Postinfection ethics: an overview (in Graz)

Next week, I will be travelling to Graz for what promises to be a particularly exciting workshop on the ethics of chronic illness (15-16 October). I have been invited to lead a session on what I have termed postinfection ethics, and I am especially looking forward to the event because its purpose is not to present polished, ready-made papers. Instead, the workshop is designed as a space for exploration: a place to test ideas, discover connections, and identify possibilities for future collaboration.

For me, that is the most exciting part of academic life. We do not individually possess the truth; rather, understanding emerges through engagement with others, whether through texts, conversation, debate, or shared reflection. I am looking forward not only to meeting scholars with a specific interest in the ethics of chronic illness and disability, but also to exploring the similarities and differences between postinfection ethics and other approaches to chronic illness ethics. These comparisons concern both ethical theory and the lived realities of patients: the particular challenges, vulnerabilities, and injustices they encounter.

Because the workshop format is intentionally open-ended, I decided to create an overview of my broader research programme. This overview has been years in the making, and it feels somewhat strange to finally see it represented visually. Many of the connections and concerns that have gradually emerged throughout my work are now gathered in a single image.

The diagram uses colour coding to distinguish different dimensions of the programme. The red categories represent substantive themes, while the orange categories indicate the intellectual traditions and research fields on which the project draws. Blue nodes identify specific topics within those themes and traditions, and yellow highlights the ethical subfields with which I engage. It may look a little unusual at first glance, but perhaps that is fitting. Research programmes are rarely neat or linear; they develop through unexpected encounters, shifting questions, and evolving conversations/thoughts.

Seeing it all mapped out in this form is both slightly unsettling and kind of cool.