CHM Reading Lunch presents Circumcision and the Creation of Bodies

What comes to mind when you think of male and/or female “circumcision”? And why are these images and associations significant? Is the circumcised body a cultural, medical or political object/subject? How are new understandings of bodies created? And how can historians address the questions of ethics that still shape this debate today? In our second reading lunch we would like to invite you to join us in considering how the body has taken on various meanings through the example of historical and contemporary debates on circumcision.

Come join us in 7^th week at 12:30pm on Wednesday 20^th February, in H3.58 – in discussing the “creation of bodies” in history as well as sharing your thoughts on how to address moral values within historical research. The first reading is from a contemporary regulatory perspective- Fox and Thomson's article on BMA guidance for circumcision in the Journal of Medical Ethics. The second reading by Esho in Afrika Focus steps away from this British perspective and considers how circumcision within a Kenyan context has arguably gained new social and cultural implications through the process of colonialism.

We will provide a light lunch, so let us know by the day before if you intend on coming.

Katie Gardner Katherine.Gardner@warwick.ac.uk 

and Katey Logan phd15cl@mail.wbs.ac.uk