No. 59, November 2012
ISSN 0962-7839
Contents
SSHM Sponsored Events
(i) Calls for Papers
(ii) Meeting reports
Conferences: Calls for
Papers
Conference Notices
Workshops/Symposia
/Seminars Notices
Postgraduate Events
Lectures
Calls for Articles
Awards/Grants etc
Library/Archive News
Online
Cover Star Simon Forman of London, the Elizabethan astrologer,
occultist and herbalist. See p. 41.
Correspondence should be sent to:
Dr Andrew Hull, Department of Inter-Professional Studies, Centre for Philosophy, History and Law
in Healthcare, College of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University, Singleton Park Campus,
Swansea SA2 8PP
Email gazette@sshm.org
web http://www.sshm.org
SSHM SPONSORED EVENT
CALL FOR PAPERS
SSHM Conference 2014
Health, disease, and the state
The Society for the Social History of Medicine
hosts a major, biennial, international, and interdisciplinary conference. In 2014 it will explore
the relationships between health/disease, and
the state. Responses to disease and concerns
about health contributed to the development of
the state, yet disease and medicine have also
challenged and disrupted state authority.
We invite proposals for papers, sessions, and
round-tables that examine, challenge, and refine
the history of disease, health and the state.
Suggested themes include local and global
understandings of health, medicine, and
governance; the consolidation, breakdown, or
absence of state power in the midst of health
and medical crises; and the experience of health
and medical bureaucracies in the past. From
discussions on the health of the body politic, the
role of public health in imperial governance, the
nature of military medicine, environmental
regulations, to socialised medicine, we welcome
approaches from a variety of disciplines and
time periods.
Call for papers loses: 1 January 2014
Please see www.sshm2014.org for more details.
__________________________________
SSHM SPONSORED
EVENT REPORTS
SSHM Conference 2012:
Emotions, Health, and Wellbeing
Queen Mary University of London
10-12 September 2012
The Society for the Social History of Medicine
(SSHM) hosts a major, biennial, international,
and interdisciplinary conference. The 2012
SSHM conference in London built upon the
success of its predecessors, the most recent
being the 2010 SSHM conference in Durham, to
provide a stimulating and enjoyable few days for
all delegates. It was held in conjunction with the
Queen Mary (QMUL) Centre for the History of
the Emotions, on the theme of ‘Emotions,
Health and Wellbeing’. The theme attracted a
broad range of international papers on diverse
subjects such as psychiatry, gender, war,
literature and crime. With three keynote
speakers and a panel discussion, the three days
were characterised by lively discussion and a
varied intellectual program. However, it was not
all work and no play. The conference also
included a packed social schedule with events to
suit all tastes, ranging from drinks at the
Wellcome library to museum visits. This
conference report seeks to give a flavour of the
dynamic conference.
Keynotes and Key Themes
Joanna Bourke. ‘Learning to suffer: the
body-in-pain from 1760 to 1960’.
The conference was kicked off by Professor
Joanna Bourke (Birkbeck University of
London), who is the principal researcher on the
Birkbeck Pain Project. She began her plenary
lecture by reflecting upon some quotes about
the pain of a nineteenth-century physician, Peter
Latham, which she used as a starting point for
exploring her theoretical framework to study
pain historically.
Instead of approaching pain as an ‘it’, an entity,
Bourke proposed to approach pain as a kind of
event. Using the writings of Ludwig
Wittgenstein about the complicated relation
between language and experience, she argued
that the naming of events is not only personal
but is also determined by common languages
and thus by social and cultural norms. Because
of this mediation our narratives about pain are
not about pain itself, but about the way we
perceive the event or what it is to feel pain.
Bourke’s keynote speech was a promising sign
of things to come, both in relation to the quality
of the research presented at the conference and
to her forthcoming book about the history of
pain.
Mark Jackson. ‘The secret places of the
heart’.
William Reddy. ‘Striving to feel: the
centrality of effort in the history of
emotions’.
In his keynote paper, which made reference to a
1922 novel of the same name by H. G. Wells,
Mark Jackson (University of Exeter - pictured
here with SSHM Chair Gayle Davis) discussed
past theorisations of emotions as products of
both the mind and body. Jackson took the year
1922 as an interesting moment when this idea
was widely debated, following the trauma of
World War I. Not only did Wells take the
protagonist of his novel on a physical voyage to
attain a better understanding of his heart and
mind, but medical practitioners began to
theorize a relationship between stress, emotion,
and disease at this time, with emotions serving
as the link between mental disturbance and
physical illness. Jackson focused particularly on
American physiologist Walter Cannon’s 1922
text on traumatic shock, which expounded on
this notion of a mind-body unity. In considering
the impossibility of separating the emotions
from their various interdependent factors,
Jackson suggested in the end that perhaps a
‘history of emotions’ is not possible.
Alternatively, given its ubiquity, perhaps it is
unavoidable – a thought underscored by the
breadth of presentations offered at the
conference.
A key contributor to the field of the history of
emotions, Professor William M. Reddy (Duke
University – pictured here with Thomas Dixon)
responded to recent critical re-evaluations of the
distinction between emotion and reason in his
keynote. The paper spoke to current debates on
the place of the history of medicine and the
history of human experience in the
neurosciences. Whilst outlining the strengths
and weaknesses of various approaches to the
study of the emotions, Reddy demonstrated the
conflicts within neuroscientific thought itself.
Discussing whether emotions are constructed or
inherent, Reddy explained that whilst emotions
are common sense actions, they also depend
upon localised and community norms of
experience. Advocating the use of ‘emotion’ as a
concept, he explained that it was not enough to
study ‘historical emotions’, instead urging
historians to consider localised concepts of the
self. A postscript to this paper can be found on
the History of Emotions blog.
Roundtable, Impact and Public
Engagement
Contributors included: Virginia Berridge (LSHTM),
Natalie Banner (KCL), Simon Chaplin (Wellcome
Library), Thomas Dixon (QMUL), Brian Hurwitz
(KCL), Mark Jackson (Exeter), Helen King (OU),
Clare Matterson (Wellcome Trust).
-2-
SSHM conference. However, we hope to give
some sense of the diverse and engaging
conference papers in the following analysis of a
selection of its key subjects and themes: ‘Before
Emotions’, ‘It’s all in the Mind?’, ‘Keep Calm
and Carry On’, ‘The Bigger Picture’ and ‘The
More Emotional Sex?’.
Before Emotions: Medieval and Early
Modern Passions
The four sessions on Medieval and Early
Modern Passions were a true ‘meeting of the
minds’, bringing together speakers from the UK,
Europe, Canada, Japan and Australia. The
Medieval England session featured Katherine
Harvey, who showed how excessive weeping by
medieval bishops could fill precise political
functions and only appeared in certain contexts.
The three Early Modern sessions were well
attended, and attracted a considerable number
of insightful questions from the audience. The
papers raised some recurring themes that drew
together medicine and emotion. They
considered the nature and role of balancing the
humors in medical treatment, thus highlighting
that ‘balance’ was only ever an ideal state and
that in reality treatment consisted of
counteracting an excess of one humor with an
excess of another. A second theme that emerged
was the tension between historical accounts of
change and those of continuity. We were also
reminded that great care must be taken when
asserting that ‘this is what people believed’ at
any time in the past, because doubt certainly
existed about the value of any medical treatment
even when that treatment is understood to have
been the dominant belief of the time. These
points were made in papers as diverse as an
analysis of the role of laughter and the ‘fool’ in
the court of King Henry VIII; the humours as
metaphor in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar; the role
of emotion in plague epidemics, and
consideration of the emotions of anger,
melancholy and joy.
