The International Society of Critical Health Psychology (ISCHP) hosted their 9th Biennial Conference at Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 from the 12th to the 15th of July. This is the first time the conference has been hosted in Africa.
“We’ve been wanting to come to Africa, because we know it’s an important place for the kind of work that we are interested in, and we are thrilled that Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 stepped up and offered to host it,” said Chair of the ISCHP, Prof. Christine Stephens, from Massey 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网.
Over 130 academics from local and international universities attended with many South African universities represented.
“The benefit of ISCHP being hosted in South Africa is to talk to South African academics for a start, some of them don’t get to attend the conference when it’s in other parts of the world, particularly junior academics and graduate students. In addition it was very good for our post-grad students to come to South Africa, those who were able to, and form those contacts with those other young academics,” explains Prof. Stephens.
“I think in particular people have enjoyed being forced out of their very Western world view, even in places where there is cultural diversity, to come here and see South Africa and the very multicultural nature of it and the ways in which things are being worked through after Apartheid, which a lot of us knew about, but for a lot of us to really experience South Africa as it is now,” added Vice-Chair, Dr. Gareth Treharne, from the 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 of Otago.
The keynote speakers were the esteemed Prof. Garth Stevens, Prof. Leslie Swartz and Prof. Michelle Fine.
“There was a common theme and a focus on inequalities and understanding how we can use broader critical approaches to care for people with disabilities, people who are in precarious situations, and people who are experiencing violence,” explains Prof. Stephens.
Prof. Fine is a Distinguished Professor of Social Psychology, Women’s Studies
and Urban Education at the Graduate Center, CUNY. The title of this keynote was, “Toward an epistemology of precarity: Critical theory and participatory methods in times of widening inequality gaps.”
Leslie Swartz is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Stellenbosch 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 who spoke on “Care, health and bodies out of place.”
“Despite the disappointments of many of us with recent events in South Africa, we can agree that much of the project of building a democratic nation has been, notionally at least, about creating equality of access for all. The dramatically improved access to primary health care for many South Africans is testimony to this project. In the field of education we have done far worse as a country. There are many reasons for this failure, but a part of the story is the story of a failure of care,” shared Prof. Swartz.
Garth Stevens is a Professor and clinical psychologist in the Department of Psychology,
School of Human and Community Development, at the 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 of the Witwatersrand
in South Africa. Prof. Stevens spoke on “The vexing nature of violence: Some co-ordinates for reconsidering the ‘violence-health nexus’ in a decolonial moment.”
In addition, Prof. Melvyn Freeman, Chief Director for Non-communicable Diseases at the South African National Department of Health spoke on “Legal capacity and the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities: Are we going where we need to be?”
Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 delegates presented in Pecha Kucha format which is a new style of presenting, developed in Japan, involving 20 slides for 20 seconds each with a fixed script. This style is very fast and exciting and holds your audience captive.
A highlight of the conference was the screening of “Miners Shot Down” with the filmmaker Rehad Desai in attendance.
“The international audience really appreciated having the opportunity to see it and have the film-maker there,” shared Dr. Treharne, “many spoke about their viewing in their talks.”
Organiser of the event, Prof. Catriona Macleod, SARChi Chair in Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction, has received overwhelming numbers of enthusiastic responses from delegates who believe that it was a brilliant conference with a truly African feel and one that will be hard to top.
The conference delegates also enjoyed site visits to community partners - Ubunye Foundation, Upstart Youth Development Project, Keiskamma Trust and Fort England Psychiatric Hospital.
Picture by: Ulandi du Plessis
Roundtable discussion on the history of Health Psychology across a range of countries.
Ian Lubek, 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 of Guelph, Kerry Chamberlain, Massey 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网, Chris Stephens, Massey 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网, Jeffrey Yen, 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 of Guelph, Clifford van Ommen, Massey 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网.