Two of our co-researchers will soon be participating in a workshop organized by McGill University’s Department of Social Studies of Medicine (SSOM), titled “Writing on Medicine in Climates of Controversy.” The workshop will combine a plenary lecture on Medical Assistance in Dying by Daniel Weinstock (McGill) with a session, moderated by Vanessa Rampton, featuring three SSOM scholars — Phoebe Friesen (McGill), Sahar Sadjadi, and Andrea Tone — who will recount their experiences navigating the controversies their work has evoked.

Summary

What happens when scholars of medicine study topics that are controversial, legally incendiary, or politically polarizing?  How does one strive to write an accurate and even-handed analysis knowing that one’s words and findings will be scrutinized and used by groups outside of academia with their own agendas? These are the questions the workshop will address.

Schedule:

• 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.: Plenary address by Daniel Weinstock (McGill), “Medical Assistance in Dying, Ethics, and Democracy”
• 2:00 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.: Break
• 2:15 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.: Presentations by Phoebe Friesen (McGill), “Complaining about Consent: Using Anesthetized Bodies as Teaching Tools”; Sahar Sadjadi, “Children, Gender Transition and What the Debate Cannot Hold”; and Andrea Tone, “Ewen Cameron: Litigated Legacies, Archival Discoveries”
• 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.: Reception

The event will take place on April 22, 2026, from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., on the 3rd floor, in the Thomson House Ballroom at McGill University, located at 3650 McTavish Street in Montreal, Quebec.

For more information, click here.