Fay Bound-Alberti speaking at the Roundtable
As the round table discussion on ‘impact’
unfolded, delegates were encouraged to consider
how historical research can reach beyond
academia and thus to confront some of the most
immediate and concrete concerns of the
conference. As contributors from a range of
disciplines and professions problematised issues
surrounding
open
access
journals,
interdisciplinary research collaboration, REF
assessment and social media, it became clear that
the impact of historical research upon society
within politics, economics and culture is a
desirable, indeed necessary outcome of
academia, but that it is nonetheless a
contentious matter. Between the production,
dissemination and impact of historical research,
panellists stressed the dangers of historical
knowledge being misrepresented, diluted and reappropriated. As historical research is freely
publicised within the realms of politics,
journalism and online blogging, how do we, as
historians, both popularise and promote our
work, whilst retaining the credibility, complexity
and quality of our research once it enters the
public domain? The panel’s concluding remarks
stressed the imperative of boundaries being
broken between academia and the public and
that access to knowledge should be stripped of
monetary and disciplinary barriers. However,
whether these kinds of engagement should be
fast, free and immediate, or cautious and critical
is clearly open to debate.
It’s all in the Mind? Emotions and
Psychiatry
Panels and Papers
Historians of psychiatry played a special role in
the conference through their investigations of
the profound relationship between emotions
and mental disorders. Bringing together scholars
With up to five parallel panels across three days,
it is impossible to engage fully with the breadth
and depth of research that was presented at the
-3-
from different areas and interests, the psychiatry
panels were an exciting exploration in the
labyrinth of the mind. The papers included a
variety of interesting topics which ranged from
the ‘pathologies of emotion’ to the ‘chemistry of
emotion’, passing through old and new
psychiatric categories. Research into categories
such as schizophrenia, agoraphobia, hysteria and
moral insanity explored the medical construction
of psychiatric concepts. Presenters also
employed varied analytical frameworks from
which social, spatial, economic, political,
theoretical and phenomenological histories of
mental illness emerged. For example, Vicky
Long’s exploration of ‘de-institutionalisation’
was entangled with economic, governmental and
societal concerns, whilst Claire Sewell’s analysis
of the language of emotion situated the care of
the mentally ill within families. Felicity Callard
and Hazen Morrison analysed how psychiatric
patients’ identities were inextricably linked to the
geographical and spatial locations in which they
were defined. Chris Milnes and Emilia
Musumeci demonstrated that pathologies of
emotion, ranging from the heights of ecstasy to
a sheer lack of empathy, are not only bound to
minds and bodies but also to changing
psychiatric discourses, cultural contexts and
historical time periods. Whilst covering a wide
range of areas of interest (including many that
we have been unable to consider here), these
papers underlined the value of employing a
consideration of the emotions in the study of
the history of psychiatry. This approach allows
for new insights into not only the history of the
experience of mental illness, but also
historiographic revisions to the broader
concerns of the field.
on venereal disease in the Australian Imperial
Force demonstrated how its management was
shaped by the need to maintain an effective
fighting force and by public ideas about the
moral purity of the military. Papers on war also
highlighted how the two World Wars drew the
attention of army doctors to links between
physical and emotional wellbeing. Strong
emotions were seen as one possible reason for
medically unexplained phenomena like shell
shock and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Addressing this subject, Edgar Jones highlighted
the precarious status that explanations of
psycho-somatic disorders had in the first half of
the twentieth century. In the case of
permanently
wounded
soldiers,
Kellen
Kurschinski argued that the emotional condition
of these soldiers was seen as important for their
capability to ‘overcome’ disabilities. Accordingly,
the management of emotions was important in
rehabilitation centres. This range of papers
demonstrated
some
of
the
tangible
consequences, both social and medical, that
arose from politicised and public wartime
discourses of emotions.
