Health and Welfare Research Group 2009-10

Alternate Wednesdays in term, 12:15pm - 14:00
CRASSH, 17 Mill Lane, Cambridge

Conveners

Richard Barnett (History and Philosophy of Science)
Megan Clinch (General Practice and Primary Care Research Unit)
Rachel Hughes (Cambridge Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Group)
Neil Singh (School of Clinical Medicine)
Julie Walsh (History and Philosophy of Science)
Rebecca Whyte (History)

Advisors

John Forrester (History and Philosophy of Science)
Simon Szreter (History)

The Health and Welfare Group explores knowledge about health, disease and society from an interdisciplinary perspective. We approach this topic comparatively, focusing on the construction and conceptualisation of human and social well-being in diverse historical periods and geographical areas. In particular, the Group also considers the impact of these ideas on the contemporary practice of healthcare and the implementation of welfare policy.

The Group meets fortnightly during term time with discussions focusing on one theme per term. For 2009-10, these themes are: war, industry and medicine; bodily excess; and global health and wealth. Events take on a variety of formats, including reading-group discussions, workshop seminars, round-table discussions between researchers and practitioners, invited speaker events and whole-day symposia. We are interested in exploring a wide variety of conceptual and methodological approaches to the study of health and welfare. We welcome faculty staff, students, clinicians/practitioners and anyone else keen to discuss these ideas in an academic environment.

Subscribe to the Health and Welfare email list for information about forthcoming events.

Administrative contact: Esther Lamb (Grad/Fac Programme and Office Manager)

Programme 2009-10

Michaelmas Term 2009

Wednesday 14 October, 12.00pm
Medicine and Imperialism: Diseases, Armies, Natives
Readings

Wednesday 28 October, 12.00pm
The Cancer Wars: Medicine's Vietnam?
Readings

Wednesday 11 November, 12.00pm
Medical Mobilisation: Penicillin, Mass Production and Total War
Readings

Wednesday 25 November, 12.00pm
Christian Strother
Danger to Us All": Yellow Fever and the Politics of Disease Control in Senegal, 1890-1912

Lent Term 2010

Theme: Bodily Excess

Within the thematic framework of 'Bodily Excess', this term's sessions will explore some of the difficulties of conceptualising the health and welfare of the embodied self from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. The 'body' in question not only pertains to both the individual and the social body, but also to the bodies of knowledge within which the problem of corporeal identities are discursively situated and assessed. With this in mind, we hope to think about the range and application of the term 'bodily excess' - to include profusion, violation, transgression, debauchery, compulsion, addiction, waste, surplus - in such a way that will attend to the dialectical relation between 'excess' and 'limit'.

Wednesday 20 Jannuary, 12.15pm
Reading Group: Mirrors and Metamorphoses
To see Readings click here

Thursday 21 January at 5.00 pm
Epistemology, Ontology, What's that got to do with...Social Work, Medicine, Nursing?
Dr Cathy Aymer (Social Worker/Senior Lecturer), School of Health Sciences and Social Care, Brunel University
Professor Toyin Okitikpi, Visiting Professor in Social Work, University of Bedfordshire
Dr Elizabeth Fistein (Psychiatrist/Ethics and Law Teaching Coordinator), School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge

Tuesday 2 February, 12.30-2.00pm*

This event has been postponed due to illness
*Venue: Large Seminar Room, Institute of Public Health, University of Cambridge, Forvie Site, Robinson Way, Cambridge, CB2 0SR
Professor Catherine Pope, University of Southampton
Techno fixes in health care settings?
Event Organised by The General Practice and Primary Care Research Group

Wednesday 3 February, 12.15 pm
Victoria de Menil (International Policy Coordinator, Basic Needs)
Delivering Mental Health Services in the Developing World: Basic Needs and the Model for Mental Health and Development

Wednesday 17 February, 12.15 pm
Reading Group: Approaching Addiction
To see Readings click here

Wednesday 3 March, 12.15 pm
Dr. Darin Weinberg (Department of Sociology, Cambridge)

Easter Term 2010

Wednesday 28 April, 12.15pm
Revisiting Health Inequality
Readings

Thursday 6 May, 17:00 - 19:00 *Please note change of date and time
Session: Stories or Numbers? Constructing 'Evidence' in Health Policy and Practice

Dr Deborah Rutter (Senior Research Analyst, Social Care Institute of Excellence)
Professor Jeremy Wyatt (University of Dundee)

Wednesday 12 May, 12.15pm
Avner Offer (Chichele Professor of Economic History, All Souls College, Oxford University, UK)
Obesity and Welfare Regimes

Wednesday 26 May, 12.15pm
Biomedicine, the market and Health Inequalities
Readings

Wednesday 9 June, 12.15pm
Cornelia Guell (MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge)
Diabetes peer education among Turkish migrants in Berlin: self-help for self-care

Wednesday 16 June
Annual Symposium
Keynote speaker: Dr Harvi Carel