Call for Papers: Articulation / Experience / Embodiment Research Network Launch

Articulation / Experience / Embodiment is a new research network that stretches across Eastern ARC institutions (University of Essex, University of East Anglia, and University of Kent). We invite proposals for papers and creative interventions that speak to the network themes, outlined below, for launch workshop on 20 June 2023 (University of Essex).

Our experiences of the world are always embodied. We cannot help but speak from bodies; our bodies speak to us, in ways we may not consciously understand; and they also often speak for us in uncontrollable ways. As we articulate our embodied experiences, we bump against the understandings, experiences, and articulations of other-bodied people. The entanglements of articulation, experience, and embodiment mark every attempt to understand ourselves and every interaction with others.

Articulation / Experience / Embodiment probes these entanglements at the heart of the critical medical humanities. This workshop is a launch event that will examine crucial questions around the relationship between experience and representation; different forms, means and contexts of articulating knowledge and health and illness; and the methods for narrativizing embodied experience that open out techniques and spaces for empathy, healing and change.

The workshop will be a springboard for future activities, including an online “living dictionary” resource and a special issue/edited collection. We welcome proposals for traditional papers/panels, creative interventions, and participatory workshops. Individual papers or creative interventions should be 20 minutes long; panels or multi-person activities should be 1 hour long. Please submit abstracts of 200 words to Tracey Loughran (t.loughran@essex.ac.uk) by Friday 31 March 2023.

We welcome researchers at all stages of their studies and careers, working both within and outside academia. The workshop itself is free and we have a limited budget to support attendance. This will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, with prioritisation of PG students and those travelling from outside Essex.