Call for Abstracts - Beauty Demands Workshop 4: Routine Maintenance and Exceptional Procedures

Call for Abstracts

Beauty Demands Workshop 4

Routine maintenance and exceptional procedures: 23-24 March 2016

Hosted by Manchester Law School, Manchester Metropolitan University

www.birmingham.ac.uk/beautydemands

This workshop explores the popular rhetoric that ‘routine’ beauty procedures are similar to standard beauty practices (such as make-up application and hair dye) and therefore non- problematic. Many ‘routine practices’ have expanded and now include removal of body hair, salon manicures and ‘non-invasive procedures’ (such as fillers and Botox), procedures which require ‘beauty technicians’. Surgical procedures are not yet ‘routine’, but the resort to surgery is increasingly becoming ‘routine’. The workshop will explore the extent to which the boundaries between what is ‘routine’ and ‘exceptional’ are changing, and what this means in terms of what is demanded for ‘acceptability’, as well as regulating risky, but supposedly ‘routine’ procedures.

Abstracts are sought from current graduate students and Early Career Researchers for this workshop in any discipline relevant to the topic, including but not exclusively, Philosophy, Psychology, Law, Sociology, Medicine, and Gender Studies. Please submit abstracts by email using the title “beauty demands workshop 4”. Abstracts should be submitted to Ruth Wareham (r.j.wareham@bham.ac.uk) by 24 January 2016 at 4pm. Abstracts should be between 250 and 500 words, and please note that late abstracts cannot be considered. We will cover economy travel and accommodation costs for UK researchers invited to attend. NB: Attendance at the workshop will be strictly by invitation only.

Confirmed speakers for this workshop include:

·         Marie Fox (Professor of Law and Society, University of Birmingham), 'Interrogating Bodily Integrity'

·         Debra Gimlin (Professor of Sociology, University of Aberdeen), ‘Boundaries between routine/acceptable and non-routine/problematic beauty practices’

·         Ruth Holliday (Professor of Sociology, University of Leeds), ‘Cosmetic Surgery Discourse and Cosmetic Surgery Value’

·         Sarah Grogan (Professor of Psychology, Manchester Metropolitan University), 'Need we be bikini-ready and wrinkle free? Women's accounts of ambivalence towards socio-cultural appearance ideals'

·         Heather Widdows (Professor of Global Ethics, University of Birmingham),‘The demands of 'routine' 'maintenance'’

·         Fiona MacCallum (Department of Psychology, University of Warwick), 'The role of social media and Photoshop in normalising ‘routine’ procedures’

·         Michael Thomson (Professor of Law, University of Leeds), 'From the routine to the exceptional?: Parental choice, male cutting, and changing public discourse'.

Join the network

We would like to encourage anyone interested in this area to join the Beauty Demands network. Our aim is to promote cross-disciplinary academic engagement in public and policy debate on topical beauty issues. We are interested in bringing together scholars, policy makers, practitioners, activists and others who work in the area of beauty norms, practices and body-image. We will be doing this by hosting four workshops, but also by promoting virtual discussion via Twitter (@beautydemands, #beautydemands) and the BeautyDemands blog. Please note, while many of those in the network take a particular stand on beauty issues the network aims to facilitate open and respectful debate and discussion. It aims to welcome those with all views and to encourage exchange of views and does not endorse one single perspective.