The Leeds Centre for Medical Humanities is organising a one-day interdisciplinary symposium to inspire debate on the role and significance of the senses within medicine. Abstracts are welcome from a wide range of disciplines. The value of the senses as an aid to diagnosis is demonstrated throughout the history of medicine. However, advances in digital technology and medical simulation have extended and modified the range of perceptions available to clinicians. This extension of the senses, beyond the merely physiological, invites a closer investigation of our understanding of the sensorium, and what it means to ‘sense’, for clinicians and patients. Proposals are invited for twenty-minute papers which address the theme of medicine and the senses. Papers may address, but are in no way limited to, the following topics and their relevance to the general scope of the symposium:
- Medicine
- Literature
- Philosophy
- Psychoanalysis
- Anthropology
- Aesthetics
- Disgust
- Sexuality
- Technology
- Artificial Intelligence
- The Human and Posthuman
Abstracts of 200-300 words, with a brief biography of no more than 200 words, should be emailed to the conference organiser by 1 May 2017. Panel proposals are also welcome from research projects, and departmental research centres. Panel proposals should include a short paragraph naming the organiser of the panel and explaining its rationale as well as a 200-300 word abstract for each paper. Word format is preferred.
The symposium will take place at the University of Leeds on Thursday 01 June 2017. It is organised by Dr Crispian Neill. For further information, please go to the conference website.