---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2001 15:17:52 +0200
From: Aref Abu-Rabia <aref@b...>

Subject: Workshop 2002


HEALTH AND ILLNESS IN MIDDLE EAST SOCIETIES



The Department of Middle East Studies of Ben-Gurion University will
hold
its eighth annual international workshop during the spring of 2002.

This workshop focuses on a variety of issues relating to health
and
illness in Middle East societies during the pre-modern and modern
eras.

Throughout history, societies have developed a variety of
concepts
regarding illness. Consequently, symptoms that have been accepted as
evidence of illness in one society have been ignored in another. In
this
workshop, we shall explore several aspects of illness, with a strong
emphasis on its social and cultural dimensions. For example, we shall
examine the roles of doctors, healers, midwives, and the para-medical
professions; aspects of hospitals and other sites of healing; and
social
attitudes towards the sick, handicapped and insane. We shall also
explore
how different medical systems perceive, discuss and explain diseases.

The workshop will address issues such as the following:

_ The interaction between peoples' natural and social environments and
their diseases.

_ The ways in which traditional beliefs and practices may conflict
with
scientific medical assumptions, and how social circumstances affect
health
care decisions.

_ How disease affects not only the physical well being of the
individual
and his/her family, but also the collective health of the cultural,
social
and economic life of the group.

_ How, over time, people have developed etiological theories and
medical
systems to assist the sick in coping with disease and disability.

_ How health and illness related behavior is influenced by social
classes,
ethnic and cultural differences.



The workshop will be held in the spring semester of this
academic year (March-June 2002). It will convene once every second
week.
All participants will be expected, each in her/his turn, to present a
paper and submit in advance a tentative, written version to be
distributed
among the other participants. This will enable us to dedicate the
meetings
to discussions rather than to lengthy presentations. Participants from
abroad will be supplied with all paper presented prior to their own,
so as
to enable their fullest involvement in the ongoing discussion.

At the end of the semester a symposium will be convened to
provide
a broader forum in which to continue and conclude the workshop.

The workshop will welcome scholars from different discipline such
as
anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, history, and medical
sciences.
Proposals (1-2 pages) should include a brief statement of the topic,
and a
description of main sources and methodology, which together explain
how
the proposed paper contributes to the aims of the workshop as outlined
above.

The department will offer participants from abroad round-trip
airfare
and lodging. Those residing in Israel will receive a grant.

The deadline for proposals is December 1, 2001.

Please send proposals and enquiries to:

Dr. Aref Abu-Rabia.

Dept. of Middle East Studies. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Beer-Sheva 84105 Israel.

Tel.:972-8-6472 540/476 .Fax.:972-8-6472 952 E-mail: aref@b...
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