Argument

The MAYS 2017 conference will explore the ways in which medical anthropology can be practically and socially applied outside of academia in the public sphere, and how medical anthropologists can collaborate with other professionals.

Recent years have seen a shift in the role of academia within public spheres. This is recognition of the need for collaboration between academia and the wider healthcare community in health research. Additionally, the direction of social science research funding has turned toward prioritizations of definable impact an interdisciplinary project teams. These shifts in the landscape of social science research highlight the limitedness of purely academic posts within the disciplines of Anthropology and Medical Anthropology. As such, current PhD anthropology researchers are often encouraged to look beyond the academic discipline for professional careers after graduation. Considering these factors, active examinations and contemplations of the ways in which anthropological training and research can be applied to and pursued within other professional vocations are required.

This conference is intended to instigate conversations that acknowledge, but sidestep debates about whether or not medical anthropology should or should not be applied beyond the discipline. Rather, this conference is aimed at questions of how. Our goal with this conference is to create dialogue about practical ways and directions medical anthropological work can be used and made available outside academia, spark collaboration with other professionals, and provide the foundation for a professional career.

The MAYS 2017 conference invites anthropologists to consider a broad spectrum of topics that explore what a medical anthropology across borders means, in practice.

Examples of focuses include:

•  Ways one’s research could be applied beyond the scope of Anthropology that fit real-world contexts and/or efforts they have made to ‘put findings to use’
•  Ethnographic experiences researching in interdisciplinary environments and teams
•  Fieldwork in or about activism and/or engagement with activist projects in the field
•  Ethnographic experiences of public engagement in health politics
•  Engagement with and outreach to policy makers
•  Post-doctoral projects that aim to account for changing funding interests that prize impact

Submission guidelines

We invite you to submit an abstract of max 300 words. After the notification of acceptance you will be requested to submit your complete paper, max 5,000 words (excluding references).

Abstract submission to mays.easa@gmail.com

• Abstract Deadline: 6 February 2017, 5pm GMT

• Notification of acceptance: 24 February 2017
• Deadline for paper submission: 7 May 2017 
• Mays Annual Meeting 2017:  June 15 - 16, 2017 - Edinburgh, Scotland

MAYS scientific coordinators 

• Mari Lo Bosco - Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon
• Lilian Kennedy - Department of Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh