Medical Humanities Blog

Call for Papers: Southern Association for the History of Medicine & Science 13th Annual Meeting

2011 Conference - University of Tennessee Health Science Center Library, Memphis, TN, March 4-5, 2011

Call for Papers

The Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science (SAHMS) invites paper proposals for its thirteenth annual meeting on March 4-5, 2011, at the famous Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, sponsored by the University of Tennessee Health Science Center Library.

SAHMS welcomes papers on the history of medicine and science, broadly construed to encompass historical, literary, anthropological, philosophical and sociological approaches to health care and science including race, disabilities and gender studies. Participants may propose individual papers or panels of several papers on a particular theme.

Each presenter is limited to 20 minutes, with additional time for questions and discussion. Please do not submit papers that have already been published, presented or scheduled for presentation at another meeting. All participants are responsible for their own travel expenses and must pay registration costs in advance of the meeting. Student travel awards are available each year; for more information, contact SAHMS President Michael Flannery at flannery@uab.edu.

To submit proposals, please visit the online submission site at

http://library.uthsc.edu/sahms.

Required elements for the online proposals include Title, Purpose Statement, Rationale and Significance, Methodology, Sources, Findings & Conclusions, and Three Learning Objectives. For questions or problems with the submission site, contact Richard Nollan (rnollan@uthsc.edu) or Lisa Pruitt (lpruitt@mtsu.edu).

Deadline: September 30, 2010

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I attended SAHMS 2010 and found it to be a collegial, informative, and rewarding conference.  Please do consider submitting!

(h/t H-Disability)

Call for Papers: Body and the Mind in the History of Medicine and Health (European Association for the History of Medicine & Health)

EAHMH Conference 2010, Utrecht, 1-4 September 2011
Body and the Mind in the History of Medicine and Health

Co-organised by the Descartes Centre for the History and Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities and by the University Medical Centre Utrecht

Deadline for proposals: 1 December 2010

Confirmed keynote speakers include: Floris Cohen, Jacalyn Duffin and Annemarie Mol

Call for Papers

The EAHMH invites submissions for its bi-annual meeting, to be in Utrecht, The Netherlands, 1-4 September 2011.  In the city whose name is closely linked to René Descartes, the Association welcomes abstracts on the general theme 'Body and Mind in the History of Medicine and Health'.  This theme encompasses research in any area where body and mind (and their interaction) were pivotal subjects in the creation of concepts, practices and institutions and in the lived experience of health and disease.  Papers addressing recent debates concerning historiography and/or methodology are especially welcomed.  Papers dealing with the teaching of medical history in a concrete way, as well as incorporating personal experiences, are also invited: it is hoped that a special session may be organised on the teaching of medical history.  Submissions relating to all historical periods and all regions are welcome, as are submissions from non-members.

Abstracts should not exceed one page and should include information concerning the scientific question examined, the sources and approach used and the (preliminary) results.  Abstracts should contain a title and the speaker's contact information (name, affiliation, address and email address).  In addition to single-paper proposals, proposals for sessions including three or four papers are also invited.  All papers in pre-arranged sessions will be judged according to their individual merits.  The Scientific Board of the EAHMH reserves the right to rearrange sessions in the light of proposals received.  Individual paper presentations will be limited to 20 minutes, allowing for 10 minutes of discussion.

Please submit all proposals for papers and sessions to EAHMHconference2011@umutrecht.nlThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it no later than 1 December 2010.

The full call for papers can be downloaded here.

The EAHMH is offering an award of EUR 500 for the best paper presented at the Utrecht conference by a PhD student.

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As if this conference did not sound exciting enough, Utrecht in general and Utrecht University in particular are both incredible places (I speak having just visited both in the last month).  Can you imagine presenting on the history of medicine and health at the same university in which Descartes worked and spoke, frequently, of course, on medical and physiological topics? In addition, the University also features what in my view is one of the finer centers of applied ethics in the Western world.  The mind boggles.  (Yes, I plan to submit a paper!)

Conference Program: The Future of Medical History (UCL)

To mark the closing of the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, the Centre is hosting a conference entitled "The Future of Medical History" on 15-17 July at Goodenough College.  I will be in Europe at the time, but will be attended another conference in Germany and will, sadly, be unable to attend.

But the preliminary program and list of speakers is now available on the conference website, and it looks well-worth attending.

