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Inaugural Lecture

'The body in question': presence, paradox and the practice of nursing

Prof Jan Draper
This event took place on 14th June 2010
Berrill Lecture Theatre, The Open University, Walton Hall Campus, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
Over the last twenty years there has been an explosion of theoretical literature concerning the body and embodiment, spanning a range of disciplines including sociology, anthropology, psychology, feminism and geography. The potential of these theoretical insights to the essentially 'body-based' practice of nursing is therefore highly significant. However, with a few notable exceptions, theoretical and empirical investigation of the body in nursing has remained largely neglected. So, despite the everyday primacy of 'the body' in nursing, its presence is strangely absent. My inaugural lecture will explore this paradox, interrogating the various sources of authoritative knowledge and how, through a process of embodied engagement, we might bring bodies back into nursing.

Tea/Coffee served in the Reception Area from 3.30pm
Buffet Reception afterwards in the Berrill Café Bar

Click below to play the event (63 minutes)