Feminist Bioethics, Cultural Differences, and Lived Experience

June 2-3, 2024 in Doha, Qatar

Call for Abstracts 

The Feminist Approaches to Bioethics 2024 congress committee welcomes abstract submissions on any aspect of feminist bioethics. Reflecting the theme of the WCB main conference, we are particularly keen to receive submissions that involve examinations and analyses of feminist bioethics across cultural norms, themes, and experiences. 

FAB is an organization of feminists from bioethics and related disciplines.  Feminist bioethics centers the status, roles, and circumstances of women (broadly defined) in areas such as healthcare, biomedical research, biomedical education, understandings of sex and gender, socioeconomic determinants of health, changing understandings of the family (broadly defined), and biomedical technologies –among many others.  FAB has a strong commitment to embracing contributions from a wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, social sciences, critical cultural studies, law, medicine and public health, history, and psychology, and from scholars from various cultural, religious, and social traditions.  We particularly encourage submissions from early career researchers.

The 2024 Congress:  Our 2024 Congress will be a “hybrid” meeting. Both FAB and WCB will take place in-person in Qatar, offering oral presentations and symposia, as well as virtually, with participants and audiences choosing their presentation and viewing modalities.

Topics and themes

The WCB 2024 theme is “Religion, Culture and Bioethics.” FAB conferences generally echo the main theme, while encouraging authors to extend their inquiry into questions that center feminist concerns. For the FAB 2024 conference, our theme is “Feminist Bioethics, Cultural Differences, and Lived Experience.” Submissions may be theoretical, empirical, or methodological, and will be organized into appropriate thematic strands. Possible themes include:

• the relationships between culture and bioethics;
• bioethics in a plural world;
• gender and emerging biomedical technologies (artificial intelligence, enhancement technologies, neurosciences);
• disability and disabling conditions;
• genetics and genomics;
• reproductive technologies and cultural difference;
• human rights in health;
• feminisms and global biomedical research.

Note that this is not intended to be an exhaustive list. Whether or not your abstract falls within one of these areas, please ensure the title and abstract of your submission clearly convey the main theme of your presentation.

The format of submissions is as follows:

1. Oral papers of 20 minutes plus Q&A;
2. Short oral papers of 7 minutes including Q&A;
3. Panels/symposia of 90 minutes.

For more information on submission types and to submit an abstract please see the CFA website

Key Deadlines

• September 30, 2023 – Deadline for abstract submission
• December 1, 2023 – Notification of acceptance/rejection decision

See CFA website for additional deadlines for registration

Guidelines for submission

1. General information

• Before submission, please select if you are submitting to the World Congress of Bioethics (WCB) or the Feminist Approaches to Bioethics (FAB)
• You may submit different abstracts to each congress BUT not the same abstract to both congresses.
• Contributions must be submitted online.
• All papers must be written and presented in English.
• All submissions will be evaluated in anonymised form (i.e. without author information) by the scientific committee of FAB and WCB depending on to which congress your abstract is submitted.

2. Author information

• Please provide complete and accurate information on all contributing authors.
• This includes the full name, institution/organisation, location, and email address of every (co)author.
• The person making the submission is wholly responsible for the accuracy of the information. The information will be printed as submitted.

3. Presenting authors

Every submission must name at least one presenting author. The presenting author must register for the congress(es) to which they have submitted their abstract, upon its acceptance.

Evaluation

• Contributions will be anonymised before being evaluated by the reviewer group appointed by the scientific programme committee.
• Each contribution will be evaluated separately by at least two reviewers.
• The scientific programme committee will select contributions for acceptance in a final round of evaluation based on the expert evaluations. Their decisions are final.

Submission Form

For submission, please fill in this form (if you are redirected to the main CFA page please check back for the form via that page in the coming days)

The Donchin and Holmes Emerging Scholar Prize

Established on the occasion of FAB’s 20th Anniversary, this prize honors the co-founders of FAB, Anne Donchin and Helen (Becky) Bequaert Holmes. The prize is awarded for the best paper accepted for presentation at the biennial FAB World Congress by a graduate student or early career scholar. The award consists of $500 USD, a certificate, and recognition on the program.

For details on prize application criteria, submission requirements, and judging criteria as well as some important fine print, please see the CFA website where you can also submit your proposal to the FAB Congress. Note that the submission for the Donchin and Holmes Emerging Scholar Prize requires a separate submission process, details of which are on the website.

The winner will be announced at the FAB Congress in June 2024.

Looking forward to an excellent slate of feminist presentations in Doha and online at the FAB Congress 2024!