The Medicine and Its Objects Workshop (MIO) is a forum for critically thinking about the plurality of medicine, as a problem space, in relation to the diverse social and material worlds in which it takes animate shape and form. It considers the “objects” of medicine and health sciences—whether the objects of inquiry guiding knowledge production, objects of intervention directing therapeutic processes, institutional objects that constitute medical domains, or material objects that mediate interactions at the interplay of theory and practice.
MIO offers an intellectual space for participants to think together about what constitutes the “objects” of medicine, how these objects are mobilized in and through communities, bodies, policies, practices, and institutions, and the philosophical, theoretical, and grounded experiences of medicine and its objects as situated in embodied, socio-historical, and economic contexts.
As an interdisciplinary workshop, MIO draws together perspectives from various social scientific, biomedical, and humanistic disciplines with interests that coalesce around the social studies of medicine and allied health sciences. We welcome a variety of formats to foster an interdisciplinary community and exchange and offer experience in a range of academic genres.
Upcoming Sessions – Winter 2026
Wednesday 1/14 – 12:30-1:50 PM
Vaginismus: Medical Authority, and the Politics of Sexuality in Contemporary Turkey
Neslihan Sen
SSRB 302
Wednesday 1/28 – 12:30-1:50 PM
Synthetic Ecosystems: Microbiome Therapies and the U.S. Regulatory Landscape
Megan MacGregor
Location TBA
Monday 2/2 – Book Talk with Author
Book Talk: The Double Bind of Disability: How Medical Technology Shapes Bodily Authority
Rebecca Monteleone
Rosenwald 329
Wednesday 2/4 – 12:30-1:50 PM
Psychedelic Sublime: Existential Distress, Sensory Politics, and Death
Zak Arrington
SSRB 302
Wednesday 2/18 – 12:30-1:50 PM
Embodiment and Resistance to Mainstream Institutions: The Case of Western Herbal Medicine
Theodora K. Hurley
SSRB 302
Spring 2026
Wednesday 4/1 – 12:30-1:50 PM
Black Lungs, Clean Air: Contradictions of Green Capitalism in India
Ashima Mittal
Location TBA
Wednesday 4/15 – 12:30-1:50 PM
Unsettled Settlers: A Biography of Tonkonbyō (1932-1945)
Zelin Wang
Location TBA
Wednesday 4/29 – 12:30-1:50 PM
“Sick jokes? Sounds like a healthy kid:” Clinical appraisals of humor practices in teenage mental health treatment
Uma Blanchard
Location TBA
Wednesday 5/13 – 12:30-1:50 PM
Defining “Dangerous Persons” in Judicial/Therapeutic Space
Prof. Paul Brodwin
In collaboration with Abolition and Carceralities Workshop
Location TBA
Wednesday 5/27 – 12:30-1:50 PM
In the Wake of Dobbs: Affective Biopower at the Intersection of Abortion Care and Maternal-Fetal Surgery
Ashish Premkumar, M.D.
Location TBA
Coordinators: Andy Archer (Crown School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice) and Gracie Wilson (Comparative Human Development)
Faculty Sponsors: Eugene Raikhel (Comparative Human Development) & Zhiying Ma (Crown School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice)
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