PKU-UCL Cross-Cultural Medical Humanities

Conference/workshop: Self-Care in a Digital World [FURTHER UPDATE]7-9 November 2016, UCL Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) 'Common Ground', Ground Floor, South Wing,

ucl.ac.uk/maps/south-wing" target="_blank">Wilkins Building, UCL.
Convened and curated by Vivienne Lo, UCL CCHH.

Register via Eventbrite.

This is the second major event in a project that brings together Peking University (PKU) and UCL researchers working in the Medical Humanities.

Together we are building a new cross-cultural research platform to explore the potential for digital solutions to some of the most challenging health issues facing us all in the twenty-first century.

Over the course of this 3-day workshop event, medical historians, anthropologists and global health specialists, in dialogue with film, social media and digital humanities experts, will showcase histories and cultures of Self-Reflection, Auto-Practices and Practices of the Imagination in the promotion of longevity and/or well-being. Using historical and culturally adaptive approaches, we will consider the advantages and disadvantages of new visual and digital technologies in therapy and in the delivery of high priority health messages to different communities around the world.

Funded by the Wellcome Trust

Download the conference abstracts here (updated 3-11-2016)

Confirmed speakers

Ian Baker, University of Strathclyde
Chris Berry, Film Studies, KCL
Michael Clark, UCL/KCL Medical Humanities
Erminia Colucci, Centre for Psychiatry, Queen Mary University of London
Cong Yali 丛亚丽, Institute of Medical Humanities, PKU
Zeena Feldman, Digital Humanities, KCL
Charles Forsdick, University of Liverpool
Guan Ruiyuan 官锐园, Institute of Medical Humanities, PKU
Guo Liping 郭莉萍, Institute of Medical Humanities, PKU
Therese Hesketh, Institute of Global Health, UCL
Paul Kadetz, Department of Public Health, Marshall University
Mika Kioussis, Writer, Filmmaker and Digital Producer
Vivienne Lo, UCL China Centre for Health and Humanity
Ross MacFarlane, Wellcome Library
David Napier, UCL Anthropology
Carmine Pariante, Institute of Psychiatry, KCL
Tyler Phan, UCL Anthropology
João Rangel de Almeida, Wellcome Trust
David Neil Schmid, Department of Art History, University of Vienna
Sonu Shamdasani, UCL Health Humanities
Dan Sofer, Founders and Coders
Daniel Vuillermin, Institute of Medical Humanities, PKU
Jochen Vollmann, Ruhr-University Bochum
Wang Xiaomin 王晓敏, Zhejiang University
James Wilson, UCL Philosophy / Health Humanities
Yang Lina 杨荔纳, Filmmaker
Zhang Daqing 张大庆, Institute of Medical Humanities, PKU
Zhou Xudong 周旭东, Zhejiang University
Zhou Xun 周逊, University of Essex

DRAFT PROGRAMME

DAY 1: MONDAY 7 NOVEMBER 2016, 2-5.30pm

Introductory sessions

Chair: Charles Forsdick, University of Liverpool, AHRC Theme Leadership Fellow for 'Translating Cultures

Session 1, Monday 2-3.30pm: Medical Philanthropy: Who pays, and how do they change what we do?

• A Scientometric Study of Medical Philanthropy in China
  Zhang Daqing 张大庆, Institute of Medical Humanities, PKU
• Foundational Knowledge: The influence of the Rockefeller Foundation on health paradigms of modernity in China
  Paul Kadetz, Department of Public Health, Marshall University
• Sir Henry Wellcome's Medical Philanthropy and its Visual Culture
  Ross MacFarlane, Wellcome Library
• Walking for Social Enterprise: Self-Care and mass philanthropy in a digital age using We-Chat and We-Run as examples 
  Guo Liping 郭莉萍, Institute of Medical Humanities, PKU
• Digital Solutions to Social Enterprise
  Dan Sofer, Founders and Coders

+  Roundtable discussion:

• Interdisciplinarity and Funding Transcultural Medical Humanities
  Chair: Charles Forsdick, University of Liverpool

3.30-4pm Afternoon Tea

Session 2, Monday 4-5.30pm: Personalisation, Privacy, Solidarity: What counts as progress in medicine?

