[Anthropgrad] Friday Seminar, 9th of November

[nelia.hyndman-rizik at anu.edu.au]

Hi all,

 

We have a seminar this Friday the 9th of November in the Milgate Room, AD
Hope at 3pm.  The presenter will be Samuel Taylor-Alexander.  His paper will
be entitled:

 

"Plastic Surgery in Mexico: Innovation, Economics, Aesthetics"

 

Abstract:

 

In this pre-fieldwork presentation, I will talk about how I intend to
explore plastic surgery in Mexico. I propose a study of innovation and
knowledge production in plastic surgery in Mexico. I do so because I think
that it will allow me to explore how people on the margins of society, and
their suffering, become incorporated into the operations of a market driven
medicine. The plastic surgery market in Mexico is estimated to be the third
largest of any country, and has experienced significant growth over the last
five years. Plastic surgery (both reconstructive and cosmetic) is provided
in public, social security, and private hospitals, and private clinics in
Mexico. It is assumed that there are interlinkages and interdependencies
between reconstructive and cosmetic surgery, as well as between state funded
and privately provided plastic surgery. I think that a focus on innovation
and knowledge production will provide a useful starting point for teasing
out and tracing these interlinkages and interdependencies. In outlining my
intended approach I will draw primarily on writing from Medical Anthropology
and Science and Technology Studies: these are writings such as Emily
Martin's articulation of how biomedical and popular understandings of health
and the body are shaped in relation to the political economy; Kaushik Sunder
Rajan's notion of biocapital in which he explains that biomedicine is
increasingly operating at the centre of an implosion between 'the economic
and epistemic'; and Robert Desjarlais' phenomenology of aesthetic
experience, which he provides as a tool for investigating people's
understandings and experiences of health and the body.

 

See you there,

 

 

Nelia Hyndman-Rizik

PhD Candidate

School of Archaeology and Anthropology

ANU

nelia.n at bigpond.com

nelia.hyndman-rizik at anu.edu.au

 

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