Book Review by George Tudorie Material Cultures of Psychiatry, edited by Monika Ankele and Benoît Majerus, transcript, 2020, 416pp. Meditative excavations of lost worlds are not the exclusive territory of phantasy, of imagining in disguise one’s own world buried, waiting for a speaker for the dead. Sometimes the sediment one contemplates is real enough, and […]
Latest articles
Disability, Relationship, and the Negotiation of Loss
Article Summary by Vic McKinney and Brian Watermeyer This paper explores the difficulty of going through a normal grieving process when becoming disabled and experiencing the death of a loved one. People with disabilities are historically, and generally still viewed as individuals associated with loss and deficit. There are also a range of stereotypical reactions […]
Conference Report: Colloquium “The Novel Stakes of Social Medicine”
Conference Report by Lucia Mair Medical Anthropology Switzerland (MAS), 03.-04. December 2021 In early December 2021, the two-day colloquium “The Novel Stakes of Social Medicine” brought together scholars from the medical humanities, health professionals, epidemiologists and economists from across Europe, digitally and in-person, against the backdrop of beautiful Lausanne. Hosted by Medical Anthropology Switzerland […]
The Bias Virus
Blog by Rachelle Ann Gonzales, BS*, Alex Im, BS* and Cynthia Romero, MD *Corresponding first-authors During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, I vividly remember watching a viral video of a young man attacking a masked, middle-aged Asian woman at the Grand Street subway station in New York City. […]
The Essence of Care
Fred Baillif, Swiss Film Director, talks about his film ‘La Mif’ with Khalid Ali, Film and Media Correspondent ‘La Mif’ is in general release in UK cinemas from 25th February 2022. Fred Baillif will deliver two Q and A events at the BFI Future Film Festival, “How to tell stories inspired by real-life experiences”, and […]
Emerging From The Tunnel of Trauma: A Season of Short Films at the BFI Future Film Festival
Film Review by Khalid Ali, Film and Media Correspondent 17-20 February 2022 The British Film Institute (BFI) Future Film Festival is aimed at aspiring filmmakers aged 16-25 years to showcase and share with a public audience their talent and vision through a hybrid series of events and screenings online and at the BFI Southbank, […]
Golem Girl: A Memoir by Riva Lehrer
Book Review by Dr Isabella Watts Published by One World and Virago This book is the beautiful memoir the artist Riva Lehrer, detailing her experiences of life, love, and her engagement with disability culture. Born in 1958 Lehrer is diagnosed with spina bifida- a condition of the spinal cord which many infants at that time […]
Endemic Fatalism and Why It Won’t Resolve COVID-19
Blog by Jacob Steere-Williams Pandemic fatigue has been pushed aside by a new phenomenon in many places around the world; endemic fatalism. The raging Omicron variant of COVID-19 has ushered in the highest case positivity rates since the beginning of the pandemic, flooding hospitals and attacking even those vaccinated and boosted against the disease. “We’re […]
Pandemic-divoc-91-suriv-disconnect
Blog by Lauraine M.H. Vivian The VIH-suriv Her whole body encrusted in sarcoptes scabiei, a 50-year-old woman lay in foetal position on a hospital bed in Cape Town (Richards 2021). It was 2012 and I, a medical anthropologist, was accompanying a consultant on a clinical teaching ward round. She diagnosed her condition as Norwegian Scabies […]
Loneliness, Friendship and Love in the Office Space
J Rick Castaneda, American film maker, in conversation with Khalid Ali, film and media correspondent Rick Castañeda is a writer, director and producer. His works have been around the world to festivals in London, Canada, Japan, and Romania, as well as festivals in the US such as SXSW. He made over 30 short films, earning […]