Panel for 2009 SMA Meetings ? Medical Anthropology at the
Intersections: Celebrating 50 Years of Interdisciplinarity (September
24-27, Yale University)
Recently, medical anthropologists have been urged to remedy the dearth
of research on ?any aspect of war or its aftermath in Iraq, or other
parts of the Middle East?, and redress the ways that, ?as a
discipline, we have been faint of heart and lacking moral courage...
(and) have turned away from the brutal realities, the embodied
suffering, the psychological devastation, the sexual violence, and the
refugee aftermath of war? (Inhorn 2008: 421).
By simultaneously contesting and upholding critiques of medical
anthropology as deficient in the scholarship of war, this panel
proposes to illuminate, problematize and debate qualitative health
research in conflicted terrains. In addition to highlighting current
research projects and the existing ? and not insignificant - medical
anthropology of conflict literature (which includes research in Gaza,
Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and Sierra Leone), panellists might also
address the interdisciplinary collaborations in which medical
anthropology methods and theory are applied in embattled terrain by
anthropologists and non-anthropologists alike. Panellists are
encouraged to critically explore the progressively porous boundaries
separating medical anthropology from the at-times problematic use of
qualitative, ethnographic methods in clinical health research and
global health initiatives in conflict zones. To this point
specifically, rather than demonstrating
faint-heartedness or disciplinary malaise, the paucity of
anthropology-centered research and analysis often reflects the ways
medical anthropology is deployed in the service of clinical outreach
initiatives, non-governmental organizations, or policy development
and analysis, especially in times when explicitly anthropological
engagements with conflict are infrequently and insufficiently funded
or supported.
A diverse range of topics related to the direct and indirect impacts
of conflict on health are welcomedand could address areas such as the
following:
· Gendered and domestic violence during conflict, reproductive
health, mental health and emotional ?recovery?, or embodiment and
somatization, physiological ailments and traumatic injury in
destabilized, insecure, conflicted or post-conflict settings.
· The structural and logistical implications of conflict for
clinical or ?traditional? health services, or the effect on the
hierarchy of therapeutic resort or ?triage? of health seeking and
service provision during conflict at family-, community- and
clinic-levels.
· The differences or similarities between the medical
anthropology of conflict and socio-cultural or feminist ethnographies
that also attend to health during instability, hostilities and strife.
· An examination of the ways in which conflict and violence
resonates in individuals? conceptualization of their bodies, health
and well-being; their vulnerability or resilience.
· Critical reflections on the role of ethnography, methods and
theory in addressing these issues.
This panel will ideally allow for conflict?s varied manifestations and
contextual underpinnings, and the ways fleeting, episodic fights or
sustained, chronic hostilities shape health beliefs and practices. In
important ways, the medical anthropology of conflict facilitates
crucial opportunities to view ?quotidian? health practices and their
occurrence amid, or, transformation by low-intensity or ?spectacular?
violence.
Inquiries or paper proposals (200 words maximum) may be directed to
Emma Varley (emma_varley2002@yahoo.ca) by Saturday April 11th. The SMA
panel will be held between September 24-27 (2009) at Yale University.
Further information on the SMA annual meetings can be found at:
http://www.yale.edu/macmillan/smaconference
