Date: 20 July 2017
Time: 3:30pm
Venue: Room 1066, 10F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU
Speaker: Dr. Katja Herges (Department of German, University of California, Davis)
Abstract:
Medical therapy largely focuses on eliminating “foreign” pathological agents such as cancer cells or infectious agents from the body with the goal of restoring health. As a result, the body is not only the victim of such agents, but also, once the treatment starts, it becomes the passive target of active, almost omnipotent (drug) therapy. Yet, long-term care of patients with chronic illness often precludes cure and restoration but requires multiple therapeutic approaches. In this presentation, I want to focus on the neglected experiences of chronically ill migrants in Germany and, more importantly, on how life writings by migrants can help us rethink embodiment and long-term care. German-Turkish journalist Mely Kiyak’s memoir of her father’s treatment for lung cancer and Evelyne Leandro’s diary of her long-term antibiotic therapy against leprosy as a Brazilian migrant establish illness and care within an assemblage of distributed agents: this includes lung and skin lesions, physicians and therapists, working conditions for migrants, language politics, neighborhoods, chemotherapeutic agents and side effects and German health insurance policies. Drawing on ecomaterialist theory, I argue that these narratives formulate a post-human theory of embodiment and care that consists of human and non-human encounters and material recompositions in assemblages of care. Beyond the goal of eliminating pathological elements, care needs to aim at increasing the body’s capacity to act through a wide range of material recompositions, for example through lung drainages and surgeries, chemotherapy, healing diets, narrative practices and improved health care policies for migrants.
All welcome. Enquiries: contact_chm@hku.hk