The Embodied Self, Health and Emerging Technologies: Implications for Gender and Identity During 2017-2018,
The Nordic Network Gender, Body, Health is organizing three workshops within the framework of the project ”The Embodied Self, Health and Emerging Technologies”, funded by The Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS). The first workshop on the theme “Interrogating Prostheses” will take place at Stockholm University, Sweden in May 2017. The following two workshops will be on Digital Health and e-Medicine (Helsinki, Finland, November 2017) and Transplantation (Bergen, Norway, Spring 2018).
The primary objective of the workshops is to respond to and explore the development and impact of newly emerging technologies on the embodied self, and more particularly on our expectations of health in the early 21st century. Some of the technologies have long been in practice but the current rapid expansion of interventions into the body has brought the issues to the forefront of all lives whether in illness or health. The advances happening within Nordic laboratories, clinics and hospitals are, as elsewhere, often seen as wholly beneficial, but we aim to inquire more rigorously into the implications for both individuals and society. Given that the organisers all identity as feminist scholars, the gender dimensions of emerging technologies will be consciously pursued. We will use the methodological resources of both humanities and social sciences to unpack what is at stake for future policy in the Nordic countries, and to identify where further critical research is needed. The secondary objective is to provide fora that will bring together academics, bioscientists and other stake-holders to discuss both mutual concerns and points of conflict. Members of the Nordic Network for Gender, Health and Body will be heavily involved and will promote the inclusion of early career scholars as well as calling on contacts beyond the academic sphere. The longer term objective is to formulate further research proposals that address how technology-driven policy can satisfy bioethics.
Workshop 1: Interrogating Prostheses (Stockholm, May 15-16, 2017)
Nordic Network Gender, Body and Health 