Neurological Imaginaries series wraps up with medical anthropologist Janelle Taylor

Image of the brain

The fourth and final event in the 2019-20 Neurological Imaginaries Seminar Series will feature medical anthropologist Jenelle Taylor on March 6.

Taylor’s research over the past 20 years has addressed aspects of biomedicine in North America (including fetal ultrasound imaging, cultural competency training in medical education, and end-of-life decision making, as well as dementia and caregiving). She joined the University of Toronto’s Department of Anthropology in 2019, and before that was on faculty at the University of Washington for 20 years.

Her paper titled “Finding Traces of Dementia Caregiving Relations in Medical Research and Medical Records Data” will be the topic of her discussion. In her remarks, Taylor will discuss her recent NIH-funded research, in which she turns an ethnographic gaze on existing medical records and other data from a medical research study, to trace evidence of caregiving arrangements and challenges in the lives of older adults with dementia.

The event takes place March 6 from 12 to 2 p.m. in York Lanes 305. The paper presentation will be followed by a live interview and a Q-and-A period. Light refreshments will be provided. For more information, contact Jordan Hodgins at hodginsj@yorku.ca. All are welcome.

The Neurological Imaginaries seminar series works to bring neuroscientists, anthropologists and artists together in an interdisciplinary conversation to discuss epistemological tensions within traumatic brain injury care. These conversations will explore how sensorial and arts-based methodologies might open up possibilities for understanding often imperceptible inner transformations that escape both biomedical technologies and language.