Department of Anthropology

Public Lecture Series

Chinese Medicine in East Africa: how trade relations affect medical practice

Public Lecture Series

24th October (Friday), 3-5pm

Venue: C333, Arts C Building

 

Elisabeth Hsu

Professor in Anthropology at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Oxford, and Fellow of Green Templeton College. 

Over the last decade, small-scale Chinese medical practices have made inroads into East Africa, spreading out thinly throughout its urban areas and catering to clientele from all walks of society. This lecture highlights how international trade relations andregulations affect their medical practice at the grassroots. On a theoretical level, this lecture critiques the concept of culture as defined by sameness in terms of religion, language, and territory. Rather, cultural life emerges as realms within which difference is recognised and responded to, turning ‘the other’ into an ‘inclusive other’, particularly in the context of reproductive health.

Staff and students are all welcome!

Negotiating Bioethics: Lifting the lid on the UNESCO Bioethics Programme (2004-2012)

Center for Bionetworking Public Lecture Series

1st October (Wed), 4pm-6pm

Venue: Lecture Theatre 144, Jubilee Building

Adèle Langlois

University of Lincoln

 

The UNESCO Bioethics Programme (1993) has navigated moral discourses in science and technology, in particularly in relation to the human body, and has adopted three international declarations, on human genomics and genetics and on bioethics. Based on fieldwork in Kenya, South Africa and at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, Adèle Langlois will ‘lift the lid’ on the drafting process behind these declarations – the power imbalances, the compromises and the breakthroughs. She will also show how the declarations have influenced research ethics at national level.

 

Adèle Langlois is a senior lecturer at the University of Lincoln. 
Her book, Negotiating Bioethics, was published by Routledge in 2013.

 

 

 

 

Guest lecture: Mohan Rao

 

Bionetworking in Asia Public Lecture Series and the Sussex Asian Lecture Series present:

 ‘Surrogacy as empowerment: Reproductive labour as surplus in neoliberalism’

Mohan Rao

Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

 Monday 13th May, 12.30-2.00

 Room 103, Fulton Building, University of Sussex

Neo-liberal India is emerging as a centre for reproductive tourism, having, under state patronage, pursued policies for developing medical tourism. Among the procedures for reproductive tourists, is the availability of medical surrogacy. It is argued that the surrogate exercises agency and choice, and that this is a win-win situation, calling only for regulation of clinics and standards. Professor Rao argues, on the contrary, that this is the exploitation of alienated reproductive labour, akin to reproductive slavery. The appropriate policy response is therefore banning all but altruistic surrogacy.

Mohan Rao is a Professor at the Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is a medical doctor, specialised in public health. He is the author of From Population Control to Reproducive Health: Malthusian Arithmetic (Sage, 2004) and has edited Disinvesting in Health: The World Bank’s Health Prescriptions (Sage, 1999) and The Unheard Scream: Reproductive Health and Women’s Lives in India (Zubaan 2004). With Sarah Sexton, he has edited Markets and Malthus: Population, Gender and Health in Neo-liberal Times (Sage 2010).

All welcome.

 

 

 

Achim Rosemann guest lecture

‘Regenerative medicine research as global collaborative project:

opportunities, challenges, conflicts’

Achim Rosemann

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Tuesday 26th March, 4pm – 5.30 pm

Room 115, Jubilee Building

This lecture focuses on the formation of the first trans-continental clinical trials infrastructure in the field of regenerative medicine, across the contexts of North America and Asia. It contributes to an understanding of the processes and challenges involved in the development of large-scale clinical research collaborations in stem cell medicine, an emerging field of medical research for which currently no internationally harmonized regulatory framework exists. The lecture explores the roles and challenges of scientific self-government and standardization, against a background of regulatory, institutional and cultural heterogeneity. It shows that the creation of standardized inter-institutional zones, in the context of international research projects, is a complex and highly contested process that is based on the intensive restructuration of local research and innovation practices. Unsurprisingly, in the context of Asia, these processes go along with vital forms of resistance and alter-standardization, that gradually result in a pluralization of international clinical research standards and practices itself. Achim Rosemann is a researcher for the ESRC Bionetworking in Asia project, at the University of Sussex. His recent research has focused on the forging of trans-continental knowledge partnerships in translational medicine between researchers in China and the USA.

All welcome!

