CfP: "The Coming of Age of the Public Fetus - Exploring Pregnant and Fetal Bodies in Visual Culture"
In
the late 1980s and early 1990s, feminist scholars started to use the
concept of “the public fetus” to describe the growing dissemination of
fetal images in the public. This process was often connected to the
publication of Swedish photographer Lennart Nilsson’s pictures of human
fetuses in the mid-1960s and the increasing use of the obstetric
ultrasound. Many have analyzed the consequences of this change and how
images of fetal bodies have been used in anti-abortion campaigns,
especially in the US context. However, while these issues are still
highly relevant, the historiography of “the public fetus” has also been
problematized, which calls for further research. For example, how were
pregnancy and fetuses made publically visible in earlier periods and in
other cultural contexts? And how can new historical perspectives extend
our knowledge of this development and of today’s visual culture? Given
the media expansion of the last decades and contemporary political
struggles over reproductive rights, we find it important and timely to
advance scholarly discussion on these matters.
The
purpose of this workshop is to bring together scholars from a range of
disciplines to further explore pregnant and fetal bodies in visual
culture. Our aim is to expand the geographical and historical scope of
inquiry and to discuss visualizations of pregnancy across a variety of
media and contexts. We are interested in current research on this topic
in history of medicine, gender studies, film and media studies, art
history, and other relevant fields, and invite scholars working on a
wide range of materials to join us in an interdisciplinary endeavor.
Keynote lectures
Professor emeritus Barbara Duden, Leibniz University Hannover, Germany, “Visualizing the
Unborn in the Gaze of the Scientist. Perspectives from a Body Historian”
Professor Dr. Manon S. Parry, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and University of Amsterdam, the
Netherlands, “Babies in Bottles: Encountering Fetal Bodies in Medical Museums”
We especially, but not exclusively, welcome papers and work-in-progress presentations on the following topics:
- Historiographical and theoretical perspectives on “the public fetus”
- Discussions of borders and relationships between different media and genres, for example comparisons and connections between reproductive bodies in science, art, and popular culture
- Transnational perspectives, for example analyses of the international circulation of images and exhibitions featuring pregnancy
- Fetal bodies in medical museums and other public spaces
- Studies of censorship practices and negotiations regulating visualizations of pregnancy in the public
- Images of fetuses in anti-abortion campaigns
- The uses of visual media in communicating medical research on reproduction
- Feminist and other activist visualizations of pregnant bodies
The
workshop is three days, opening on the evening of May 15 and concluding
in the late afternoon of May 17, 2019. 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
your 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
deadline for application is also January 31, 2019. Please indicate your
reasons for wanting to take part in the workshop, and please note that
only attendees who present a paper are eligible for economic support.
The workshop is organized by the research program ”Medicine at the
Borders of Life: Fetal
Research
and the Emergence of Ethical Controversy in Sweden” which is funded by
the Swedish Research Council and hosted by the Department of History of
Science and Ideas at Uppsala University, Sweden (http://medicalborders.se/)