In November 2020, Capturing Chronic Illness, a project by Donna McCormack and Ingrid Young, launched a digital exhibition which explores chronic illness through photography. Drawing on our interests and work in queer studies, medical humanities, disability studies and feminist methodologies, and inspired by the work of photographers such as Panteha Abareshi , Tsoku Maela, Zanele Muholi, Jo Spence, Justin J Wee and Francesca Woodman, we invited submissions to explore how photography might capture, explore, expand and/or reimagine how chronic illness and bodies living with chronic illness, can be seen and heard. The link to the online exhibition can be found here.

This panel discussion is the second event we will host as part of Capturing Chronic Illness. In this panel, we will continue our discussions around illness, queer intimacies and the legacy of colonial depictions of bodies with artistic, activist and academic partners. Chisomo Kalinga, Claricia Parinussa, Ingrid Young & Donna McCormack will explore how the visual and performance arts might open up possibilities of depicting and making apparent the lives of people living with chronic illness.

Chisomo Kalinga is a Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, who works on and around illness narratives, HIV and sexual health in Malawi.

Claricia Parinussa is an artist who works in dance and performance and is associated with Tramway in Glasgow.

Ingrid Young is a medical sociologist at the University of Edinburgh with an interest in queer methods, HIV, activism and public health practices.

Donna McCormack is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Surrey, and works in the medical humanities around transplants, illness, trauma, and speculative fiction and film. Read more here.

Please sign up to join us for the live event. Our event will run on Thursday, 10th June from 12:00 - 1:30 UK time.

This event is part of the Nordic Network Gender Body Health Seminar Series.

Capturing Chronic Illness: Panel Discussion