WORKSHOP Healing Ecologies and Medical Diversity: Ethnographic Approaches to Wellbeing

It is no secret that we are experiencing troubling times. We frequently hear news of massive wildfires, disappearing glaciers, widespread flooding, dangerous heat waves, relentless super- storms, not to forget the scourge of hunger, disease and the social and economic costs of epidemics and pandemics. What’s more, these events are unfolding in a climate of political dysfunction, conspiracy theories, and the incomprehensible violence of mass shootings.

Given the persistent and socially destructive turbulence of our times, how can we restore our humanity, or, as Timothy Morton and Dominic Boyer put it, how can we once again become human? In these trying times, it is time for scholars, who have deep insight into the whys and wherefores of the human condition to share their slowly developed insights that can chart a course toward a future of less mastery, arrogance and domination and more collaboration, modesty, and constructive cooperation. The collective wisdom of social science and the humanities remains obscured in a thick cloud bank of disciplinary convention that honours the obfuscation of theoretical discourse.

One path toward a viable social future is to extend social science insights into the practices of healing-healing one another and healing the world. We have invited internationally recognized scholars and practitioners who have first-hand knowledge of healing practices to join our conversation. In this workshop we intend to give participants an empirically grounded understanding of how to transform illness and traumatic situations into states of wellbeing-a way to begin the process of personal and social healing. To meet this end, our four-day intensive workshop will focus on issues of medical diversity (Elisabeth Hsu), the self, embodiment, and wellbeing (Fiona Bowie), musical healing through songwriting (Kristina Jacobsen), collaborations of scholars and practitioners (Mustapha Gudaji and Conerly Casey), and social trust (David Napier).

For more information see https://www.healnetwork.eu/events1/workshop-2024-healing-ecologies

For online participation please register via https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf423XpyOzck1gtnjsgEosvD1XEKVUqnWBurE6gwmJeTp063w/viewform