The XIII biannual Medical Anthropology at Home (MAAH) symposium

Posted on Thursday 25 June 2026

Organised by Sangeeta Chattoo and Monish Bhatia (Sociology), and Asha Abeyasekera (Centre for Women’s Studies), assisted by Alice Flinta (Centre for Women’s Studies), this hybrid three-day conference saw the participation of speakers from 21 different institutions in nine countries (Denmark, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Turkey and the UK). This interdisciplinary event saw the participation of scholars, final-year PhD students, as well as post-docs, and activists, from the fields of Anthropology, Sociology, Urban Studies and Medicine.

Guided by this year’s conference theme, “Problematising Home, Dis/placement, Health and Citizenship in a Time of Global Change,” participants engaged in eight panel discussions that brought in ethnographic case-studies, a film screening, legal and activist perspectives and engagements with peoples and communities constituted as ‘evictable’ by state and non-state actors. The first day saw speakers convening in conversations around “Crafting homes, lived experiences of health and caring in the face of displacement;” the second day’s focus was on “Dis/placements, gender, caring and forced migrations;” on the last day delegates grappled with “Legal Encounters: Third Sector & Practitioner Perspectives,” as well as engaged in conversations on “Rethinking Home, devising methods, revisiting MAAH.”

The keynote address on 3rd June was delivered by Rebecca Bryant (Professor of cultural anthropology at Utrecht University). Titled, “Home and Belonging: Notes towards a Theory,” the keynote presented a historical overview of the (un)making of home, belonging and relationships within the context of Cypriot-Turkish displacements in Cyprus.

A selection of papers presented at the symposium will be curated into special issues, one aimed at a medical anthropology/sociology journal and the other for migration/asylum/refugee studies.