Few topics at present can be more pressing than care. Even before the current pandemic, a global care crisis had been identified by The International Labour Organization (ILO), which indicated that by 2030, the number of people needing care will reach 2.3 billion (Addati et al. 2018). Today, the majority of care practices are socially, culturally, economically and ecologically unsustainable, in large part because of a failure to ascribe sufficient value and recognition to the vast amounts of physical, emotional and intellectual labour required for the provision of care. This mounting crisis – its ecological and economic significance, and the widespread problems of precarity and hyper-exploitation – demands a fundamental reconsideration by researchers and policymakers.
Contesting Care is an online event that responds to this situation. It brings together interdisciplinary scholars from Duke University’s Revaluing Care Network (RCN), the University of Exeter’s Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health, and other interested academics and artists. It will host a varied and innovative range of interventions, from conventional presentation panels to films, artist talks and workshops, fostering dialogue between creative and critical engagements with care, and seeking to develop concepts and methodologies that can be taken forward to address the global crisis of care. The aim of the event is to identify new research questions and collaborations, while producing an initial range of outputs for those currently thinking about care in their research and practice.
PROGRAMME
DAY 1
2-3 PM BST / 9-10 AM EST Care In Crisis 1
Speakers: David Richards (Exeter); Peter Kussin (Duke); Felicity Thomas (Exeter); LJ Brandli (Duke)
Chair: Des Fitzgerald (Exeter)
Break
3.30-4.30 PM BST / 10.30-11.30 AM EST Parallel Panels:
Communities and Values of Care 1
Speakers: Lorenza Ippolito (Brighton); Jocelyn Olcott (Duke); Joao Florencio (Exeter)
Chair: LJ Brandli (Duke)
Ageing and Care
Speakers: Iza Kavedzija (Exeter); Samia Akhter-Kahn (King’s College/Duke/RCGE); James Chappel (Duke); Anne Allison (Duke)
Chair: Liz Barry (Warwick)
Break
5-6 PM BST / 12-1 PM EST Communities and Values of Care 2
Speakers: Pedro Nicoli (RCGE); Ann Gallagher (Exeter); Kaitlyn Daly (Duke); Sarah Gainsforth (activist)
Chair: Martha Espinosa (Duke)
6-7 PM BST / 1-2 PM EST Temporalities of Care
Speakers: Michael Flexer (Exeter); Martin O’Brien (artist); Deborah Robinson (artist); Laura Salisbury (Exeter)
Chair: Jordan Osserman (Birkbeck)
DAY 2
2-3 PM BST / 9-10 AM EST Technologies of Care
Speakers: Ernesto Schwartz Marin (Exeter); Maddelena Fragnito (artist/activist)
Chair: Tania Rispoli (Duke)
Break
3.15-4.15 PM BST / 10.15-11.15 AM EST Environments of Care
Speakers: Judith Green (Exeter); Elis Jones (Exeter); Dirk Philipsen (Duke); Nicole Barnes (Duke)
Chair: Veronica Heney (Exeter)
Break
4.30-5.30 PM BST / 11.30-12.30 EST Care in Crisis 2
Speakers: Veronica Heney (Exeter); Anne Barlow (Exeter); Mauro Turrini (CSIC/RCGE); Leo Jamelli (artist)
Chair: Laura Salisbury (Exeter)
5.30-7 PM BST / 12.30-2 PM EST OPEN SPACE DISCUSSION
