HerStories: Breast Cancer Narratives & CounterNarratives

I should really have posted this a week ago -- I sometimes forget that I have this blog (awful, I know) and then I remember and I think about all the things I want to be writing in this space, could be writing in this space and SHOULD be writing in this space.

Like this upcoming symposium at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC.  Because this is such short notice, only folks who live in the greater NC area will probably be able to come (unless, of course, you were aware of this symposium much earlier).  I'll be giving a full report because I'm going both Friday & Saturday.  But for any of you who do live driving distance to Winston-Salem, please consider checking out at least Saturday's offerings--you can find the program of events on the Wake Forest Humanities Institute Page (click here).

The conference is free and is devoted to examining breast cancer narratives and counter narratives--like critiquing pink ribbon culture.  So OF COURSE I had to go--I mean, look at the keynote speaker and what she's going to talk about:

KEYNOTE ADDRESS: “The Self-Telling Body—Who Tells Whom in Breast Cancer Narratives?”
Rita Charon, Professor of Clinical Medicine and Executive Director of the Program in Narrative Medicine, Columbia University
[That's for Friday night at 6pm]

And then, of course, there's this description for the last panel on Saturday:

2:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
PANEL: THEORIZING BREAST CANCER NARRATIVES
This panel will offer literary, philosophical, and cultural approaches to analyzing breast cancer narratives in the twenty-first century. Topics will include the expansion of visual representations, links between genetic narratives and feminist theories of the body, concepts of the posthuman, analysis of pink ribbon culture, and pragmatist and bioethical inquiry into the lived experience of this disease.

But whether you're able to come at the last minute or not, I promise to write up my experiences of attending when I'm back on Sunday.