Download the presentation slides here

 

 

 

Alex Faulkner guest lecture

Bionetworking in Asia Public Lecture Series and the Centre for Global Health Policy present:

‘Regenerative medicine in Europe: Political conflicts, economic biases in regulation’

Alex Faulkner

University of Sussex

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Date: Wednesday 27th of February

Time: 4pm-6pm

Location: Arts A 103, University of Sussex

The life sciences and the global bioeconomy are moving ever upward in governments’ agendas, driven by visions of economic reward and a medical revolution. EU regulation moulds the international dynamics of new biomedical markets.

Alex Faulkner traces developments in EU regulation, including tissue engineering, medical devices and cell therapy, and stem cell therapy, analysing debates on the collection of human materials, assessment of products for safety and market authorisation, and patenting of biotechnologies.

Alex shows how the emergence of a ‘harmonised’ product regulation for ‘Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products’ masks conflicts between industry sectors, which exploit ambiguities in the definition of materials and ‘modes of action’. A case at the European Court of Justice further illustrates the politically malleable nature of regenerative cell technologies.

All welcome!

 [soundcloud params=”auto_play=true&show_comments=false”]http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/83233730[/soundcloud]

Download the presentation slides here

 

 

 

 

oy Zhang guest lecture

Bionetworking in Asia and Sussex Asian Studies lecture series present:

 ‘China’s Bio-Governance: Imagined Cosmopolitan Communities’

Joy Zhang – University of Kent

The life sciences and environmental studies largely define the world’s biological future, and China is key in the formation and deliverance of transnational initiatives in both fields. Drawing on studies from stem cell research, synthetic biology and environmental health in China, Joy shows how stakeholders (i.e. clinicians, scientists, civil groups and policy makers) seek alliances within and without China in promoting its interests. Illustrating how China’s experience suggests the need for a new form of imagined communities, Joy argues how solidarity lies not so much in establishing institutional frameworks for stability and consensus, but in identifying solutions to collective problems.

The lecture will be held on the 2nd of October, from 4pm-6pm in Arts A103, Arts C Building.

All are welcome!

Joy Y. Zhang is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Kent.  She received her medical degree at Peking University and her PhD in sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is the author of two books: The Cosmopolitanization of Science: Stem Cell Governance in China (2012) and Green Politics in China: Environmental Governance and State-Society Relations (2013)

 

Douglas Sipp guest lecture

Sussex Asian Studies Lecture Series/ Bionetworking in Asia presents:

Thursday 19 April, 4pm – 6 pm

‘Clinical translation of stem cell research in Asia: Strides forward and missteps’

Douglas Sipp – Science Policy and Ethics Studies Unit, RIKEN, Center for Developmental Biology, Kobe. Japan

Countries in East and Southeast Asia regard stem cell research and regenerative medicine as central to developing a leading position in biotechnology and biomedicine. But in several notable cases application-oriented research and clinical experimentation are prioritized over a responsible, rigorous, safe, and ethical approach. Douglas Sipp will review historical and socioeconomic factors that led to this situation, and provide a summary of problem areas in the clinical translation of stem cell research, and the steps taken by various Asian countries to remedy this.

Doug Sipp’s work focuses on issues in the clinical application and commercialization of stem cell therapeutics and stem cell research in the Asia-Pacific region. He widely publishes in the field, and serves on numerous committees and editorial boards in the fields of developmental and stem cell biology, and regenerative medicine.

Doug Sipp will be talking on the 19th of April, from 4pm-6pm in Arts A005, Arts C Building. All are welcome.

 

 

 

Guest lecture by Sorapop Kiatpongsan

Private Stem Cell Banking: Medical Services with Ambiguous Benefits

Sorapop Kiatpongsan

Harvard University

 

Thursday 23rd January, 16.00—18.00
Room 133, Arts C Building, Sussex University

ALL WELCOME!

Private stem cell banking is a rapidly growing industry. In the US alone, the cord blood stem cell banking industry was estimated to be worth 3.4 billion USD in 2010. Yet, the benefits of storing stem cells for future personal use remain largely uncertain and unknown. Because of such ambiguity, many patients want to involve their physicians in the decision making process.

Based on his research conducted in the US, Sorapop Kiatspongsan will explore the barriers that exist to prevent an effective discussion between patients and physicians. These barriers include: differences between patients’ and physicians’ perceptions of benefits of stem cell banking and the physicians’ financial interests in stem cell banking companies.

Sorapop will also explore how insights from his research can inform policy recommendations for other medical services or products with similarly ambiguous future benefits.

Sorapop Kiatpongsan, is a physician, Lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand and a Research Specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Decision Sciences at Harvard University.