The Bigger Picture: Emotions beyond
England
The papers about the history of emotions and
wellbeing outside Britain showed a broad range
of approaches, from which we will highlight two
as examples. Firstly, the papers highlighted the
strategic use and manipulation of emotions for
different purposes across time and place. This
approach was particularly evident in the papers
of Susanna Ferlito and Ayesha Nathoo. Ferlito
used a photograph of Countess Virginia Verasis
di Castiglione to investigate questions such as
‘how can a choice of dress be analysed as a
fierce political statement?’. Nathoo discussed the
emotional appeal of the campaign of the
Disaster Emergency Committees in East Africa
in 2011 in television advertisement and social
media, in which selected social and political facts
were apparently exaggerated while others were
conveniently ignored. Secondly, the papers
emphasised that emotions are intertwined with
other issues of global importance such as class,
politics and race. This theme emerged
particularly from the papers of Annelie
Drakman and Rampaul Chamba. Drakman
investigated the fraught relationships between
Keep Calm and Carry On: Emotions and
War
The subjects of wartime and warfare provided
fertile historical ground from which to develop
discussions of emotional responses to war,
psychology and medical care. Papers presented
by Julie Anderson and Katherine McEnroe on
the history of nursing explored the
interrelationship between gender, space, and
emotions. Mark Honigsbaum explained how
mass media employed patriotic discourse to
quell fears over the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic
in Britain, while Alexia Moncrieff’s presentation
-4-
state-appointed country doctors and local
peasants in Sweden in the nineteenth century.
Chamba spoke about African immigrants in the
Caribbean in the 1990s, in relation to the subject
of how racial stigma shaped diagnoses of
‘schizophrenia’. These papers on global
emotions highlighted the importance of bearing
in mind the socially- and culturally-contingent
nature
of
(histories
of)
emotions.
relations and the role of medicine in shaping
sexual feelings and behaviour.
Social and Networking Events: Trips, Talks
and Toasts
The conference was not only full of lively
discussion and debate, but also daily and varied
social events for delegates to attend. On the first
evening, the Wellcome library hosted a generous
reception – in the words of one tweeter, ‘I can't
believe the Wellcome Library is allowing so
many drinks near so many books! #sshm12’.
The following day also included a fantastic
evening at QMUL itself, which involved a
reception with live music, a three course meal,
speeches and a chance to reflect on the day’s
proceedings. Other networking opportunities
were providing throughout the conference itself,
including meetings with editors of SSHM’s book
series with Pickering & Chatto and with the
editor of Social History of Medicine. The
conference also saw the first postgraduate lunch,
which provided an opportunity for early career
scholars to meet and to talk to members of the
SSHM Executive Committee.
The ‘More Emotional Sex’?: Emotions and
Gender
In 1900, the British Medical Journal described
women as the ‘more emotional sex’. Such
gendered historical and historiographical ideas
about emotions were a consistent theme of the
conference as the gendered experience of
emotions, as well as emotions between the
genders, was broached in several panels. In her
study of the changing experience of childbirth in
post-war Britain, Laura King argued that men’s
increasing presence in the delivery room created
a new kind of intimate union for the family,
ultimately transforming ideas on what it meant
to be ‘manly.’ Rosemary Wall discussed the
deployment of single British female nurses
overseas as part of a larger social agenda to
balance the gender ratio in the colonies,
examining the retention problem that arose as
these nurses entered romantic relationships
abroad. In a panel on ‘feeling female’ Lesley
Hall, Katherine Angel and Martha Kirby
addressed the explicitly female aspects of the
history of emotions. Hall, for example,
presented a paper on anxieties surrounding
intense female friendships in interwar Britain.
Angel paid attention to the medical diagnostic
category of female sexual dysfunction and how
it has shaped understandings of sexual desire
since the 1960s. In a panel which compared
Dutch and British crime and punishment,
Victoria Bates and Willemijn Ruberg both
discussed the emotional ‘scripts’ that men and
women were expected to demonstrate in
response to being the victim or alleged offender
in criminal cases. Jade Shepherd also spoke
about the cultural norms and gendered
expectations surrounding jealousy and insanity
in Victorian England. The subjects of gender
and emotions were thus addressed from a range
of perspectives, which took into consideration
issues such as the complexities of gender
One of the highlights of the conference’s social
schedule was a range of museum trips, which
took advantage of London’s extensive medical
history. Visits were offered to the following
museums: Ragged School Museum; Museum of
the Order of St. John; St. Bartholomew-theGreat; Bishopsgate Institute; Centre of the Cell;
Hunterian Museum (Royal College of Surgeons);
Royal College of Physicians; Wellcome
Collection; Whitechapel Gallery; and St.
