Age and the Body: Cultures and Conversations
![[Age and the Body Poster]](http://wiser.wits.ac.za/system/files/AgeBodyPoster.png)
The Medical Humanities at WISER present a two-day symposium on 27 and 28 June
Age and the Body: Cultures and Conversations
This interdisciplinary symposium will explore a range of issues pertaining to the social, cultural, and legal contexts around organ transplantation and ageing, particularly in South Africa. Panels have been arranged around themes including ‘Law and the Lab,’ ‘Ageing and Dying,’ and 'Organs: Sacrifice, Giving and Receiving.' Participants include historians, medical doctors, sociologists, and anatomists.
The keynote, ‘New pathologies and old susceptibilities: Aging and chronic disease in India and South Africa (1940 – 50s)’ will be delivered by Kavita Sivaramakrishnan of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University on 27 June at 17:30. This event is opent to the public.
VENUE: WiSER Seminar Room, 6th Floor, Richard Ward Building, East Campus, Wits University.
To attend the keynote or the workshop, RSVP Thea de Gruchy: theadegruchy@gmail.com or 082 923 6853.
Age and the Body – Cultures and Conversations | Symposium Programme
Hosted by WiSER | Friday 27 and Saturday 28 June 2014
Friday 27 June
Registration: 9:30 to 10:00
|
10:00 – 10:15
|
Tea and coffee Welcome Setting the scene – the aims and motivating ideas for Medical Humanities in Africa at WITS |
Catherine Burns (WiSER Wits) |
Panel 1: Organs – Sacrifice, Giving and Receiving (11:00-13.00)
Chair: Pamila Gupta (WiSER WITS) and Rapporteur: Stephen Pentz (Anthropology WITS & Family Medicine, Chiawelo Centre)
|
11:00 – 11:30 |
On the trail of organ transplant in South Africa: a case study of paediatric live transplant |
Dr Tina Sideris and Dr June Fabian (Donald Gordon Medical Centre and Wits Medical School) |
|
|
11:30 – 11:45 |
Transplant stories: making meaning of intercorporeality through the use of online platforms |
Kezia Lewins (Sociology, Wits) |
|
|
11:45 – 12:00 |
Provisional thoughts on sacrifice, property and the body |
Julia Hornberger (Anthropology Wits) |
|
|
12:00 – 12:30 |
Receiving and being – a personal transplant journey |
Rose Richards (Writing Laboratory, Stellenbosch University) |
|
|
12:30 – 13:00 |
Questions and discussion |
|
|
Lunch 13:00-14:00
Panel 2: Knowing The Body? (14:00-15:30)
Chair: Thabisani Ndlovu (Centre for Diversity Studies, WITS) and Rapporteur: Bianca Jacquet (Fine ART, WITS)
|
14:00 – 14:30 |
Trance/Trans: Transplant, translocation, and translation The Moor and The Priest – a Middle Age Tale of Transplantation |
Jane Taylor (Wole Soyinka Chair of Drama and Theatre Studies, Leeds University) |
|
14.30 – 14:50 |
This body: not me, not mine, not myself |
Dhammamegha (Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Medical Humanities, WiSER, WITS) |
|
14:50 – 15:10 |
Crip bodies enfleshing post-apartheid sovereignty? |
Benita de Robillard (Drama, WITS) |
|
15:10 – 15:30 |
Questions and discussion |
|
Tea and Coffee Break 15:30-15:45
Panel 3: High Stakes – Identity and research in this field (15:45 to 17:15)
Chair: Prinisha Badassy (History, WITS) and Rapporteur: Kalema Masua (WiSER, WITS)
|
16:00 – 16:15 |
Tissues & Transplants at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital – conducting oral histories |
Simonne Horwitz (History, University of Saskatchewan) |
|
16:15 – 16:40 |
Thinking about heart transplants through two high Apartheid-era films – ‘Hoor my lied’ (1967) and ‘A New Life’ (1971) (more time for film extracts) |
Carolé Cilliers (sociology, North-West Univeristy) |
|
16:40 – 16:55 |
Exotic and Familiar in the Transplant World – thoughts on the WiSER/WITS research group |
Renée van der Wiel van (Anthropology Graduate and researcher, WITS) |
|
16:55 – 17:15 |
Questions and discussion |
|
PLENARY – 17:30 cocktail gathering and public presentation
Kavita Sivaramakrishnan
Assistant Professor of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University.
New Pathologies and Old Susceptibilities: Aging and Chronic Disease in India and South Africa (1940-50s)
Saturday 28 June
Tea and Coffee 9:00 - 9:30
Panel 4: Ageing and Dying (9:30-11:00)
Chair: Nolwazi Mkhwanazi (Anthropology, WITS) and Rapporteur: Shehnaz Munshi (WITS & Family Medicine, Chiawleo Centre)
|
9:30 – 9:45 |
Researching the 'chronic disease' epidemic in Africa |
Megan Vaughan (Graduate Centre, City University of New York & Cambridge University) |
|
9:45 – 10:00 |
Age: A useful category of historical analysis? |
Sarah Duff (Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Medical Humanities, WiSER WITS) |
|
10:00 – 10:15 |
South Africa’s ageing low-income groups: current and future implications for the SA Department of Health |
Thabisani Ndlovu (Centre for Diversity Studies, WITS) |
|
10:30 – 10:45 |
Migrants in Johannesburg: Ethnographies of burial and reflections |
Lorena Carrasco Nunez (Sociology, WITS) |
|
10:45 – 11:15 |
Questions and discussion |
|
Tea and Coffee 11:15 to 11:30
Panel 5: Law and the Lab (11:30-13:00)
Chair: Pamela Andanda (School of Law, WITS) and Rapporteur: Harriet Etheredge (Health Communication Research Unit, WITS)
|
11:30 – 11:50 |
The Human Tissue Act in context |
Jonathan Klaaren (School of Law and WiSER, WITS) |
|
11:50 – 12:10 |
Reflections from a scientist – The utilisation of autopsy services by mineworkers of South Africa |
Julian Mthombeni (Biomedical Technology, University of Johannesburg) |
|
12:10 – 12:30 |
Forensic Anatomy and Dying in Southern Africa |
Patrick Randolph-Quinney (Anatomical Sciences, WITS) |
|
12:30 – 12:50 |
Questions and Discussion |
|
Lunch 13:00-14:00
Workshop session (14:00 —15:00)
|
14:00-15:00 |
Roundtable discussion about the way forward - research themes and ideas |
Chair: Catherine Burns and Rapporteur: Thea de Gruchy |
6pm Conference dinner at the LUCKY BEAN in Melville – lifts to be shared and arranged