CfP: Valuations of Life: Birth defects, prenatal diagnoses, and disability. Int. workshop, Sweden 25-26 Sept 2018
Definitions
of what counts as a valuable life implicitly and explicitly saturate
both historical and contemporary narratives about birth defects,
prenatal diagnoses, and disability. The aim of this
workshop is to contribute knowledge of how life has been valued and by
what means.
We are interested in both historical and contemporary studies.
We
are particularly interested in how different technologies, historically
and currently, have guided, aided, or informed the valuation process.
How, for example, have methods such as amniocentesis,
ultrasound, new abortion methods, blood marker tests, but also
prosthesis-technologies, bio-engineering methods, and economic
calculation models, influenced the valuations? Which value scales, old
or new, have collided in the processes, and with which consequences?
How has the valuing and evaluation of life and its relation to
different technologies been discussed and negotiated by scientists,
medical professionals, lobbyists, policy makers, media, economists,
pregnant women, individuals, parents, families, interest
groups, or political and religious organizations?
We welcome proposals for papers or presentations of work-in-progress that analyze these questions from different perspectives.
Of special interest may be, for example, studies of:
Concepts of life value and evaluation in history, law, science and medicine.
Biopolitics and the making of life value as measurable and objective.
Technologies that help, change, or in other way affect the definition of value of life, or the evaluation of it.
Mathematical methods to calculate life value in economic terms, and their implementation.
Conflicts and negotiations around life value between different actors and/or interest groups, such as the medical professions,
patient organizations, religious organizations, private/corporate actors, and nation states or the equivalent.
Visual cultures of a life worth living.
Birth defects and the value of life.
Normalization and medicalization.
Keynote speaker: Professor Susanne Klausen, Carleton University, Canada. “Contesting Eugenic Abortion: The Legacy of the 1960s Thalidomide
Tragedy for the Ongoing Struggle for Women's Reproductive Freedom”
We
welcome perspectives from history, anthropology, sociology, gender
studies, science and technology studies, and other relevant fields.
Please
provide your full name, institutional affiliation, and contact details.
The format of the workshop will not allow for more than c. 15 papers.
We will evaluate the abstracts based on the originality
of the research and the relevance to the theme of the workshop.
Applicants will be notified if their papers have been accepted or not by
June 17, 2018. The conference language is English.
The
workshop is two full days, i.e. morning to late afternoon, September
25–26, 2018. Registration, lunches, workshop dinner and accommodation
(two nights at the conference hotel) are free of charge
for participants presenting papers. It may also be possible to obtain
limited economic support for travel expenses. Please indicate in the
application if such support is required for attendance and what level of
support is needed.
If you would like to attend without a paper, or a presentation, the application deadline is also June 1, 2018. Please email helena.franzen@idehist.uu.se and indicate your reasons for wanting to
take part in the workshop. Please note that only attendees who present a paper are eligible for economic support.
The
workshop is organized by Maria Björkman, Ph.D., and Annika Berg, Ph.D.,
both working within the research program ”Medicine at the Borders of
Life: Fetal
Research and the Emergence of Ethical Controversy” which is funded by
the Swedish Research Council and hosted by the Department of History of
Science and Ideas at Uppsala University, Sweden (medicalborders.se).