Maps are used in public health to plan health interventions, monitor outbreaks, identify vulnerable populations, and communicate health data. They are invaluable visualization and analysis tools that scientists and researchers use to address health problems. In this participatory workshop, we offer an introduction to complex world histories of health and disease mapping and explore how and why maps are made today, how they inform policies and outcomes, and how they influence the ways in which we visualise and understand current public health issues.

The first half of the session features a series of brief talks on the history and practices of map-making. In the second half of the session, we invite attendees to make, annotate, and share their own maps, reflecting on their own health experiences or knowledge of health matters. This exercise will be guided by experts from the Living Maps Network--a collective of researchers, community activists, artists and mapmakers using participatory counter-mapping to help communities drive social change.

In addition to providing a creative output for participants to share, explore, and interpret health mapping practices on their own terms, we also invite attendees to reflect on what kinds of information these representations do (or don't) show and consider the ongoing social, political, and historical processes that shape how we visualise and understand health.

To keep our energy and excitement up, light refreshments will be served.

This event is free. However, since capacity is limited, we ask all interested participants to RSVP by securing a "Save me a Spot!" ticket (available through this Eventbrite page).

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mapping-the-publics-health-tickets-735389378427?aff=oddtdtcreator