[Bilimsel Haber] Call for Papers (Deadline Prolonged) - Anthropology of Men and Health

[Onur Inal]

Subject: Call for Papers (Deadline Prolonged) - Anthropology of Men and
Health

*INVITATION AND CALL FOR PAPERS*
Symposium ?Anthropology of Men, Masculinities and Health?

Keynote lecture by Matthew Gutmann (Brown University)

Freie Universität Berlin (FUB), 15-16.05.2009

For a long time ethnography was written by men for men and about men without
any reference to gender hierarchies and men?s gendered subjectivities. Men
were treated as unmarked category or normative baseline on which knowledge
about a certain society or culture could be built upon. The Feminist and
Postmodern Critique challenged patriarchal social science and raised
awareness about the situation of women within the gendered politics of
everyday life. Subsequent to this movement there has been a growing number
of studies focusing on men as gendered subjects, bound to construct their
identity in relation to subordinated women and femininities, as well as in
opposition to a number of marginalized ?other? masculinities. Ethnography
has played a pivotal role in demonstrating the cross-cultural variance in
models for and of manhood, and in recognizing the intersections of gender
identities with social class, ethnicity, images of ?race? and sexuality. In
this context, major attention has been paid to discourses about divergent
models of masculinity as historically constructed ideal types challenged
through illness, suffering, and unemployment in post-industrial,
late-capitalist societies.

In recent times, a growing number of scholars call for a shift of focus from
discourses about hegemonic or subordinate masculinities, towards a more
intricate study of social practice including the ambiguous and context
specific performance of manhood. While there are still certain dominant
models of and for masculinity (and  
femininity),  complex modes of switching between divergent subject positions
within  time and space are found to be at odds with monolithic identities
both  self-ascribed and attributed by conventional social science.
Notwithstanding some notable exceptions the embodiment of manhood in
relation to the somatisation of social relations, as well as the  bodily
expression of illness and suffering are largely  under-theorized. By
extension little is known about how medical technologies and public health
change, if at all, male patient?s and  healer?s subjectivities. Although
gender has received significant  attention in Medical Anthropology, research
was dominated by female  studies. Men?s health and men in medical practice
are still under-researched issues. There are few factors determining this
state of affairs. One of them is traditionally strong connection of Medical
Anthropology to marginalized and oppressed groups, and feminist  critique.
Another factor is various masculinity ideals throughout the  world that
influence men?s mutedness in the context of illness, pain  and suffering.
This has also a negative impact on conventional methodologies in Medical
Anthropology.

We are looking for papers that will offer fresh and various approaches to
manhood and masculinity in the context of health, theory, methodology and
practice. For purposes of this symposium and a planned volume we will not
define masculinity or manhood, but will rather invite authors to work with
diverse definitions and understandings of the term and phenomenon, thus
leaving it fluid. Also, we are interested in a variety of topics related to
male presence in the field of medicine. Some issues might include, but are
not limited to:

-        Men?s reproductive health and the biopolitics of masculinity
-        Gender-based violence and public health
-        Men?s occupational health
-        Men and Sexually Transmittable Infections
-        Preventive medicine and male health practices; health and illness
behavior, and health seeking
-        Men?s health movements
-        Female dominated practices (e.g. abortion) and male identity
-        Men in patient?s family and healing process
-        Knowledge production / gendering knowledge
-        Male professionals working with medical science and technology
-        Medicalization and masculinity including ageing, erectile
disfunction etc.
-        Challenges in health care in a multicultural world with focus on
different concepts and norms of masculinity
-        Men and substance (ab)use
-        Changing directions in treatment of men
-        Presentation of men and medical issues in media, literature,
movies, theatre, art etc.

We invite scholars and researchers with background in anthropology,
ethnology, qualitative sociology etc. to submit proposals for the symposium.
The volume which will follow this meeting will consist of thematic chapters
based on submitted articles of the contributors. We do not accept works that
have already been published. 

Participants will be given access to all papers no later than a week in
advance of the symposium.

Please send an abstract (300 words), affiliation and short presentation of
the author(s) to Aleksandra Pytko - aleksandra.pytko at hf.hio.no

Deadline for abstracts is 28. February 2009.

Notification about accepted papers will be sent within 2 weeks after the
deadline.

If an abstract is accepted, a full draft paper should be developed and
submitted by 1. Mai 2009.

There will be no fees for the symposium. Nevertheless, participants are
requested to cover and arrange for travel and accommodation on their own.

If you have any further questions, do not hesitate to contact us.


Organizing Committee:
Aleksandra Pytko ? MA in Social Anthropology, University of Oslo, Norway.
Currently she is working as a research assistant at the Faculty of Health
Sciences, Oslo University College and Department of Literature, Area Studies
and European Languages, University of Oslo.   
Contact: aleksandra.pytko at hf.hio.no

Danijel Loncar ? MA in Anthropology and MA in Archaeology from University of
Zagreb, Croatia. Currently he is an independent researcher cooperating on
various health-related projects with United Nations Development Program
(UNDP) and UN Theme Group on HIV/AIDS.   
Contact: danijel.loncar at ffzg.hr

Hanspeter Reihling ? MA in Social Anthropology at Freie Universität Berlin,
Germany. He is a PhD candidate currently working as research associate at
the Institute for Social Anthropology, FUB.
Contact: h.reihling at fu-berlin.de

Supported by: Professor Hansjörg Dilger ? Institute for Social Anthropology
at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. 
Contact: hansjoerg.dilger at berlin.de