CFP: ISAANZ 27 Health, Wellness and Care

20-22 November 2025
University of Otago / Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, Aotearoa / New Zealand

As the emergency measures of the pandemic fade into memory, but the virus transitions into an endemic part of our medical landscape, we invite scholars and community members to use the vantage point of this new ecosystem – viral, social, political, economic, environmental – to consider what health, wellness and care mean for Ireland and Irish communities worldwide. What understandings of the well-being or disorders of Irish peoples can we gain through the interdisciplinary framework of Irish Studies? From the impact of medical metaphors over time to the movement of medical practitioners over seas, from the slow construction of hospitals to the rapid rise of patients in corridors, from the responsibilities of domestic carers to the glamour of wellness influencers, how can our varied disciplines come together to take the temperature of Irish societies and Irish studies?

We invite papers addressing the conference themes through topics that might include:

• Historical and contemporary expressions of community care and public health provision in Irish societies
• The role of the extended family and the diaspora in fostering transnational networks of medical support and solidarity
• Wellness as an industry in Ireland and for the Irish diaspora
• Representations of health and care providers, from institutional care to family carers
• Literary, political, and structural responses to physical and mental health crises
• Considerations of the metaphorical resonances of discourses of health, such as the moral or spiritual health of the nation
• Narratives of health and illness within academia and the discipline of Irish Studies
• The intersections of gender, class, race, and disability within Irish experiences of sickness and care
• Digital health communities and the impact of new technologies, from genetics to improved imaging, on health, family histories and identity
• Environmental health challenges and sustainable futures
• The complexities of discourses of health and illness, vulnerability and resistance, diagnosis and recovery

For those whose research does not touch on areas of health, wellness or care, we also welcome papers on any aspect of Ireland, Irish Australia, Irish New Zealand, Irish Pacific or the Irish diaspora generally.

Individual Papers or Creative Contributions: submit a 250-word abstract and a short bio (100 words).

Panels and Roundtables: submit a short panel/roundtable description, along with 250-word abstracts and bios for each participant.

Proposals should be emailed to maebh.long@otago.ac.nz. The closing date for abstracts is 14 March 2025. Conference participants will have the option to present their paper online or to deliver it face to face.