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Oct. 6, 2006 EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT U-M conference challenges the politics of health and health care
DATE: Oct. 12-13, 2006. EVENT: Against Health: Resisting the Invisible Morality. Joycelyn Elders, former President Clinton's controversial surgeon general, will be a keynote speaker at a two-day conference to explore health, who defines it, what it means, and who is healthy. The conference will bring together scholars, research scientists, activists, and medical experts from around the world to offer a thoughtful critique of the ways in which current definitions of health are, in some instances, at odds with human well being. The School of Social Work is a co-sponsor of Elders' talk, which is the Fedele F. and Iris M. Fauri Memorial Lecture. In addition to Elders, Dr. Susan Love, a surgeon and breast cancer prevention advocate, and Cornell University literary scholar Richard Klein will present keynote talks. There will be workshops led by international leaders in such fields as law, medicine, sociology, gender studies, HIV/AIDS research, and media studies will address topics as diverse as pharmaceutical advertising, health and the African American community, HIV/AIDS, drug use, the so-called obesity epidemic, pharmaceuticals, genetics, and childbirth. "Health is a term often reflexively assumed to be universal, normal, and good," said Dr. Jonathan Metzl, conference chairman and a professor of psychiatry and women’s studies at the University. "But forces in our society also use the language of health to make moral judgments, convey prejudice, sell products, or even to exclude whole groups of persons from health care. Our conference will put this dichotomy under a microscope, in order to explore how health is an ideological state as well as a desired state." "We have an excellent, collaborative panel of speakers who will present alternative, provocative perspectives about health," said Carol J. Boyd, IRWG director. "The goal is to begin a conversation that breaks down traditional right-left political divides about health and health care in order to find new ways of addressing issues that face everyone." "Health is the new morality," said Anna Kirkland, professor of women’s studies and political science. "Even people who otherwise don’t dictate the moral behavior of others see nothing wrong in condemning those they call unhealthy. It’s supposed to be beyond criticism to say, ‘Well, I’m just worried about her health.’ We need to start seeing those kinds of statements as political and moral as well as scientific." Other conference speakers include Dorothy Roberts, Northwestern Law School; Kathleen LeBesco, Marymount Manhattan College; Susan Kippax, National Center in HIV Social Research at the University of New South Wales, Australia; Carl Elliott, University of Minnesota; Rebecca Herzig, Bates College; Roddey Reid, University of California–San Diego; Sarah Jain, Stanford University; Brad Lewis, New York University; Kane Race, National Centre in HIV Social Research, University of New South Wales, Australia; Petra Kuppers,University of Michigan; Lisa Kane Low, University of Michigan; and Nicholas King, Case Western University. The interdisciplinary study of health and medicine has become an important site of academic attention in recent years. U-M, already recognized as a national leader in medical research, also has a program in Culture, Health and Medicine and offers many graduate and undergraduate courses about health. With this conference, the University of Michigan showcases its dedication to interdisciplinary intellectual inquiry in general, and its leadership in this area of health studies in particular. PLACE: Rackham Building on the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus. SPONSORS: University of Michigan’s Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG). REGISTRATION: The conference is free and open to the public; advanced registration is encouraged. For more information on the conference or to register see http://www.umich.edu/againsthealth. MEDIA: Please RSVP to Cheryl Eberwein, (734) 764-9537 or ceberwei@umich.edu Contact: Cheryl Eberwein or Contact: Laura Bailey
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