Lecture and discussion, Varvara Borisova: Metabolic Responsibility, Monday 11 December 2023 10:00
Varvara Borisova: Metabolic Responsibility
Monday 11 December 2023, 10:00
FFA, U2/326
The lecture and discussion with social anthropologist Varvara Borisova, which will take place as part of the Feminist Seminar, will focus on our perception of “excess” body weight in relation to the changing knowledge about metabolic processes. The metaphors we use to describe human metabolism – the body as a factory, food as a fuel – affect how we approach obesity and its treatment. Recent biomedical studies show that human metabolism is much more complex than a mere factory converting ingested calories into energy and is dependent not only on processes within the body but also on what happens beyond its physical borders. So how can we even talk about responsibility for our bodies and weight when we are exposed to fundamental factors that are beyond our control?
Varvara Borisova is a Ph.D. candidate in social anthropology at the Faculty of Humanities at Charles University. Her dissertation research focuses on the medicalization and treatment of obesity in the Czech Republic. She is a junior researcher at the Institute of Sociology at the Czech Academy of Science and a member of the Interdisciplinary Platform for the Study of Nutrition and Metabolism in the Social and Ecological Context.
The seminar will be held in English.
Recommended reading:
Anita HARDON – Carolyn SMITH-MORRIS, “Reconfiguring Metabolism: Critical Ethnographies of Obesity and Diabetes,” Medical Anthropology, vol. 38, 2019, no. 8, pp. 777–780, https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2019.1681993.
| Author | Mgr. Tímea Vitázková |
|---|---|
| Published | |
| Short URL | https://www.favu.vut.cz/en/students/news-and-calls/f26745/d249969 |
Responsibility: Hana Křížová