(h/t Corporeality Blog)

Call for Papers: 2011 Annual Meeting, American Association for the History of Medicine

The AAHM Annual Conference is marvelous, so this Call for Papers is not to be missed:

Call for Papers
2011 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the History of Medicine

The American Association for the History of Medicine invites submissions in any area of medical history for its 84th annual meeting, to be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania April 28 through May 1, 2011. The Association welcomes submissions on the history of health and healing; history of medical ideas, practices, and institutions; and histories of illness, disease, and public health. Submissions from all eras and regions of the world are welcome. In addition to single-paper proposals, the Program Committee accepts abstracts for sessions and for luncheon workshops. Please alert the Program Committee Chair if you are planning a session proposal. Individual papers for these submissions will be judged on their own merits.

Presentations are limited to 20 minutes. Individuals wishing to present a paper must attend the meeting. All papers must represent original work not already published or in press. Because the Bulletin of the History of Medicine is the official journal of the AAHM, the Association encourages speakers to make their manuscripts available for consideration by the Bulletin.

The AAHM uses an online abstract submissions system. We encourage all applicants to use this convenient software. A link for submissions will be posted to the website at http://histmed.org.- (coming soon)

If you are unable to submit proposals online, send eight copies of a one-page abstract (350 words maximum) to the Program Committee Chair, Susan E. Lederer, [selederer@wisc.edu], Dept of Medical History and Bioethics, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, 1300 University Ave. Madison, WI 53706. (608.262.4195)

When proposing a historical argument, state the major claim, summarize the evidence supporting the claim, and state the major conclusion(s). When proposing a narrative, summarize the story, identify the major agents, and specify the conflict. Please provide the following information on the same sheet as the abstract: name, preferred mailing address, work and home telephone numbers, e-mail address, present institutional affiliation, and academic degrees. Abstracts must be received by 15 September 2010.

E-mail or faxed proposals cannot be accepted.

Call for Papers: Valuing Lives: A Conference on Ethics & Health in the Environment

VALUING LIVES: A CONFERENCE ON ETHICS IN HEALTH & THE ENVIRONMENT

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR BIOETHICS HOSTS
'VALUING LIVES: A CONFERENCE ON ETHICS IN HEALTH & THE ENVIRONMENT'
SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 2011

The NYU Center for Bioethics in conjunction with the NYU Environmental Studies Program will be hosting 'Valuing Lives: A Conference on Ethics in Health and the Environment' on Saturday, March 5, 2011. The event will be held on New York University's beautiful Washington Square campus, in the heart of Greenwich Village and will feature talks in a single day followed by an end-of-conference dinner at a local restaurant that night. Check again later for more details.

OFFICIAL CALL FOR PAPERS:
Please see this PDF for complete details and guidelines.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
Submissions should not exceed 4000 words and must be prepared for blind review. Send the paper, a 150 word abstract and a separate document with your identifying information to Amanda Anjum at asa4@nyu.edu. Submission deadline is November 1, 2010. Notification of acceptance will be sent by December 15.

REGISTRATION:
Registration will open soon, and will be free of charge.

ACCOMMODATIONS:
We are attempting to secure a discounted conference rate at a nearby hotel. Check again later for more details.

CONTACT:
For further information, please contact Professor Benjamin Sachs at sachs@nyu.edu or at 212-992-8686.  Thanks to the NYU Humanities Initiative for its generous support of this conference.

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(h/t The Professor) 

Call for Applications: MSc in Medical Humanities at King's College London

King’s College London offers a taught one year MSc programme exploring the links between the humanities and medicine, through the disciplines of Philosophy, Literature, Film, Ethics, Psychiatry and Art History. Among the questions it considers are: Does studying the humanities make us more humane? How are the humanities different from the sciences? What new angles do they offer on old ethical dilemmas? Students from medical, nursing, social work, as well as traditional humanities and science backgrounds – are taught interdisciplinary research skills and how to develop new perspectives on healthcare and illness across a wide range of courses.  Two fees-only bursaries are available for 2010-11.
 
King’s also offers opportunities to study any Medical Humanities specialisation at PhD level and to become part of the vibrant research community at the Wellcome Trust-funded Centre for the Humanities and Health.
 