Bartholomew's the Less and the West Smithfield
Museum. As it is not possible to do all of these
museums justice here, a brief summary will be
provided of three museum trips in order to
provide a sense of the wider opportunities that
were provided for delegates to learn about
medical history. Firstly, an official tour was
provided of the Museum of the Order of St.
John of Jerusalem, which houses the historical
legacy of the order from its inception for
hospice care at the height of the Crusades. Apart
from being a museum, the complex is also a
functioning headquarters for the order, as well
as a religious and ceremonial centre for the St.
John Ambulance organisation. Secondly, a
number of delegates visited the Royal College of
-5-
Physicians which houses collections of
ceremonial silvers, medical artefacts, and an
archival library. The RCP preserves five hundred
years of medical fellowship and ritual – from the
Censors’ Room to the winding staircase where
candidates ascend to their peers. Finally, the
Donnaich Gallery provided an opportunity to
see the skeleton of Joseph Merrick, the
‘Elephant Man’. The visit provided delegates
with an insight into the tension between keeping
Merrick’s skeleton available to researchers and
being sensitive to his unease at his status as a
‘curiosity’.
Contributors: Victoria Bates; Elizabeth Connolly;
Annelie Drakman; Niklaus Ingold; Arnel Joven;
Kellen Kurschinski; Alexia Montcrieff; Hazel
Morrison; Emilia Musumeci; Sun-Young Park;
Clare Parker; Claire Sewell; Paul van Trigt.
More Reports
(these are from Thomas Dixon’s
emotionsblog (and are reproduced here by
kind permission):
1. http://emotionsblog.history.qmul.ac
.uk/?p=1720
Final Comments
Over the course of three days this stimulating
conference proved that the history of emotions,
indeed the history of medicine, truly operates at
the intersection of different disciplines. With
delegates speaking from perspectives as wideranging as the geographical and the literary,
‘Emotions, Health and Wellbeing’ highlighted
the value of meetings such as this for bringing
together and sharing different approaches to
shared interests.
Posted by Jane Mackelworth, a PhD
student at the Queen Mary Centre for the
History of the Emotions. Her research
examines the meaning of home, family, love
and belonging for women living in romantic
relationships together in the first half of the
twentieth century.
The 2012 SSHM conference, recently hosted
here at Queen Mary, took over 130 delegates on
a giddy tour of some of the most cutting-edge
research in the social history of medicine.
Attendees were spoilt for choice with lectures
and seminars touching upon topics as diverse as
the implications of Wittgenstein’s theory in our
understanding of pain; the chequered social
history of Ritalin; men’s involvement in
childbirth; and an imaginary bowler hat.
If you missed it, be sure to keep an eye out for
the 2014 conference on ‘Disease, Health, and
the State’, which will be held in Oxford from 1012 July 2014. You can also read some of the
highlights that various attendees tweeted while
at
the
conference
at
http://twubs.com/SSHM12. More conference
reports and discussions of the history of
emotions are available at QMUL’s blog
http://emotionsblog.history.qmul.ac.uk/.
The conference opened with a dazzling plenary
lecture from Joanna Bourke, who drew on the
ideas of Wittgenstein and others to explore the
nature of pain. Bourke encouraged us to think
of pain as a ‘type of event’. Whilst beginning her
definition of pain with the individual’s own
subjective experience she quickly departed from
this to emphasize the cultural and social norms
that mediate our meaning and understanding of
pain. She was keen to underline that this cultural
mediation of pain takes place from birth. It is
through language (both verbal and symbolic)
that we are able to culturally make sense, not of
pain itself, but of our own experience of pain.
