Venue: Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Rd, London NW1 2BE

Date and time: 30th September 2025, 1pm-5pm (followed by a drinks reception)

Organisers:

• Prof. Emilie Cloatre, King’s College London
• Dr Caesar Atuire, University of Oxford/University of Ghana
• Prof. Mairead Enright, University of Loughborough
• Dr. Phoebe Friesen, McGill University
• Prof. Patricia Kingori, University of Oxford
• Tidiane Ndoye, Université Cheik Anta Diop
• Prof. Martyn Pickersgill, University of Edinburgh
• Dr. Nayeli Urquiza-Hass, University of Lancaster

‘Misinformation’, we are often told, is everywhere. In recent years, there has been significant policy attention to regulation of unproven, disproven or misleading health-claims, and their potentially harmful effects. Concerns span areas as diverse as mental health, reproductive health, weight loss and life-threatening diseases. Controversial claims can originate from a range of groups and individuals, including social media influencers, the wellness industry, religious lobbies or political figures.

But not all unproven, disproven or misleading claims are deemed equally problematic – not all become framed as ‘misinformation’. Governments and others make a range of decisions about which types of claims are tolerable, and which are deemed so harmful or problematic that they require intervention. How and why those decisions are made is often unclear, and policy discourses on misinformation do not always acknowledge the difficulties and complexity of drawing lines of tolerance.

In this event, we will open-up the concept of misinformation to acknowledge its blurry boundaries, and reflect on the type of social, political and legal work it can and – vitally - cannot do. Acknowledging its importance but also its limitation, we will explore what is at stake in defining and conceptualising contested health-related claims as misinformation or otherwise.

Exploring diverse contexts, including chronic illnesses, reproductive health, longevity discourses, so-called ‘conversion therapies’, and traditional healing, we will discuss questions such as:

• Why are some unproven, disproven and misleading health-related claims problematised in policy discourses while others are ignored?
• How do such policy framings sit against health professionals and public's understandings of contested claims, and of when these are important or problematic?
• What kind of contrasting socio-political projects can contested health-claims involve?
• How did ‘misinformation’ come to play such an important role within health policy, what other notions did it silence in the process, and what are its limits?
• What alternative framings, concepts or approaches beyond misinformation could be mobilised to engage contested health-related claims?

Confirmed participants include:

• Dr Ruth Fletcher, Queen Mary University London
• Dr Flora Renz, King's College London
• Professor Hel Spandler, University of Lancashire
• Dr Ilke Turkmendag, University of Newcastle
• Professor Ayo Wahlberg, University of Copenhagen
• Professor Sharifah Sekalala, University of Warwick
• Dr Pia Vuolanto, Tampere University 

This event is part of the Wellcome Discovery Award “Between Deception and Dissent”.

For more information on the project, please visit the project website.