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EIHS Symposium: Health, the Body Politic, and the Language of Recovery

Henry M. Cowles, Yi-Li Wu, M. Remi Yergeau, Rachel Rafael Neis
Thursday, September 23, 2021
4:00-6:00 PM
1014 Tisch Hall Map
This is a hybrid event. Link here for in-person registration (limited): https://myumi.ch/yKo1N
Link here to stream via Zoom: https://myumi.ch/1p3oO

Description: We think it fitting to inaugurate our year-long theme, "Recovery," with a roundtable discussion on the language of recovery in health and medicine. It is in this context that recovery, both physical and mental, has been the focus of some of the oldest and most sustained attention and, increasingly now, critique. While recovery has still proven notoriously difficult to define, measure, and implement, with its champions and critics alike highlighting the lack of consensus on what exactly constitutes recovery, the term has at least since the 1990s come to dominate certain health sectors. This dominance is most notable in mental health policy. Within the critical medical humanities, it has become clear that the discourse of recovery is entangled in complex relations of power without being entirely fixed by them. Can recovery, despite its discontents, still have radical political potential? Is recovery itself in need of being recovered? What are the stakes in this contested sector of the body politic? Our panelists, as they explore the stakes of “recovery” from within their respective fields, will help us launch our critical engagement with recovery both as rhetoric and practice.

Panelists:
• Henry M. Cowles (Associate Professor, History, University of Michigan)
• Yi-Li Wu (Associate Professor; History, Women's and Gender Studies; University of Michigan)
• M. Remi Yergeau (Associate Professor; English Language and Literature, University of Michigan)
• Rachel Rafael Neis (moderator; Jean and Samuel Frankel Associate Professor; History, Judaic Studies; University of Michigan)

This event presented by the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies. It is made possible in part by a generous contribution from Kenneth and Frances Aftel Eisenberg.

Image: "Abstract," Dany Sternfeld (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
Building: Tisch Hall
Event Type: Conference / Symposium
Tags: History, Medicine
Source: Happening @ Michigan from Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, Department of History, Digital Studies Institute

The Thursday Series is the core of the institute's scholarly program, hosting distinguished guests who examine methodological, analytical, and theoretical issues in the field of history. 

The Friday Series consists mostly of panel-style workshops highlighting U-M graduate students. On occasion, events may include lectures, seminars, or other programs presented by visiting scholars.

The insitute also hosts other historical programming, including lectures, film screenings, author appearances, and similar events aimed at a broader public audience.