Literature and Social Justice
Bethlehem, PA
Organization: Lehigh University
“Although an illness might trigger dissociation from life,” Rita Charon notes, "it can also distill the life, concentrate all its deepest meanings, heighten its organizing principles, expose its underlying unity.” Health, disease, illness, and medicine, these terms are at once material realities that have defined operational meanings in practice. And yet, they also have a plurality of cultural meanings and representations that shape perceptions, attitudes, and practices in medical practice caregiving, and public health and policy. This capacity for figuration and mutability, at once, raises opportunities and potential problems. As such, a humanistic study of health demands attention to differential health outcomes, medical discrimination, patient communication and more broadly the ethical treatment and examinations of health and social justice on national and global scales amidst a rapidly changing world.
The aim of this graduate conference is to address and probe issues of public health and social justice in literature. We are seeking contributions of 15 minute presentations which unpack, explore and theorize how intersections of the humanities (literature, health humanities, philosophy, history, gender studies) intervene in socially embedded systems of care, health, and social justice. We are particularly interested in papers which consider these topics through the lens of social justice which generate critical discussions on current issues. We also welcome interdsiplinary humanistic work that engages with the social and biological sciences in innovative and exciting ways.
We invite paper proposals from graduate students for topics including but not limited to the following list. These topics and concerns are only a few of the many themes that can be explored in this upcoming conference. We encourage abstracts from graduate students who wish to share and engage in conversations about their work, foster community and collegiality and gain conference experience.
Literature and Social Justice
Public, Community, and/or Global Health
Health disparities and health justice
Disability studies
Health and the Environment
History of Medicine
Medicalization of Society
Medicine and literature; representations of disease and health in literature and culture (fiction, film, tv, graphic novels, poetry, social media, etc).
Political, Economic Social Determinants of Health and Medicine
Metaphors of disease; illness as metaphor
Intersectional Approaches to health and identity
Disease and embodiment
Disease and its (in)visibility// cultural perceptions of disease
Doctors as detectives// medical mysteries
Pandemics, Contagions and Outbreaks
Health, fitness and beauty standards // body dysmorphia
Body Horror
Care ethics
Biopolitics and governability
Fictional Futures of Medicine
Please send 250 word abstracts to Sophie Bradley (slb322@lehigh.edu) by January 15, 2026.
slb322@lehigh.edu
Sophie Bradley