Allan Kellehear (Bath)

“Dying in the UK: Politics, Ideologies, and Futures”

Allan Kellehear, PhD, is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Social & Policy Sciences, University of Bath and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. He is author of A Social History of Dying (2007) and the editor of The Study of Dying: From Autonomy to Transformation (2009), both published by Cambridge University Press. From 1998 to 2006 he was Professor of Palliative Care in the School of Public Health at La Trobe University and Professorial Fellow in General Practice at the University of Melbourne Medical School in Melbourne, Australia.

Beverley Lawrence Beech (Surbiton)

“Challenging the Medicalisation of Birth: The Difficulties in Getting the Consumers’ Voices Heard”

Beverley Lawrence Beech is the Chair of the Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services, the leading UK maternity pressure group. She is an expert on the rights of women in childbirth, and an author, freelance writer, researcher, campaigner, and international speaker on maternity care. She has campaigned to improve maternity care since the birth of her second son in 1976.

Anthony Joseph

Anthony Joseph, who was born in Trinidad and has lived in the UK since 1989, is a poet, novelist, musician and lecturer. He is the author of three poetry collections, Desafinado, 1994, Teragaton, 1997 and Bird Head Son, 2009, a spoken word CD Liquid Textology: Readings From The African Origins of UFOs and a novel The African Origins of UFOs, published by Salt Publishing in November 2006. In his writings and performances, Anthony Joseph employs “a syncretic, diasporic and highly innovative blend of genres and styles” (Ramey), which has led to him being celebrated as “the leader of the Black avant garde in Britain” (Ikley Literature Festival). At our conference, he will probe into the phenomena of birth and death from a poetical angle.