Surgical Solutions? An obesity surgery workshop

Karen Throsby, at the University of Warwick, is hosting this event about Obesity Surgery.

I asked Karen if she made a distinction between Weight Loss Surgery and Obesity Surgery and she said: "I'm doing some work on this at the moment. It reminds me of IVF, which gets called fertility treatment and infertility treatment (i.e. is it a treatment that treats a particular 'disorder,' or that aims to produce a particular result). I've been calling it 'obesity surgery' because it doesn't always produce weight loss, and it is completely inseparable (in my view) from the medicalised concept of 'obesity'."

Interesting, eh?

Karen is also looking for other social scientists working in this field, get in touch with her if you are.

Anyway, here are the details. Please note that although critical views of weight loss/obesity surgery will be welcome at this event, some of the presenters may not share such critical views. Come prepared for a debate!

Surgical Solutions? An obesity surgery workshop
Friday 23 October, 2009 (10-4pm)
University of Warwick

This workshop marks the conclusion of an ESRC-funded project entitled 'Obesity Surgery: a Clinical Ethnography'. The aim of the workshop is to bring together scholars, practitioners, patients and others with an interest in obesity and its surgical management for a day of presentations, debate and discussion about obesity surgery. Participants from a variety of disciplinary and political perspectives will be attending, and we will be discussing what work is being done, what the key points of debate are, what the future research priorities might be, and how social scientific research in this area can be usefully fed back to different users.

Confirmed speakers include:

Ken Clare (patient and founder of Weight Loss Surgery Info and Support): title tbc
Jane Ogden (Department of Psychology, University of Surrey): 'The psychology of successful and failed surgery'
Jordi Sanzaporra (Department of Sociology, Lancaster University); 'In-gestion: eating with a gastric bypass'
Dianne Tetley (School of Medicine, Leeds University): 'Eating Behaviour and Adjustment Post Weight Loss Surgery: A Patient Perspective'
Karen Throsby (Department of Sociology, University of Warwick): '"I'm so ashamed of myself": surgery, the clinical encounter and the management of excess'

Attendance is free and open to anyone, but places are limited, so if you would like to attend, please contact Karen Throsby at k.throsby@warwick.ac.uk to reserve a spot. Some funding is also available for travel costs for postgraduates or others who have no alternative funding source. I look forward to welcoming you to Warwick for what promises to be an exciting day of discussion and debate.