• Social Behaviour, Data Privacy, Ethics and Healthcare in China
  Cong Yali 丛亚丽, Institute of Medical Humanities, PKU
• Personalised Medicine: Priority setting and opportunity costs at an international scale
  Jochen Vollmann, Ruhr-University Bochum
  
• Maintaining Health Solidarity in an Era of Big Data
  James Wilson, UCL Philosophy / Health Humanities

+  Roundtable discussion

DAY 2: TUESDAY 8 NOVEMBER 2016, 2-5.30pm + EVENING FILM SCREENING

Practices of the Imagination

Day 2 will focus on cross-cultural narratives of health and particularly their visual dimensions, preparing us for historically informed and 'glocally' aware conversations about strategies to improve health in our inter-connected world.

Session 3, Tuesday 2-3.30pm: Cross-Cultural Narratives of Health and Self-Improvement/Empowerment

This session will draw out the critical role that history and anthropology should play in the culturally adaptive development of contemporary healthcare delivery.

• From Psychotherapy to Self-Care: Notes on auto-suggestion and positive thinking
  Sonu Shamdasani, UCL Health Humanities
• Humanising the Pathological Other: Documentary photography and illness in China
  Daniel Vuillermin, Institute of Medical Humanities, PKU
• America's Globalised Chinese Medicine
  Tyler Phan, UCL Anthropology
• Food, Authority and the Impact of Online Recipe Cultures
  Vivienne Lo, UCL China Centre for Health and Humanity

3.30-4pm Afternoon Tea

Session 4, Tuesday 4-5.30pm: Learning How to Move: Cross-cultural bodies in motion

In this session we will consider the cross-cultural history of Asian movement regimens, and their legacy in keeping people in good shape. How have these traditions been imagined and received worldwide?

• Jung's Refiguring of Psychotherapy through Esoteric Daoism, Alchemy and Yoga
  Sonu Shamdasani, UCL Health Humanities
• Moving Towards Enlightenment: Visual representations of mind-body practices in Tibet's Lukhang murals
  Ian Baker, University of Strathclyde
  
• Guided Imagery, Massage and Ba Duan Jin 八段錦 (the Eight Brocades) for Cancer Sufferers: Working with the evidence from PKU and HKU
  Guan Ruiyuan官锐园, Institute of Medical Humanities, PKU
• How to Do the Gibbon Walk (2nd century BCE to 21st century). Can we learn how to move from just 'looking'?
  Vivienne Lo, UCL China Centre for Health and Humanity

Tuesday, 7-9.30, Fim screening

• Longing for the Rain 春梦, dir. Yang Lina 杨荔纳 2013

Yang Lina's film raises many health issues related to the development of the urban middle class and contemporary attitudes towards health. It will facilitate a discussion about the unique historical orientation to Self-Care in China - beliefs about female sexuality, different cultural taboos around the public discussion of female and male sexual health, Chinese cultural understandings of emotional-mental health issues, self-medication through foods and substances on the food-medicine boundary. The film also allows us to see how readily China has absorbed Self-Care techniques from cultures it has come into contact with. A key focus will be plural healthcare: the importance of family and friends, and the 21st century re-emergence of religious institutions in making healthcare decisions. What challenges and opportunities does this legacy afford for contemporary healthcare?

• Conversation between Chris Berry, Film Studies, KCL, and Vivienne Lo, UCL China Centre for Health and Humanity

DAY 3: WEDNESDAY 9 NOVEMBER 2016, 10am-

Self-Care and the Use of Moving Image Materials in Cross-Cultural Comparison

The model of screening feature films (and sometimes documentaries) to generate discussion is well established in Health and Medical Humanities education. However, it is increasingly clear that this model does not exhaust the potential of the moving image. Future models might include making work with health professionals and patients as well as with students, and could involve a range of materials from feature films to short online videos (微电影) and mobile phone apps.

What new questions are generated by this wider perspective, and what existing research literatures and traditions might be drawn upon to investigate further? This day will explore interactive contemporary solutions to the use of film, narrative medicine and social media.

10am, Q&A Skype with Yang Lina 杨荔纳 in Beijing

10.45am Morning Tea

Session 5, Wednesday 11-11.30am: Self-Care and the Use of Moving Image Materials in Cross-Cultural Comparison

How do social media impact on Self-Care? What communities exist and how do they interrelate? During the day, Dan will lead three 90-minute break-out groups to work on how the ideas of historians, anthropologists and global health specialists working on Self-Care translate into interrelated website and software applications.

