People disabled by leprosy – whether impaired by its physical effects or by negative social reactions to those affected by the disease – have been constituted in different ways historically, which are reflected by the terms used to describe them. The late fourteenth century label of “leper”—objected to by twentieth century NGOs and activists as stigmatising—has, at least for key stakeholders in the leprosy field, been replaced first by “leprosy patient” and, in a bid to emphasise the person ahead of the disease, by “person affected by leprosy.” These phrases, which don’t necessarily map neatly on to the terms used by my interlocutors in South India, also reflect the broader socio-historical contexts in which they emerge. Arguing that the person affected by leprosy has been imagined as a particular kind of modern subject, in this paper I want to think about the implications of global campaigns for Zero Leprosy – which, in common with other health campaigns, focus on elimination – on the present and futures of people whose lives have been shaped by leprosy.
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