Find out more about the MSc in Medical Humanities by visiting the King’s online prospectus at www.kcl.ac.uk/prospectus/graduate/medical_humanities
 
You can find out more about the research at the Centre for the Humanities and Health by visiting our website at: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/groups/chh/

Call for Papers: The Future of Medical History Conference

International Conference
The Future of Medical History
 
Announcement and Call for Papers
 
15th - 17th July 2010
 
Goodenough College, Bloomsbury, London
 
The Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine is hosting a three-day international conference on the future of the history of medicine. Papers are invited on the disciplinary and methodological challenges facing the field in all aspects of research and resourcing, not excluding media technologies and publishing.
 
The scope, breadth, and viability of the field as a whole in the 21st Century will be discussed in Panel Sessions on ‘The Neurological Turn’, ‘The Cultures of Food’, ‘The Place of Non-Humans in the Project of Medical Humanism’, ‘Asian Medicine’, and ‘Global Health’. Further suggestions for panels are welcome.
 
Papers should be 20 minutes, a selection of which will be published in Medical History. Please send an abstract of not more than 200 words to Lauren Cracknell (l.cracknell@ucl.ac.uk) by 1 June 2010.
 
Posters will also be welcomed.
 
Due to current circumstances, the Centre regrets that it is unable to cover the cost of travel or accommodation. Further details will soon be available on the Centre website (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed/future_histmed).

Conference Agenda: 1st International Conference on Medical Imaging and Philosophy: Challenges, Reflections, and Actions

1ST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MEDICAL IMAGING AND PHILOSOPHY: CHALLENGES, REFLECTIONS AND ACTIONS

_____

May 21st/22nd

Host:

Institute for the History, Philosophy and Ethics of Medicine, Ulm University
Centre Medicine and Society, Ulm University

Location:

Villa Eberhardt

Ulm University

Heidenheimer Straße 80
D-89075 Ulm

Germany

Contact:

Sebastian Keßler

Centre Medicine and Society
Universität Ulm
Frauensteige 6 (Michelsberg)
D-89075 Ulm

Tel.: +49 731 500 39915

 

Email: sebastian.kessler@uni-ulm.de

URL:

http://www.uni-ulm.de/med/med-medgeschichte/oeffentliche-veranstaltungen/tag
ungen.html

 

  _____

Announcement:

Imaging plays a prominent role in contemporary medical research and
practice. This conference focusses on three related aspects of imaging the
human body, demonstrating a range of cultural, historical and scientific
concerns:

* Scientific representations

* Ontologies

* Ethics

It is the aim of the conference to reconstruct methods of diagnostic
knowledge and their social, anthropological and technological origins and
future implications. Among the topics to be discussed are:

* the production of knowledge using imaging techniques, and the
commensurability of that knowledge across imaging modalities;

* experimental systems and the role of data and data collection for medical
diagnosis and communication;

* the role of formal ontologies in representation and communication with
medical images;

* norms of health and disease and the understanding of body (and mind) as
they are shaped by imaging technologies;

* the interdependence of technology, medicine, economics and engineering.

This wide-ranging conference will include plenary lectures from eminent
scholars in the field, panel seminars, author-meets-critics sessions,
outreach activities, and social receptions.

Programme:

Friday May 21st, 2010

14:00-14:15:
Welcome
Heiner Fangerau (Ulm), Rethy Chhem (Vienna), Santiago Sia (Dublin)

14:15-14:45:
Opening lecture: Medical Imaging: Pictures and the Power of Evidence
Heiner Fangerau (Ulm), Irmgard Müller (Bochum)

14:45–16:45:
Session 1: Influence of different media of medical imaging on medical
evidence

- A Pathway to Pathways and Their Visualisations
Ludger Jansen (Rostock)

- Medical Imaging and Contemporary Art: Redefinition of the Human Body
Katsiaryna Laryionava (Aachen)

- The anatomical waxes in the early stage of smallpox vaccination
Fabio Zampieri (Padova)

- Early Film in Science and Medicine and the Experience of Time: Revisiting
Bergson's Philosophy in the Context of the Early Applications of Moving
Image Technologies
Martha Blassnigg (Plymouth)

17:15 – 19:45:
Session 2: The role of the image

- Keynote: Looking Behind the Image: Philosophical and Ethical Issues in
Medical Imaging
Santiago Sia (Dublin)

-Medical Imagery and the Ethics of Algorithms
Felicitas Kraemer, Kees van Overveld, Martin Peterson (Eindhoven)

- Why Images?
Megan Delehanty (Calgary)

