The 2020s have been witness to a diverse range of forms of resistance and social protest internationally, most notably, the Black Lives Matter movement which has drawn further attention to issues of race inequality. Moreover, the last few years have seen the growth of health activist movements such as campaigns for reproductive rights, while in the UK, health workers such as nurses and junior doctors have engaged in industrial action around working conditions. Yet, conservative groups, for example, the anti-vaccination movement, have also manifested resistance against public health strategies. Taking a broad definition of the term ‘Resistance’, our conference examines the following:
- Health activism and forms of resistance
- Health and social protest
- Resistance to medical authority or ideas
- Resistance to medical treatment
- Community activism
- Medicine, health and power
- Alternative medicine as resistance
- Medical practitioners and resistance
- Race and resistance
- Challenges to medical or scientific practices
- Challenges to public health
- Drugs and resistance
- Gender, sexualities and resistance
- Reproductive rights and resistance
