Recently, medical anthropologists have been urged to remedy the dearth of research on “any aspect of war or its aftermath in Iraq, or other parts of the Middle East”, and redress the ways that, “as a discipline, we have been faint of heart and lacking moral courage... (and) have turned away from the brutal realities, the embodied suffering, the psychological devastation, the sexual violence, and the refugee aftermath of war” (Inhorn 2008: 421).

By simultaneously contesting and upholding critiques of medical anthropology as deficient in the scholarship of war, this panel proposes to illuminate, problematize and debate qualitative health research in conflicted terrains. In addition to highlighting current research projects and the existing – and not insignificant - medical anthropology of conflict literature (which includes research in Gaza, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and Sierra Leone), panellists might also address the interdisciplinary collaborations in which medical anthropology methods and theory are applied in embattled terrain by anthropologists and non-anthropologists alike. Panellists are encouraged to critically explore the progressively porous boundaries separating medical anthropology from the at-times problematic use of qualitative, ethnographic methods in clinical health research and global health initiatives in conflict zones. To this point specifically, rather than demonstrating faint-heartedness or disciplinary malaise, the paucity of anthropology-centered research and analysis often reflects the ways medical anthropology is deployed in the service of clinical outreach initiatives, non-governmental organizations, or policy development and analysis, especially in times when explicitly anthropological engagements with conflict are infrequently and insufficiently funded or supported.

A diverse range of topics related to the direct and indirect impacts of conflict on health are welcomed and could address areas such as the following:

• Gendered and domestic violence during conflict, reproductive health, mental health and emotional ‘recovery’, or embodiment and somatization, physiological ailments and traumatic injury in destabilized, insecure, conflicted or post-conflict settings.
• The structural and logistical implications of conflict for clinical or ‘traditional’ health services, or the effect on the hierarchy of therapeutic resort or ‘triage’ of health seeking and service provision during conflict at family-, community- and clinic-levels.
• The differences or similarities between the medical anthropology of conflict and socio-cultural or feminist ethnographies that also attend to health during instability, hostilities and strife.
• An examination of the ways in which conflict and violence resonates in individuals’ conceptualization of their bodies, health and well-being; their vulnerability or resilience.
• Critical reflections on the role of ethnography, methods and theory in addressing these issues.

This panel will ideally allow for conflict’s varied manifestations and contextual underpinnings, and the ways fleeting, episodic fights or sustained, chronic hostilities shape health beliefs and practices. In important ways, the medical anthropology of conflict facilitates crucial opportunities to view ‘quotidian’ health practices and their occurrence amid, or, transformation by low-intensity or ‘spectacular’ violence.

Inquiries or paper proposals (200 words maximum) may be directed to Emma Varley (emma_varley2002@yahoo.ca) by Tuesday April 14th. The SMA panel will be held between September 24-27 (2009) at Yale University. In accordance with SMA rules, panellists must register online for the conference by April 15th in order to participate. Further information on the SMA annual meetings can be found at: http://www.yale.edu/macmillan/smaconference

Emma Varley, Ph.D.
Killam Post-Doctoral Fellow
Dept. of Bioethics, Dalhousie University
http://dremmavarley.blogspot.com/