Intersubjectivities of Care By Timothy Carroll The ‘Subjects and Subjectivities of Care’ conference was held on 14 October at UCL Anthropology. Co-organised by Jo Cook (UCL) and Catherine Trundle (Victoria, NZ), the one-day conference was an exciting, thoroughly enjoyable, and critically engaging opportunity to think through the dynamics of care. The intimate setting, with…
Author: aparkhurst2014
UCL Medical Anthropology Outreach: Residential Summer School Medical Anthropology for Dummies and an Insight into Yemen’s Crisis
UCL Medical Anthropology Outreach: Residential Summer School Medical Anthropology for Dummies and an Insight into Yemen’s Crisis By Naqiya Hassanali Upper Sixth former from Leicester For the fifth week of my summer holiday I’d signed up to actually get out of bed for a Medical Anthropology summer school at UCL. Meeting a few friends at…
Welcome to Medical Anthropology at UCL
Welcome to Medical Anthropology at University College London. Medical Anthropology examines how health and well-being are socially and culturally constituted in comparative and transnational contexts and the ways in which culture influences the experience of illness, the practice of medicine and the process of healing for the individual and community. It explores how the experiences and perceptions of the body, self or notion of the individual or person influence the illness experience. It is also concerned with how cultural values and practices dynamically shape and are themselves shaped by biomedical research and practice and non-Western medicines and healing traditions. This blog presents current and emerging research within Medical Anthropology at UCL and abroad, and it offers a forum for exchange and discussion within social science and medical communities.
The Material Culture of Failure
What happens when objects behave unexpectedly or fail to do what they ‘should’? Even when materials, and the institutions in which they are embedded, perform mechanically in the way in which they were designed, they may fail to ‘socially’ do what is expected of them. Who defines failure? Is failure always bad? Rather than viewing concepts such as failure, incoherence or incompetence as antithetical to social life, this innovative new book examines the unexpected and surprising ways in which failure, for better or for worse, can lead to productive and creative results.