As always, Bourke was compelling and engaging
and she served a strong reminder to us all to
keep probing and digging at our everyday
understandings of things, of feeling and of
emotions.
The editor is extremely grateful to Victoria Bates for
organising and editing individual reports from SSHM
bursary recipients into such a effective whole.
-6-
Following the plenary delegates were offered a
wide range of themed panel sessions, excellently
pulled together by Professor Colin Jones, Emma
Sutton and Jen Wallis. There is simply not the
space to touch on all of these and so I want to
highlight just one or two key themes. One
prevalent theme was gender. Papers explored
the ways in which definitions, diseases and
‘disorders’ became associated historically with
masculinity or femininity. There were some
excellent debates on the impact of feminism,
and the role of post feminist theory on issues
such as female sexual dysfunction. Katherine
Angel in particular engaged with the thorny
issue of feminism and post-feminism. She raised
the challenge of how best to unpick feminist
discourse without accusations of attacking or
undermining the whole feminist cause. For
example, is FSD purely a cultural patriarchal
construct, created by doctors? Where does this
leave women who may be experiencing
symptoms, which cause them problems in their
daily lives? Angel suggests that researchers must
examine the fault-line between feminist theory
and women’s own experiences, and indicated
that this is what she had attempted herself in her
recent Penguin book Unmastered: A Book on
Desire Most Difficult to Tell.
Other scholars explored ways in which men and
masculinity, have featured in medical discourse.
One theme which emerged was the importance
of interrogating historical statistics. For example,
women have long been recognized as
outnumbering men in being diagnosed with
depression and many other mood based
disorders. Yet Alison Haggett problematizes this
in her compelling research. For example, her
extensive oral history study of retired doctors
reveals that men’s problems often only came to
light when reported by female members of the
family. Similarly men often show higher levels of
alcohol abuse and this can be considered a way
of ‘self-medicating’ for troubling emotions.
Haggett’s work, in particular helps highlight the
important role that historians can play in
effecting change. Her research has a social
purpose. She reminds us that, in fact, it is young
men who feature highly in suicide statistics. To
this end she is involved in policy- making panels
to help promote understanding of the
complicated relationship between men and what
we think of as depression.
The role of men and emotions was also
explored by Jade Shepherd in her work looking
at the link between jealousy, insanity and crime
at Broadmoor prison in the nineteenth century.
She shows how, as the nineteenth century
progressed, lawyers became less sympathetic to
the notion of provocation in cases of murder or
sexual assault. As this happened the defence of
feelings of jealous passion leading to insanity
became invoked much more frequently. This
theme was also discussed by Adrian Howe who
discussed how in the current day ‘diminished
responsibility’ is still used as a defence by men
who have murdered their partners. This lead to a
discussion of the troubling split, still there in
popular culture, which posits reason and
emotion at opposite poles.
The importance of gender in the social history
of emotions and sexuality was also considered.
Lesley Hall posed intriguing questions for
historians of sexuality as a result of her work
looking at literature in the interwar period. Most
historians are familiar with the cultural images of
the lesbian in sexology and also in the much
quoted Radclyffe Hall’s Well of Loneliness. In
these, the lesbian woman is depicted as
unfeminine, as mannish. She is seen as having an
inverted gender. Yet Hall demonstrates that in
interwar British literature close friendships with
other women became seen as dangerous or
troubling when marked by an excess of emotion,
which was seen as a feminine trait. Relationships
were marked with a jealous intensity. This
hyper-femininity is particularly interesting, as it
challenges the familiar cultural depiction of
‘female inverts’ as excessively masculine. I found
this particularly interesting in terms of my own
research (on love, desire and ideas of home
between women in Britain from 1900-1960).
Yet, in addition to serious debate, there was also
room for laughter. Laura King at Warwick is
looking at the increasing role of men in
childbirth across the twentieth century through
oral histories of midwives. She shared an
anecdote of the man who sat with his head
behind a newspaper throughout his wife’s
labour, popping his head up only once to tell his
beloved wife ‘not to grunt now’ as she was
-7-
about to deliver. The midwife said that this
image has stayed with her throughout her career
with the chap even gaining an imagined bowler
hat (which sadly he was not actually wearing at
the time).
has found a wonderful resource in the surviving
archives of the Gartnavel Hospital in Glasgow.
