Medical Humanities Roundtables II: Health/Death as Liberation: Liberation and Oppression in the History of Public Health and Medicine

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

Health/Death As Liberation is a series of roundtables that brings together researchers whose subjects of study are geographically diverse, but whose interests lie in the field of medical humanities and whose research explores new frameworks and perspectives to understand structures of power and oppression behind medical institutions, to examine state propaganda discourses in public health, and to investigate forces and forms of resistance and liberation. Presenters will discuss representations of death and dying in contemporary cultural production, juxtapose the emergence of oppressive narratives in the discourse of public health toward women, sexual minorities, and indigenous population, reflect on how regional histories form master narratives and how these narratives are incorporated in post-colonial studies, disability studies, narrative medicine, medical ethics, and cultural histories. The roundtables aim to foster interdisciplinary collaborations in the medical humanities and highlight regional histories of Eastern Europe, the Russian Far East, Tatarstan, and Alaska.

This roundtable focuses on analyzing the social, cultural and political issues surrounding health providers, caregivers, and patients related to primary care, addiction, and surgery. The speakers will discuss the narratives of medical professionals and their communication with authorities. The discussion will delve into who the state protects, whose interests are prioritized - medical professionals or patients, how narratives of oppression and liberation manifest themselves in Chekhov’s “Sakhalin Island” and Nikolai Pirogov’s “Diary of an Old Physician.”

Sub Unit

• Anthropology, Cultural Studies

Roundtable Members

• Katya Chelpanova, SUNY Buffalo

• Evangelina Demina, U of Virginia

• Polina P

• Natalia Vygovskaia, Brown U