• 11am,  Self-Care and Social Media
  Dan Sofer, Founders and Coders

  PLUS
  

• All Day Ideathon
  led by Dan Sofer and his Team

Session 6, Wednesday 11.30am-12.30pm: The Classroom

Fictional and documentary narratives have been used in Medical Humanities education for many years as a means of developing empathy.  How have films helped medical students and professionals to understand the experience of illness, and how it varies according to cultural and class differences? What kinds of materials work best - short documentaries, clips from longer films, entire feature films, etc.? What might the new media bring to our table?

• Film, Social Media and Empathy in Teaching Practice Guo Liping 郭莉萍, Institute of Medical Humanities, PKU

Session 7, Wednesday 12.30-1.30pm: Working with Patients: Diaries, film and social media

This session will further develop our theme of cross-cultural narratives of health, and consider how social media have changed and will change programmes of Self-Care. Can social media apps help patients to understand more about their condition and how to look after themselves? How can moving image materials be best applied: are video diaries and the self-reflection they promote of therapeutic benefit to patients dealing with long-term or chronic conditions, and particularly in the preparation for a 'Good Death'? Can programmes of film screenings help to engage patients in the process of improving their own health and stimulate discussion?

• Facing Death and Dying: Working with video journals
  Mika Kioussis
• Recovering from Mental Illness and Suicidal Behaviour: Using short films in a diverse cultural context
  Erminia Colucci, Centre for Psychiatry, Queen Mary University of London
• Mental Health and the Smartphone
  Zeena Feldman, Digital Humanities, KCL

• 'Yangsheng tang' 养生堂 and Diabetes: Popular TV and traditional approaches to self-healthcare
  The PKU Collective!
  

  
  Respondent: Carmine Pariante, Institute of Psychiatry, KCL

1.30-2.30pm Sandwich Lunch

Session 8, Wednesday 2.30-3pm

• Self-Care in Zhang Yang's 张扬 Shower 洗澡, 1999
  Michael Clark, UCL/KCL Medical Humanities

Session 9, Wednesday 3-4pm: Motivating 'the Public': Who, on whose authority, and how?

This session will use historical and contemporary public health films to consider what has worked best in the past to serve the needs of Self-Care in complex communities. We will screen public health shorts from China and the UK that have addressed high-priority public health messages. What are the dynamics, for example, between state, WHO, community and individuals, and how do social media impact on them? Who authorises what is appropriate, and what are the practical implications of this? We will explore interactive contemporary solutions to the use of film in some of the most pressing health concerns in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Given the expertise of our speakers, and UCL's work on Diabetes in China, the focus of this session will be on therapeutic movement and diet, and what it takes to make different communities move and eat well.

• Caring for the New Socialist Body: public health posters and film in the PRC
  Zhou Xun 周逊, University of Essex
• Social Media Strategies and Community Mobilisation for HIV Testing in China
  David Neil Schmid, University of Vienna
• The Diabetes Dilemma in Contemporary China
  David Napier, UCL Anthropology
  
  Chair: David Napier

4pm Afternoon Tea

Session 10, Wednesday 4.45-5.30pm: Raising Awareness about Anti-Microbial Resistance: A nationwide arts competition for Chinese university students using social media

Therese Hesketh and her colleagues will present a few of the best short films and artworks created by teams of Chinese students working on anti-microbial resistance for the G20 Summit. They will also explain to us how social media was used in disseminating the competition call, in the judging by the general public, and then in disseminating the winning entries so as to maximise awareness-raising.
Presenters: Therese Hesketh, Institute of Global Health, UCL; Zhou Xudong 周旭东, Wang Xiaomin 王晓敏, Zhejiang University

Session 11, Wednesday 5.30pm: Founders and Coders Presentation

Founders and Coders is a community service organisation which runs the only free full-time coding course in the UK. Most of their graduates become software developers. The company works mainly for charities and with social enterprise organisations, developing websites and applications. Current clients include the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families at UCL and Age UK.

http://www.foundersandcoders.com

Dinner for Participants

DAY 4: THURSDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2016

CLOSED SESSION

for PKU-UCL representatives and other core contributors

Chair: João Rangel de Almeida, Wellcome Trust

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