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SUMMARY:Slippery boundaries: Fat tissue and the collapse of the subject-ob
 ject divide in anatomical dissection practices
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260619T104500
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260619T120000
DTSTAMP:20260614T180602Z
UID:504138b1-0c5c-f111-a825-7ced8d99a758
CREATED:20260530T094827Z
DESCRIPTION:In this talk\, I combine observations of fat tissue in a medic
 al dissection hall and existentialist philosophy\, and contrast this to tr
 aditional medical humanities approaches\, to argue that the material aspec
 t of dissection teaches an important lesson about the relation between the
  object and the subject body in medicine. Traditionally\, medical humaniti
 es urge for the recognition that medicine operates on human bodies which a
 re both objects and subjects\, both biological organisms and encultured hu
 man beings. In anatomical dissection\, for example\, this means learning f
 acts about anatomical structures while adding an existential-cultural laye
 r addressing topics like death\, donation\, and autonomy. Medical students
  thus learn to recognise donor bodies as anatomical\, epistemic objects\, 
 and as (former) subjects to whom they have moral obligations. While the co
 mbination certainly has value\, this framing maintains a traditional duali
 st distinction between the body as object and as subject\, and misses out 
 on the inherent materiality of medicine. Invoking Sartre’s analysis of s
 lime\, I argue that fat tissue – like slime – by way of its materialit
 y\, makes boundaries between object and subject slippery. The unctuous nat
 ure of fat tissue means that it spreads and transgresses attempts of contr
 ol: it sticks to gloves and instruments\, making the epistemic task diffic
 ult\, and it occasionally transfers on to skin\, clothes\, or notes\, trav
 elling with the students beyond the dissection hall\, disrupting moral rit
 uals of containment. Resisting material separation in this way\, fat tissu
 e quite literally collapses the distinction between the object and the sub
 ject of enquiry\, as students themselves become both biologically and mora
 lly entangled with donors. While medical humanities can support students i
 n seeing patients as subjects\, the material human body silently teaches m
 edical students and practitioners its own non-dualistic lessons about an e
 ntangled reality which implicates not only a more complex patient view\, b
 ut an existential shift on the side of the practitioner.
LAST-MODIFIED:20260611T073444Z
LOCATION:Schwarzman Centre - Room 00.063 (ground floor)\, Room 00.063 (gro
 und floor) Schwarzman Centre Radcliffe Observatory Quarter\, Woodstock Roa
 d Oxford Oxfordshire OX2 6GG United Kingdom
SPEAKER:Helene Scott-Fordsmand (University College London)
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