The "Medical Humanities: Health and Disease in Culture" PCA/ACA area examines a wide variety of topics related to the experiences of human beings pursuing health and living with illness and how these experiences are portrayed in cultural discourse. Interdisciplinary proposals representing humanities and the arts (e.g., literature, history, film, visual arts) or social sciences (e.g., anthropology, cultural studies, sociology, print or electronic journalism) perspectives through historical or contemporary contexts are welcome. This area emphasizes the pursuit of humane health care and the exploration of the social and cultural contexts in which health care is delivered for individuals or specific groups.

Subject areas might include:
--the portrayal of health care and public policy issues in the mass media. Health care stories of patients’ experience of disease; stories of health professionals conducting research or working with patients.

--how stories of chronic and infectious diseases (including global perspectives) are told in popular media and in literature.

--narratives of illness presented in literature (novels, short stores, memoirs) written by patients or health professionals that explore the personal experience of illness.

--historical or recent depictions of infectious diseases and epidemics, disasters or calamities, in the context of public health consequences for popular audiences. Especially welcome are proposals addressing current health issues that New Orleans confronts in the context of recent hurricanes.

--representations of health institutions (e.g. HMO's, hospitals, neighborhood drugstores or clinics, government agencies) in the mass media.

--technological innovations and their relation to popular audiences (e.g., x-rays, robotics in medicine).

--healing in non-western societies; alternative care in the United States.

--the promotion of health through diets, exercise, personal or domestic hygiene products, public health campaigns.

Finally, panels about teaching health and disease subjects to various audiences are very welcome. We hope to see one or more panels about teaching at the New Orleans conference.

Contributions from interdisciplinary and single disciplines are welcome. Individual or full panel proposals are considered.

DEADLINE: November 30, 2008. Please send abstracts of 250 words to

Jennifer Tebbe-Grossman
Professor of Political Science and American Studies School of Arts and Sciences
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences-Boston
179 Longwood Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
Email: jennifer.tebbe@mcphs.edu
Fax: 617-732-2801
Phone: 617-732-2904