‚losers‘ tend to, or are judged to, express their anger about the long-term inequalities caused by the reunification process with an increasing skepticism towards democracy and a new openness towards authoritarianism. But who are these so-called ‚losers‘? Can we determine members within a certain age group as particularly receptive to the authoritarian temptation? What is the connection between individuals‘ former age during the time of the postsocialist transformation and their political identities today?
The proposed conference starts from the observations that there are indeed no uniform experiences of ‘the’ transformation. Be it in East Germany or the countries of East Central Europe the various age groups experienced and responded differently to the political and social transformation in the past and remember and speak about it today in different ways. Certain ages, such as adolescence – which is in itself a period of rapid physical and mental transformation – are for instance more receptive to experiences of abrupt change than others, which has had implications for their attitude towards this historical event and its long aftermath. Thus, when looking at the various age groups one can detect various degrees of harmony/disharmony of certain biographical stages with the postsocialist transformation. This requires paying special attention to the dimension of age when it comes to understanding the political, social and biographical implications of the postsocialist transformation. So far, much research has been devoted to the separate study of the experiences of either childhood, adolescence, or old age. Yet, these studies have not contrasted the response of the various age groups to the transformation. Read more and source … (Web)

Deutsches Historisches Institut Warschau (DHI) and Ústav českých dějin, Filozofická fakulta Univ. Karlovy (Web)

Zeit: 22.-24.06.2023
Ort: DHI-Außenstelle Prag
Einreichfrist: 30.04.2023

English Version (Web)

Seit dem späten 18. Jhd. verschwanden nach und nach die mittelalterlichen und frühneuzeitlichen Spitäler, die Behinderten, Geisteskranken, Alten oder Obdachlosen Zuflucht boten. Krankenhäuser als Absonderungs- und Eindämmungsinstrumente für Infizierten mit Lepra und Pest wurden in Kliniken von Leidener Art umgewandelt; das menschliche Leben begann medikalisiert zu sein und die Gesundheitsfürsorge institutionalisiert. Die Gesundheit der Bevölkerung wurde zum Gegenstand amtlicher und wissenschaftlicher Untersuchungen. Die Behörden führten eine gesundheitliche Überwachung und ärztliche Kontrolle breiter Bevölkerungsschichten ein, sie bestimmten pathologische, gefährliche oder inakzeptable Handlungsweise und definierten die entsprechenden Verhaltensmuster. Das Bestreben des Staates, die Produktivität und die Wohlfahrt der Menschen zu maximieren, brachte Disziplinierung und Moralisierung mit sich. Im Interesse des Staates sowie der Einzelnen sollte es die Kranken so schnell wie möglich in den Wirtschafts- und Arbeitsprozess zurückführen. Die Ärzte und das Gesundheitspersonal sprachen sich gegen die „abergläubische“ ländliche Kultur aus. Krankheiten und Infektionen wurden zu einem politischen Thema und der menschliche Körper zu einem politisierten Objekt. Die Gesundheitsfürsorge verlagerte die Patient:innen von zu Hause in die Krankenhäuser, um den Wohlstand und die Vermehrung des Volksvermögens zu sichern.
Während die allgemeine Idee in vielerlei Hinsicht richtig sein mag, sollte hinzugefügt werden, dass sie nicht als einmaliges Ereignis zustande kam, sondern seit mehr als anderthalb Jahrhunderten andauerte. Außerdem war sie nicht die einzige Möglichkeit und setzte sich nicht immer und überall durch. Sie existierte neben anderen Formen der Gesundheitsversorgung, sei sie in der Familie und … weiterlesen und Quelle (Web).

Centre for the Study of Health, Ethics and Society, University of Hamburg (Web)

Time: 09.-10.06.2023
Venue: Warburg-Haus, Hamburg
Proposals due: 06.03.2023

How can gender and sexuality – broadly conceived both methodologically and thematically – help to inform historical understanding of the role of medicine in post-war Europe? This conference will bring together scholars working in different disciplines to examine how theoretical approaches incorporating gender and sexuality can shed light on medical ethics, scientific practices, and policymaking associated with health across the ideological divide. How can histories of gender and sexuality illuminate individual medical experiences and the complex relations between patients, doctors, policymakers, pharmaceutical companies, and medical ethicists during the Cold War period?
The organizers are particularly interested in papers which examine gender, sexuality, and medicine in Central and Eastern Europe in order to gain greater insight into how medicine was imagined, managed, sold and experienced across Europe. Exploring gender and sexuality in the context of post-war medicine can help us to discern potential similarities in medical practices, policies, and experiences across Europe, which moves beyond the security context and ideological differences of the Cold War to highlight the exchange of scientific ideas across the “Iron Curtain”. Examining gender, sexuality and medicine in the post-war period can bring about a new scholarly perspective on Europe as a continent that was to some extent united by shared experiences, policies, and beliefs. Read more and source … (Web)