Shame and Medicine Project & WCCEH Seminar : Dr Supriya Subramani, University of Sydney

‘To belong is to feel to belong: Theorizing emotions in moral cosmopolitanism’ on 12th June 2024 at 13.00 BST.

TITLE: To belong is to feel to belong: Theorizing emotions in moral cosmopolitanism

ABSTRACT: Current normative understanding of migration health discourses frequently centres around improving migrants’ access to care, through appeal to moral cosmopolitanism – which emphasizes the equal moral worth and moral responsibility for humanity, stripped of local identities and aligned with an abstract global ‘we’. Continuing my ongoing works, drawing from Yuval-Davis, Ahmed, and hooks works, I understand ethics of belonging to be a practice situated within an emotionally charged everyday social setting, and is practiced in our everyday encounters through the value of moral recognition across social boundaries and embodied bodies. In this talk, I illustrate ways migrants negotiate and practice politics and ethics of respect, solidarity and care beyond nation-state imaginations. Through analysis of how emotions and power is intertwined, I move on to explore ways how intersubjective encounters opens a space for care and respect, and decoloniality confronts one to make one see the relationship of self, other and community one lives in to feel a sense of belonging. Through my analysis, I contend that to broaden the scope of migration health discourse and mobility studies, it is morally significant to comprehend the politics of embodied struggles and emotions, and their impact on one’s moral self, relationships, and community. This understanding is crucial for navigating the evolving ethics in the realm of justice-oriented public health and migration health policies, and its implications for politics and possibilities of moral cosmopolitanisms.

BIO: My research interests lie at the intersection of emotions, healthcare ethics and behaviour. I employ qualitative methodology to explore the moral subjectivities of individuals. My ongoing projects are concerned with how emotions, moral epistemology and everyday interactions influence one’s moral self; and how power is negotiated and challenged by individuals (patients; immigrants) in interpersonal interactions and institutions, particularly in healthcare spaces. Two working projects are around belonging within immigrants’ healthcare experiences and the role of moral emotions in healthcare and medical decisions.