DATE: November 12, 2021 (Friday)
TIME: 2:30pm-4:00pm (HKT)
VENUE: Room 4.04, 4/F, RRST, Centennial Campus, HKU

Abstract:

Cleft lip and/or Palate (CLP) are openings or splits in the upper lip, the roof of the mouth (palate), or both. It occurs when facial structures do not completely close during the prenatal development stage, and is considered one of the most commonly occurring congenital impairments found in humans. The face is the "focus of human interaction". CLP children with "abnormal" appearance from birth are exposed to a wide range of social responses such as staring and judgments. Also, the condition can cause unclear speech and poor pronunciation in childhood which further contribute to CLP children being considered as "abnormal".

These individuals will undergo a multidisciplinary treatment pathway known as sequential treatment. It requires sequentially planned surgeries and multidisciplinary treatments at different ages such as reconstructive surgeries, orthodontics, speech therapy and mental support. Patients will undergo substantial surgeries and rehabilitation since birth to adulthood, which indicates the medical team build a tight and longstanding bond with CLP people and their families.

This talk examines how the bodies of cleft lip and/or palate (CLP) are known and understood in medical practice. It applies enactment approach to understand bodies with anomalies. The treatment of CLP is not only located in the body but also in hospitals, interactions among medical practitioners and families, and information leaflets. Building on epistemologies of bodily practice, this talk discusses how the meaning of "what is cleft lip and palate" is constructed by different practitioners during medical practice and thereby challenges the objectified classification of disease.

Speaker: Ms. Dan Liu (PhD Yr 1 Student, HKU)

Dan Liu is a first-year PhD student from the Department of Sociology, the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include the social aspects of biomedicine and health, sociology of the body and the knowledge production of medicine. Focusing on people with cleft lip and/or palate, she is conducting an ethnography on a stomatological hospital in southwestern China as an assistant social worker. She intends to explore the lived experience of people with cleft lip and the various medical practices embedded in their daily lives. She obtained her MA in Sociology from Renmin University of China and BA in Social Work from Sichuan University.

Discussant: Dr. Xiaoli Tian (Department of Sociology, HKU)

Dr. Xiaoli Tian is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Hong Kong. She received her Ph.D. from Department of Sociology, The University of Chicago. Her research interests include how preexisting knowledge paradigms and cultural norms influence the way people respond to unexpected transformations of their everyday routines. Her writings have been published in American Journal of Sociology; Sociological Forum, Qualitative Sociology; Modern China; Journal of Contemporary China; Information, Communication and Society; Journal of Contemporary Ethnography; Media, Culture and Society; Symbolic Interaction, Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, among others. received the Association for Death Education and Counseling 2020 Research Recognition Award.

Moderator: Dr. Laura Meek (Centre for the Humanities and Medicine, HKU)