The workshop, titled “Therapeutic Authority: Contemporary perspectives from South Asia”, looked at how therapeutic actors, including but not limited to the realm of doctors, convey therapeutic authority in the context of biomedical epistemologies, all while travelling beyond said epistemological frame. The geographical context is delimited to a regional perspective of South Asian countries where a plethora of alternative non-biomedical therapeutic authorities operate and develop in relation to each other.

The event was divided over the course of four days, with the first three days focusing on presentations of papers written mostly by early-career researchers. These presentations and their respective discussions were spread across 6 thematic panels, covering a broad array of subjects such as the authority of doctors, expertise beyond the realm of doctors, negotiating authority, reproductive care, the state perspective and thoughts on castes, religion and the social hierarchies of therapeutical authority.

These panels during the first three days were accompanied by a series of keynote lectures given by Professors Aditya Bharadwaj, Ursula Rao (Max Planck Institute, Germany), Andrew McDowell (Tulane University, USA), Sarah Pinto (Tufts University, USA) and Kavita Sivaramakrishnan (Columbia University, USA). The fourth and final day of the workshop began with a summary discussion of all papers presented and discussed, followed by a public roundtable with the aforementioned keynote speakers.

The agreed output of the work presented this week will be revised and will lead to a special issue in a journal in the field of medical anthropology, which will be defined very shortly. This event was funded with the support of the SNF Grant number 214954 and full details on the background of the event and its organisation can be found by clicking the link to the SNF Data Portal.