12 November 2021
Event Date(s)/Period(s)
12 November 2021
Organised by
Centre for the Humanities and Medicine
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 Liu Dan（劉丹） (PhD Year 1 Student, HKU)
Discussant:
Dr Xiaoli Tian （田曉麗） (Department of Sociology, HKU)
Moderator:
Dr Laura Meek (Centre for the Humanities and Medicine, HKU)
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