25 – 26 March 2010
Today the world is faced with major health problems including communicable and lifestyle diseases. Whilst Asia has become a global engine of economic growth and advances in technology, traditional healing and religious practices continue to play a role in the daily lives of its peoples.
How does Western biomedicine in Asia coexist with traditional Chinese medicine, Tibetan healing practices and local healers? What are the processes by which people are creating meaning in healing, illness and religion?
In Convergence and Collisions distinguished scholars and practitioners from a range of disciplines will address these questions by considering the interaction between different healing traditions and the complex social, cultural and historical contexts which have shaped them.
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Whilst much has been written about the origins of modern criminology in nineteenth-century evolutionary theories, physiognomy, phrenology and anthropology, few attempts have been made to explore the relationship between this historical socialization and biologization of “deviancy” and the contemporary application of medical and public health strategies of crime.
Programme (Click here to download the programme in pdf format):
| Day 1 | |
|---|---|
| 08:45 – 09:15 | Registration and Coffee |
| 09:15 – 09:30 | Welcome: Professor Sum-ping Lee (LKS Faculty of Medicine, HKU) and Professor L.C. Chan (Centre for the Humanities and Medicine, HKU) Opening Remarks: Dr. Zhou Xun (HKU) and Dr. Ivette Vargas-O’Bryan (Institut Français de Pondichéry & Austin College) |
| 09:30 – 11:00 | Session I: Healing in Different Traditions Chair and Discussant: Professor Richard Fielding (School of Public Health, HKU) |
| 09:30 – 10:00 | Dr. Eric Jacobson (Harvard Medical School) Ways of Thinking about Healing (abstract) |
| 10:00 – 10:30 | Professor Vesna Wallace (University of Oxford) Method-and-Wisdom Model in Theoretical Syncretism of the Traditional Mongolian Medicine (abstract) |
| 10:30 – 11:00 | Discussion |
| 11:00 – 11:15 | Coffee Break/ Film Neijing Tu (The Inner Landscape of the Human Body in Imperial China) by Mr. David Dear (Independent filmmaker / The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL) |
| 11:15 – 12:45 | Session II: Illness in Textual Traditions Chairs and Discussants: Professor Lai Chi Tim (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) & Dr. Ivette Vargas-O’Bryan (Institut Français de Pondichéry & Austin College) |
| 11:15 – 11:45 | Professor Angela K. Leung (Chinese University of Hong Kong) Leprosy and Contagion in Late Imperial China (abstract) |
| 11:45 – 12:15 | Dr. Anthony Cerulli (Hobart and William Smith Colleges) Narrative Explanatory Models and Accountability for Illness in Sanskrit Medical Literature (abstract) |
| 12:15 – 12:45 | Discussion |
| 12:45 – 14:00 | Lunch Break |
| 14:00 – 16:15 | Session III: Deities, Healing and Modernity Chairs and Discussants: Professor Lai Chi Tim (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) & Dr. Eric Jacobson (Harvard Medical School) |
| 14:00 – 14:30 | Dr. Mark Greene (Hong Kong Shue Yan University) Wong Tai Sin: Images of the Divine and Healing in Hong Kong(abstract) |
| 14:30 – 15:00 | Mr. Hari Kumar Bhaskaran Nair (Medical Superintendent, NSS Ayurveda Hospital, Kerala) Marunnum mantravum — Interactions of Ritual healing, Ayurveda and Biomedicine in a Traditional healing practice in North Kerala, India (abstract) |
| 15:00 – 15:30 | Dr. Ivette Vargas-O’Bryan (Institut Français de Pondichéry & Austin College) Leprosy’s Demons, Religion and Medicine in Tibetan Context: Untangling the Embodied Environment and Healing It (abstract) |
| 15:30 – 16:15 | Discussion |
| 16:15 – 16:40 | Coffee Break/ Film Neijing Tu (The Inner Landscape of the Human Body in Imperial China) by Mr. David Dear (Independent filmmaker / The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL) |
| 16:40 – 18:10 | Session IV: Religion, Health and Gender Chair and Discussant: Professor Angela K. Leung (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) |
| 16:40 – 17:10 | Dr. Mona Schrempf (Humboldt-University Berlin) Birth Control Technologies among Tibetan Women in China — Social and Religious Implications(abstract) |
| 17:10 – 17:40 | Dr. Izumi Nakayama (HKU) Sanitizing Menstruation in Modern Japan (abstract) |
| 17:40 – 18:10 | Discussion |
| Day 2 | |
|---|---|
| 08:45 – 09:10 | Registration and Coffee |
| 09:10 – 09:30 | Special Presentation: Professor Cecilia Chan (Centre on Behavioral Health, and Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention, HKU) Integrative Eastern Body-Mind-Spirit Healing — Arts and Science of Acceptance and Transformation of Pain and Suffering (abstract) |
| 09:30 – 11:00 | Session V: Knowledge and Transmission Chair and Discussant: Professor Vesna Wallace (University of Oxford) |
| 09:30 – 10:00 | Mrs. Nancy Holroyde-Downing (The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL) New Methods of Diagnosis in China and a catalyst for New Methods in Europe (abstract) |
| 10:00 – 10:30 | Dr. Vivienne Lo (The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL) Alchemy, Medicine and Religion Across Asia: A lesson from Rashīd al-Dīn of Hamadan (1247-1318) (abstract) |
| 10:30 – 11:00 | Discussion |
| 11:00 – 11:15 | Coffee Break/ Film Neijing Tu (The inner landscape of the human body in imperial China) by Mr. David Dear (Independent filmmaker / The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL) |
| 11:15 – 12:45 | Session VI Society, Healing and Religion Chair and Discussant: Dr. Anthony Cerulli (Hobart and William Smith Colleges) |
| 11:15 – 11:45 | Dr. Helen Lambert (University of Bristol) The Ritual Containment of Serious Sickness in an Indian Medical Vernacular (abstract) |
| 11:45 – 12:15 | Dr. Daniel Cohen (University of Missouri) Ghost Exorcism, Memory, and Healing in Contemporary Hinduism (abstract) |
| 12:15 – 12:45 | Discussion |
| 12:45 – 14:30 | Lunch Break |
| 14:30 – 15:15 | Session VI Society, Healing and Religion (Continuing) Chair and Discussant: Dr. David Dalmer (HKU) |
| 14:30 – 15:00 | Mr. David Dear (The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL) Infinite Blessings (abstract) |
| 15:30 – 16:15 | Discussion |
| 15:15 – 16:15 | Roundtable Discussion Chairs: Dr. Zhou Xun (HKU) and Dr. Ivette Vargas-O’Bryan (Institut Français de Pondichéry & Austin College |
Photos of the workshop can be found here.
For details of this event please contact Dr Zhou Xun and Dr Ivette Vargas-O’Bryan.