Representing the Human in Life, Death, and Science

Online seminar with Halina Suwalowska, researcher in Global Health Bioethics at Oxford University, and Adam Bencard, researcher and curator at The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center and Medical Museion. The seminar is followed by an academic writing workshop.

How we represent and understand the body is at once a deeply political, ethical, and cultural practice which reveals constructed ideas of what it means to be human. Thus, attending to the inconsistencies and slippages between representation and material reality can shed light on the body as both a site of ethical consideration and cultural representation. The human body is not simply material nor molecular, but also a place where matter and meaning blossom into significance, existing at this intersection. This seminar explores how scientific, philosophical, and ethical practices represent and make sense of material life and death. Bringing together perspectives from microbial science, museum practice, and death care, we will discuss how bodies, both living and dead, are mediated, managed, and imbued with meaning. 

This online CIRCLES seminar will explore how we understand and relate to the human body. With Halina Suwalowska,researcher in Global Health Bioethics at Oxford University, and Adam Bencard, researcher and curator at The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center and Medical Museion, we will discuss how bodies are represented, handled, and made meaningful, whether this is through scientific perspectives of material and microbial life, or ethical and procedural practices around death.

Programme and sign up

The seminar is followed by an academic writing workshop, exploring creative approaches to writing, recognising its potential power as solution. This will be run after shortly after the seminar, for around 70 minutes.

• 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm (CET) for seminar
• 1:40 pm - 3:00 pm (CET) for writing workshop.

Please sign up by emailing intersect@ku.dk

Both events are part of INTERSECT’s CIRCLE series, which fosters dialogue across science, art, and critical inquiry. We hope to see you there.

Bios

Halina Suwaloska

Halina Suwaloska is a Researcher in Global Health Bioethics at the Ethox Centre, Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities (WEH) at the University ofis a Researcher in Global Health Bioethics at the Ethox Centre, Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities (WEH) at the University of Oxford. Her work explores the ethical and social issues emerging in managing dead bodies during natural disasters and epidemics and the challenges experienced by frontline staff and ‘last responders’ when caring for the dead. A sociologist by training, she also pursues innovative interdisciplinary collaboration with artists. Her ongoing project, ‘Beyond Physical Form’, formed in collaboration with London-based Polish artist Anna Suwaloska, engages with medical institutions, cultural organisations, and underrepresented communities. The piece above, created by Anna Suwalowska, was produced for the internationally exhibited ‘Beyond the Body: A Portrait of Autopsy’, an art exhibition depicting ethical dilemmas presented by the practice of examining the body across different cultures.

Adam Bencard

Adam Bencard is an Assistant Professor in Science Communication at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research and the Medical Museion, at the University of Copenhagen. He works in both practical science communication, curating exhibitions and teaching, and research. His work explores the complex meanings and effects of material thinking across post-genomic metabolism research, philosophy, and science communication. In particular, he is interested in the metabolic humanities, examining eating as an interface between the body and environment. His museum exhibition, ‘The World is in You’, blended science, contemporary art, and history, to explore connections between our bodies and the world through microbes, generations, and time. It was curated alongside Medical Museion curator Malthe Kouassi Bjerregaard and Dr Jacob Lillemose and won the communication award Formidlingsprisen 2022.

Jasmine Yang

Jasmine Yang is a recent graduate in BA Human Sciences from the University of Oxford with interests in interdisciplinary health research across the social and biological sciences.