An upcoming interdisciplinary conference entitled Skeletons, Stories, and Social Bodies (SSSB) aims to cover a wide range of topics relating to human anatomy and death. Taking place at the University of Southampton from Friday 24th March to Sunday 26th March 2017, the conference organizers are keen for students, early career researchers and commercial archaeologists and bioarchaeologists to contribute as appropriate. The keynote speakers for the conference have recently been confirmed as Dr Heather Bonney, the collections manager of anthropology and a practicing forensic anthropologist at the Natural History Museum, London, and Professor Caroline Wilkinson, a forensic anthropologist from FaceLab at the Liverpool John Moores University who specializes in the forensic reconstruction of faces from both forensic and historical contexts.
Alongside the usual presentations and a conference dinner on the Saturday evening, there is also the opportunity to take part in a number of workshops by the Centre for Learning Anatomical Sciences and art exhibitions on the Sunday. The five optional workshops include the chance to learn about bioarchaeology, or to attend workshops investigation the scent of death, grief demystified and or an introduction to the Anatomical Sciences laboratory among other topics. Please note that conference delegates will only have the option to sign up for two of the five workshops due to limited places.
The price for the conference has now been confirmed – please see the conference homepage for the range of prices available. For the full event attendance the price is set at £65 (student) to £85 (waged), costing a total of £115 if registration is late, but individual day rates are also available. As such it is advised that anybody interested book before Tuesday 31st January 2017 for early bird registration, whilst late registration is available from the 1st February until the 20th February 2017, which is likely to cost more. Furthermore there are student bursaries are available for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Please see here for further details and the conditions stipulated.
The logo for the conference based at the University of Southampton. Image credit: SSSB 2017.
Topics for Consideration
As this is a very wide-ranging conference the topic of the talks submitted can fit into several categories. I’d imagine it would depend on the number of the topics received as to how the sessions themselves are organized over the three-day length of the conference. These topics include, but are certainly not limited to, the following subjects:
1) History of anatomy & dissection
2) Dissections, prosections and technology: replacing cadavers?
3) Death in the modern age
4) Ethics of display of human remains
5) Funerary practices through the ages
6) Disability and disease: archaeological and medical
7) Forensic investigation and approaches
8) Death on the big screen: television and film
9) Lifecourse and osteobiographies
10) Morphology and evolutionary anatomy
11) The body social
Please note that this information was taken from the SSSB 2017 website directly. From this quick overview it certainly looks like the conference will be a great mix of topics from both historic (and hopefully prehistoric) and modern vantage points, where the humanities meets the sciences in discussing the body, death and the funerary and social treatment of the dead. Personally, having had the opportunity to dissect the musculoskeletal anatomy of a donated cadaver during my Masters degree in Human Osteology and Funerary Archaeology at the University of Sheffield, I very much appreciate the importance of understanding anatomy within a osteoarchaeological context. The archaeological and cultural context are of considerable and prime importance, but the body too must be understood if we are to make sense of both past individuals and populations and their lifestyle.
Presentation Style: Select your Poison
The call for papers deadline is Friday 16th December (now passed), so there is not much time left to submit an abstract for any of the topics above. Submissions are sought for podium, poster and Pecha Kucha presentations with abstracts of no more than 300 words accepted which outline the topic and the aim of the presentation. As this is an interdisciplinary conference there is a great opportunity to engage with researchers and students who may not normally come into contact with your area of interest and thus may provide stimulating and thought-provoking comments, or new research connections and avenues of exploration.
The conference gears up for March 2017. Image credit: SSSB 2017 website.
This is also the first time I have seen the mention, or use of, the Pecha Kucha 20×20 method within a conference setting and I have to say I am pretty excited to learn more about it and to see it in action. The method involves the use of 20 slides with a 20 second exposure for each slide, therefore limiting the presentation to a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds ideally. The express aim of it is for the information presented to be precise, concise and short. This is often achieved by limiting word use on-screen and instead relying on graphs, diagrams and images to convey the vocal component of the talk. Variations are known where feedback is given immediately after the talk, which increase audience participation, knowledge sink and activity for all involved.
Further Information
- The main website for the SSSB 2017 conference can be found here – this is where future announcements relating to the opening date for registration and the confirmed speakers, and their topics, will be announced. Alternatively expect email updates via the British Association of Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology (BABAO) mailing list for further announcements. The conference is the endeavor of both the Department of Archaeology and the Centre for Learning Anatomical Science, both based at the University of Southampton.
- One of the individuals on the organizing committee for this conference, PhD candidate Sammy Field, has her own blog at Beauty in the Bones. Check it out for comprehensive posts on a variety of osteological interests. There is also a great resource page which lists current British human osteological collections and the chronological span of the populations under curation at each institution. Osteological collections are a vital resource for bioarchaeologists, who analyse human remains in order to understand past lifeways and populations.
- Readers remember, if you know of any major international or United Kingdom based bioarchaeology, funerary archaeology, or osteological conferences coming up in 2017, then please do drop me a message to either include them in this post or for me to mention them in a brand new post at a later date!
These Bones Of Mine 