Reading group

Join us in discussing philosophical, sociological and anthropological texts

Every 3-4 weeks we organize a 2 hours meeting during which we discuss important and actual theoretical literature pertaining to the meaning of embodiment in health and medicine.

We read chapters and papers from different disciplines, including philosophy, sociology, anthropology, gender studies, and disability studies. These meetings are open for all academics (PhD students, (post-doc)researchers) who have an interest in theories on the body.

These meetings take place in the Department of Culture Studies, Tilburg University, Warandelaan 2, Tilburg.

If you would like to join us, or would like to get more information about our upcoming readings and schedule, please contact us.

The meetings of the reading group takes place in the Dante Building at Tilburg University on the following dates and in the following lecture rooms:

  • 1 February: 11.00-13.00 in D 313
  • 22 February: 11.00-13.00 in D 119
  • 8 March: 11.00-13.00 in D 313
  • 29 March: 11.00-13.00 in D 313
  • 12 April: 11.00-13.00 in D 313
  • 26 April: 11.00-13.00 in D 119
  • 17 Mai: 11.00-13.00 in D 119
  • 7 June: 11.00-13.00 in D 313
  • 28 June: 11.00-13.00 in D 313
Contact us

Texts we have read, so far, include:

  • Ian Hacking, “Making up people”
  • Ian Hacking, “The looping effect of human Kinds”
  • Ian Hacking, “Madness: Biological or Constructed”, in The Social Construction of What?
  • Bernard Williams, “The self and the future, from Problems of the Self
  • Selection of chapters from Annemarie Mol, The body multiple
  • Michael Jackson (1983). “Knowledge of the Body”, Man, New Series, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 327-345
  • Selection of chapters (1 and 3) from Sarah Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology
  • Nick Crossley, “Fat is a sociological isse”
  • Chapter 4 from Alva Noë, Out of our Heads
  • Marc Slors, Léon de Bruin, Derek Strijbos, Introduction and Chapter 1 from Philosophy of Mind, Brain and Behavior
  • Introduction from Shaun Gallagher & Dan Zahavi, The Phenomenological Mind
  • Nick Crossley, “Merleau-Ponty, the elusive body and carnal sociology”
  • Thomas Csordas (1990), “Embodiment as a Paradigm for Anthropology”
  • Jacquelyn Allen-Collinson (2014), “Intense Embodiment: Senses of Heat in Women’s Running and Boxing”
  • Jean Grimshaw, “Working out with Merleau-Ponty”
  • Lakoff and Johnson (1999). Philosophy in the Flesh, chapters 3 & 25
  • Erwin Straus, “The Upright Posture”
  • Iris Young, “Throwing like a Girl”
  • Emily Heavey, “Narrative Bodies, Embodied Narratives”
  • Havi Carel, “Phenomenology and its application in medicine”
  • Megan Warin (2014). “Material Feminism, Obesity Science and the Limits of Discursive Critique”
  • Deborah Lupton “Quantifying the body: Monitoring and measuring health in the age of Health technologies”
  • Selection of chapters Jenny Edkins Face Politics
  • Selection of chapters from Stacy Alaimo, Susan Hekamn Material Feminism
  • Selection of chapters from Rosemary Garland-Thompson Staring
  • Selection of chapters from Luna Dolezal The Body and Shame: Phenomenology, Feminism and the Socially Shaped Body
  • Anne Pollock “Heart Feminism”
  • Tim Ingold “When ANT meets SPIDER”
  • Tim Ingold “Footprints through the weather-world”
  • Tim Ingold “Culture on the ground”
  • Lesley Sharp “The invisible woman: The bioaesthetics of engineered bodies”
  • Dawn Goodwin “Reshaping bodies, reshaping agency”
  • Stefan Hirschauer “The manufacture of bodies in surgery”
  • Lucie Dalibert “Living with spinal cord stimulation: Doing embodiment and incorporation”
  • Laura Mamo & Jennifer Ruth Fosket “Scripting the body: Pharmaceuticals and the (re)making of menstruation”
  • Deborah Lynn Steinberg “The bad patient: Estranged subjects of the cancer culture”
  • Kari Nyheim Solbraekke & Hilde Bondevik “Absent organs-present selves”
  • Jackie Leah Scully “Disability and the Thinking Body”
  • Daniel Black “What is a Face?”
  • Bernadette Wegenstein and Nora Ruck “Physiognomy, Reality Television and the Cosmetic Gaze”
  • Selection of chapters from James Aho and Kevin Aho A phenomenology of sickness, disease and illness
  • Max van Manen “Modalities of Body Experience in Illness and Health”
  • Selection of chapters from Lisa Blackman Immaterial Bodies
  • Selection of papers from Margaret Lock & Judith Farquhar (ed). Beyond the body proper
  • Selection of chapters from Sarah Ahmed Queer Phenomenology
  • Selection of chapters from Maurice Merleau-Ponty Phenomenology of Perception
  • Selection of chapters from Don Ihde Technology and the lifeworld
  • Selection of chapters from Chris Shilling The body and social theory
  • Annemarie Mol The Body Multiple
  • Nick Crossley The Social Body: Habit, Identity and Desire
  • Jackie Stacey Teratologies. A Cultural study of Cancer
  • Arthur Frank, The wounded story-teller
  • Nelly Oudshoorn “Sustaining cyborgs”