- Is Epistemic Causality Relevant to Philosophy of Medical Imaging and
Philosophy of Medicine?
Rainhard Z. Bengez (München)

- Manifesting the Inner: Jastrow’s Automatograph and the inscription of
thought
Hannah Drayson (Plymouth)

 

Saturday May 22nd, 2010

10:00–12:00:
Session 3: Imaging constructs of physiology and pathophysiology

-Keynote: Norms of Health and Disease and the Understanding of the Body as
Shaped by Imaging Technologies
Shih-chang (Ming) Wang (Sydney)

- Pictorial Turns in Embryology: From Fetal Positions to the Human Egg
Ortrun Riha (Leipzig)

- Invisible Waves of Technology: Ultrasound and the Making of Fetal Images
Sonia Kiran Meyers (Madison)

- Ethical aspects of neuroimaging in psychiatry
Ilona Vera Szlezak (Freiburg)

13:30 – 15:00:
Session 4: Formalized ontologies in imaging

- Keynote: Philosophy of Radiology: The Ontological Challenge. The role of
formal ontologies in representation and communication with medical images.
James A. Overton (London, Ontario)

- (Im)mutable diagnostic technologies: the case of computed tomography
EunJeong Ma (Seoul)

- ‘Sehkollektive’ - Diagnostic Analysis of CT- Visualizations
Kathrin Friedrich (Köln)

- Image - Body - Knowledge. An interdisciplinary project on the critical
appraisal of images
Rainer-M.E. Jacobi (Essen), Sarah Sandfort (Bochum)

15:30 – 18:00:
Session 5: Imaging the brain

- Keynote: Medical Images: Imaging or Imagining?
Rethy Chhem (Vienna)

- NEUROIMAGING: Framing disorders, subjects, and identities from the 1980’s
to the present date
Simone do Vale (Rio de Janeiro)

- Reading in the Brain: From Medical Neuroimaging to Mind-Reading
Frederic Gilbert (Halifax, Canada)

- Functional neuroimaging of brain and mind
Kirsten Brukamp (Münster/Osnabrück)

- Imaging Pain: How Brain Ontology and Pain Representation Can Interact
Chuanfei Chin (Oxford)

18:00 – 18:30:
Summarising Comment: Retrospect and Perspectives and closing remarks
Heiner Fangerau (Ulm), Shih-chang (Ming) Wang (Sydney), Rethy Chhem
(Vienna), James Overton (London, Ontario)

The Conference will be held in English.

___________________________________________________________

It is just killing me that I will be unable to attend this conference.  In point of fact, most of my work (centering on ethics, population health, and the history of medicine) revolves around the power of the visible material pathology in the body, and the effects of that power across Western and American conceptions of health, illness, and the body.  I have given numerous talks on the overuse of medical imaging, and my dissertation is nothing if not an account of the connection (deep, IMO) between these ideas and the undertreatment of pain in the U.S.

I have even presented on these very ideas in Germany, as a member of an interdisciplinary research group on -- you guessed it -- ethics and the image of humanity, and will likely discuss these and other ideas as a fellow in residence in Germany this summer.  Unfortunately, I will not arrive in Germany until the middle of June, and I simply cannot change my schedule to arrive even a few weeks earlier.  Hence, disappointment.

In any case, this looks to be a marvelous conference, one that is obviously near and dear to my heart.  Perhaps, if I am fortunate, I will be able to attend the 2nd such conference!

Petition to Save the History of Medicine at University College London

Friends of the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine (UCL) have initiated a petition to save the History of Medicine at University College London.

The petiton may be viewed (and signed!) here.

Call for Papers: Cripping Neoliberalism: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Governing and Imagining Dis/Ability and Bodily Difference

Cripping Neoliberalism: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Governing and Imagining Dis/Ability and Bodily Difference

International interdisciplinary conference organized by Departments of Gender Studies and Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague

Dates: October 8-9, 2010
Proposal Deadline: June 20, 2010
Host: Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic

The neoliberal reconfigurations (or dissolution) of ‘the social’ and the tendency to define the individual responsibility as the response to social issues have increasingly been challenged; predominantly, scholars have pointed out the overburdening impacts on the ‘private’ and supportive networks be it community, family or otherwise. Likewise, novel subjectivities emerging in response to the interpellation to manage one’s life and its risks responsibly (such as ‘the entrepreneurial self’, ‘the private self’ etc.) have been a subjected to critical discussion.

