Making Sense Of: Health, Illness and Disease 14 to 17 July 2003, St
Hilda's College, Oxford, United Kingdom

Call For Papers (Please cross post where appropriate)

This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary project aims to explore the
processes by which we attempt to create meaning in health, illness and
disease. The project will also examine the models we use to understand our
experiences of health and illness (looking particularly at perceptions of
the body), and to evaluate the diversity of ways in which we creatively
struggle to make sense of such experiences and express ourselves across a
range of media.

Papers, presentations, reports and workshops are invited on any of the
following themes:

* the 'significance' of health, illness and disease for individuals and
communities; the factors which influence our perceptions of health and
illness experiences

* the concept of the 'well' person; the preoccupation with health; the
attitudes of the 'well' to the 'ill'; perceptions of impairment' and
disability; the challenges posed when confronted by illness and disease;
the notion of being 'cured'; chronic illness; terminal illness; attitudes
to death

* how we perceive of and conduct ourselves through the experiences of
health and illness; the effects on our sense of identity; our relationship
with our own body; how others perceive us - family, friends, strangers,
doctors, nurses, care givers

* 'models' of the body; the body in pain; biological and medical views of
illness; the ambiguous relationship with 'alternative' medicine and
therapies; the doctor-patient relationship; the 'clinical gaze'; the body
as machine and the role of technology; the rise of genetics; manipulation
of the body - transplantation, surgery; the body as resource; 'artificial'
bodies; the impact of body 'models' on the person

* the impact of health, illness and disease on biology, economics,
government, medicine, politics, social sciences; the changing relationship
between society and medical development; the potential influences of
gender, ethnicity, and class; health care, service providers, and public
policy

* the nature and role of 'metaphors' in expressing the experiences of
health, illness and disease - for example, illness as 'another country';
the role of narrative and narrative interpretation in making sense of the
'journey' from health through illness, diagnosis, and treatment; the
importance of story telling; dealing with chronic and terminal illness;
the 'myths' surrounding health, illness and disease

* the relationship between creative work and illness and disease: the work
of artists, musicians, poets, writers. Illness and the literary
imagination - studies of writers and literature which take health,
disability, illness and disease as a central theme.

Perspectives are sought from those engaged in:

* art and art therapy, creative writing, English literature, history of
medicine, media studies, the performing arts (dance, music, theatre),
philosophy and ethics, psychology and social psychology, social sciences,
sociology and socio-biology, theology and religious studies

* anatomy, child care nursing, clinical psychology, counseling,
gerontology, health education, health services, hospital administration,
immunology, medical and surgical nursing, medicine and the medical
sciences, pharmaceutical sciences, public health care

* practitioners in health care fields - doctors, GP's, surgeons, health
care workers, care givers, hospice workers

Papers will be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should
be submitted by Friday 11th April 2003. 8 page conference papers should be
submitted by Friday 20th June 2003.

A themed volume arising from the work of the first conference is presently
in preparation. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference
will be published in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers accepted for and
presented at the conference will be published in one or more themed
volumes.

Papers should be submitted to Dr Rob Fisher at [log in to unmask]
as an email attachment in Word or WordPerfect; abstracts can also be
submitted in the body of the email text rather than as an attachment.

Further details and information about the "Making Sense of:" series of
projects can be found at http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/mso.htm

For specific information about the conference, please go to
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/hid03cfp.htm

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