12:00 pm | Clark Hall Room 206
Over the past decade, there has been a drive on the part of the medical device industry and engineering schools in the United States and Western Europe to design medical devices specifically for people living in low-resource countries. As these medical devices built in the Global North travel to the Global South, they serve as vectors for the ideals, judgments, and goals that their societies of origin have toward persons with disabilities. The research of Vaia Sigounas, Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology, considers the boundaries and limitations of biomedical technologies for reconstructing and enhancing human bodies and, presumptively, human lives. However, it is not only about boundaries and limitations. Her work is also about realities, possibilities, and alternatives to living with biomedical technologies in different social worlds. Using multi-sited, transnational fieldwork in Uganda, Switzerland and the United States, she analyzea how people with limb loss modify and use medical technologies to reconstruct their identities and social relationships.
An informal lunch with be provided.
Registration requested. Register HERE.