However, with few exceptions, the effects of neoliberalism have not been explored in their specific interactions with disability, nor have been their particular (dis/abling) effects on the lives of people with various forms of disabilities. Similarly unexplored remain historical contingencies of neoliberal forms of governance in relation to dis/ability and physical/psychical/mental/sensory difference.

Hence, this conference aspires to:

- Map out the ways in which neoliberal governance affects people with disabilities;
- Explore how and in what ways disability is operationalised and in what ways compulsory ablebodiedness intersects with the (novel) forms of bio-power and bio-capitalisation of human life, or for redefinition of the ‘human’ as such;
- Complicate the historical lineage of these neoliberal forms of power by both outlining rationalities and categories of differentiation that can be linked to the present neoliberal rationality, while at the same time looking for archaeology of other forms of imagination, categorisations and differentiations.
- Lastly, we hope to engage in instigating discussion delineating the possible alliances between feminist, crip, queer, ethnic/racial as well as class critiques (as well as their possible conflicts) of neoliberalism and neoliberal governance. To this effect, we are planning to organise a roundtable discussion.
We expressly wish to create a forum for an interdisciplinary exchange and invite papers from various fields of humanities and social sciences (cultural, literary and visual studies, history and history of arts, sociology, anthropology and other). Likewise, the intersectional perspective and papers exploring the neoliberal governance of disability in relation to gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race, and class are particularly called for.

We propose to centre the conference dialogues on the following themes and questions:

a) Neoliberal governance of the ‘disabled subject’

First, exploring the entanglements of the neoliberal governmentality with compulsory ablebodiedness, we call for papers discussing the specific effects these power relations have on people with disabilities. We hope for papers that would – for instance – explore the ways, in which neoliberal politics of privatisation affect people with disabilities; explore the forms of responsibilities which are being carved out in relation to one’s health and capability/ability, their somatic effects. Likewise, we invite critical reflections on the rationalities shaping the self/ ‘the disabled subject’; or papers outlining the challenges that the neoliberal discourse of diversity, individualised freedom of choice etc. presents for disability, crip as well as feminist, queer, multicultural/multiethnic politics and their agendas.

b) Neoliberal invocations of ‘disability’

Second, we encourage papers exploring the novel forms of biopolitics and their interactions with dis/ability. Possible issues to be addressed include: relations of biopolitics and bioeconomics; forms and rationalities of economies of vitality; new shapes of ‘valuable life’ and (economic) rationalities defining ‘quality of life’; novel rationalities of eugenics; neoliberal redefinition of care, intimacy, sexual ethics and interdependence. How does the neoliberal biopolitics shape the futural perspectives of ‘the human’ and of the (bodily) difference, or how does it shape the notions of the future as such?

c) Historical perspectives on knowledge and representation of bodily difference and extraordinary bodies
Third, we open the call for historical perspective that would indicate genealogical lineage with the neoliberal forms of rationality, disciplination and/or identification as well as complicate this master narrative. In respect to both perspectives, we invite papers presenting and discussing various forms of early modern monster theories, teratology, commercialisation of freak shows, commodification of (bodily) difference, classification and/or typology of physical/psychical/mental/sensory difference, the ‘birth of the disabled subject’, rationalities of eugenic theories. Again, we are also interested in papers considering futural developments/imaginations of extraordinary bodies.

d) Alliances in cripping Neoliberalism: Roundtable discussion with keynote speakers
discussing possible alliances (and/or conflicts) between various critical positions

Important information:
Application Requirements: We invite abstracts for 20-minute papers related to one of the topics outlined in the CFP. Abstracts should be in English and should not exceed 300 words. Please include a brief biographical note of no more than 250 words outlining your current research interests, most recent publications, academic affiliation.
Deadline for abstract submission: June 30, 2010
Notification: A committee will review applicants and notify candidates selected for participation by mid July 2010.

Contact: kater_kolar@gmx.de
Organisation: Kateřina Kolářová, Lucie Storchová, and student support

There is no fee charge and we take care of your accommodation and catering during the conference! However, please note that travel funds can only be granted in exceptional cases and we ask participants to apply in time for travel funding at their home institutions.

The conference language is English. Please indicate your accessibility needs as well as any other possible requirements (childcare, dietary needs), we will do our best to meet them or get back to you to figure out what we can do. We kindly ask participants to let us know about applicable requirements or other special needs by June 20, 2010.

(h/t H-DISABILITY)