BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Visualising post-viral lives: Body mapping womens’ lived experie
 nces of Long COVID - Prof Beth Greenhough (School of Geography and the Env
 ironment\, University of Oxford)
DTSTART:20251029T160000Z
DTEND:20251029T173000Z
UID:TALK237076@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Laszlo Cseke
DESCRIPTION:Drawing on and with established understandings of illness in h
 ealth geography as embodied\, lived experience\, this paper explores the f
 indings of four body-mapping workshops undertaken with women with Long Cov
 id conducted between 2023-2024 in London and Oxford\, and three further fo
 llow-on conversations with women from these groups. Body-mapping – a cre
 ative arts-based method – offers a means of expressing how post-viral il
 lness reconfigured our participants’ lives and geographies. Framing long
  COVID as a post-viral illness\, the paper invites comparison between the 
 patient experiences discussed here and broader category of Infection Assoc
 iated Chronic Conditions (IACCs)\, including Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chr
 onic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Chronic Lyme or Post-Treatment Lyme Dis
 ease Syndrome (PTLDS). Diverse IACCs share some common features\, both phe
 notypically\, including symptoms such as debilitating fatigue and brain fo
 g\, but also in terms the challenges of navigating a medical system which 
 struggles to cope with an illness that lacks clear diagnostic markers and 
 treatment pathways. \n\nThree themes are highlighted here which speak to b
 roader geographical concerns with: (i) crip time (seen in the ways partici
 pants use pacing tools to manage their condition)\; (ii) weirded metabolis
 ms (and how post-viral bodies jar against expectations of what normal or r
 ecovering bodies can and should do)\; and (iii) haunted futures (where par
 ticipants’ visions of the future are inflected through narratives of hop
 ed-for futures now seemingly unattainable). Body mapping is posited as a t
 actic and an opportunity to make the dynamic\, disruptive and unsettling n
 ature of IACCs more visible to families\, medical practitioners and policy
  makers. Simultaneously participants’ body maps serve to unsettle normat
 ive geographical discourses and terrains.
LOCATION:Large Lecture Theatre\, Department of Geography
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR