Understanding Cancer: absurd diagnosis, natural disease, unnatural cures

Tuesday 3 November 2026, 4pm - 5.30pm
Seminar Room 00.056, Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, Oxford, OX2 6GG
loss emotional cancer journey artwork

Image credit: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/abecnwz8/images?id=ktykqrsc&resultP... (from the Wellcome Collection. Michele Angelo Petrone, Loss, Licence CC BY 4.00

 

Tuesday 3 November 2026, 4pm - 5.30pm

Seminar Room 56, Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities

All welcome

 

In this event we will reflect on the existential and collective dimensions of the cancer experience, from the absurdity of a cancer diagnosis to the way we try to make sense of and treat it, at the boundary the natural and the unnatural.  Jeffrey Bishop (philosopher from St Louis University) will present his work on the absurdity of a cancer diagnosis, describing how what counts as absurd results from the narrative of metaphysical naturalism. Eben Kirskey (medical anthropologist at Oxford) will reflect on treatments currently being studied, from viruses to genetic reprogramming, and how that affects our individual and collective experience of the disease.

 

Speakers: Prof Jeffrey Bishop (Philosophy St Louis University). Prof Eben Kirskey (Medical Anthropology, Oxford)

 

 

 

 

Medical Humanities Research Hub, TORCH Research Hubs