Letters, and other snippets of patients’ writings,
have been preserved in the case notes of some
of the female patients diagnosed as ‘moral
imbeciles’ in the 1920s. The writings were kept
in the records as examples of the patients’
emotional instability and to confirm the
diagnosis of moral imbecility. For Morrison,
however, the patients’ words provide a new, and
seldom explored, account of the meanings
patients attached to their experiences in the
hospital.
2. Imbecility, Stress, Panic: Another
View of SSHM 2012
Posted on September 24, 2012 by Hazel Croft
Hazel Croft is a PhD student at Birkbeck,
University of London, where she is supervised
by Professor Joanna Bourke. See:
http://emotionsblog.history.qmul.ac.uk/?p
=1741
In a captivating talk, Morrison read from the
writings of two young women patients, against a
backdrop of an atmospheric photograph of one
of the hospital’s wards from the period.
Listening to one woman’s articulation of her
desires to leave the locked ward and the ways in
which she attempted to escape in her
imagination, not only added a new dimension to
more traditional analyses of medical discourse,
but also brought, as Morrison put it, ‘emotion,
movement and light’ to the patient’s story.
Morrison’s talk was perfectly complemented by
Vicky Long’s account of the more recent
experiences of long-stay psychiatric patients at
the same hospital. Histories of post-war
psychiatry have tended to focus on services for
those with more minor psychiatric disorders in
the process of ‘de-institutionalisation’. Long
argued passionately that this history needed to
include the experience of those with severe and
enduring mental disorders, and gave a
fascinating account of attempts to develop
psychiatric rehabilitation in the context of
government cost-cutting and the low priority
assigned to the needs and well-being of longterm patients.
Attending conferences as a part-time PhD
student over the last three years, I have
discovered that you can often learn the most
from the papers you were the least expecting to
or which seemed far removed from your own
topic. Yet as someone researching the history of
psychiatry in the Second World War, when I
pored over the programme ahead of the recent
SSHM conference on ‘Emotions, Health and
Wellbeing’, I felt here was conference that had
been designed for me.
Although the topics at the conference were
diverse and wide-ranging, and covered the early
modern period to the present, I honed in on the
papers on twentieth-century psychiatry, an area
of research which less than a decade ago
historian of psychiatry Andrew Scull had
bemoaned as ‘unexplored territory.’ That is
certainly no longer the case – here we were
presented with exciting new research on key
developments through the century, ranging from
patient narratives from the 1920s to the
development of psychoactive drugs, and from
medical treatments for obesity to the
construction of new psychiatric categories, such
as ‘panic disorder’. Here I’ve picked just a few of
my highlights.
A genealogy of stress: Today ‘stress’ seems
ubiquitous. It permeates everyday language, and
there can be few of us who have not at some
point felt we were suffering from stress, whether
at work or home. The development of the
concept of stress as psychiatric category was the
product of specific set of historical
circumstances, argued Chris Millard in his
absorbing presentation. Using the example of
‘cry for help’ suicide attempts, he argued that the
psychiatric category of stress bridged the gap
A Patient’s Voice: Historians of psychiatry have
often attempted to follow Roy Porter’s famous
exhortation to do medical history from the
patient’s point of view, but have frustratingly
found little trace of the psychiatric patient’s
voice in the archives. Hazel Morrison, however,
-8-
between
psychopathological
and
social
environmental understandings of mental states.
Cutting across traditional diagnostic categories,
the concept of ‘stress’ and perhaps more
pertinently, ‘distress’, enabled those who
attempted suicide to be understood as mentally
suffering without necessarily being labelled as
mentally ill. Millard skilfully linked the
construction of the concept of ‘stress’ to the
post-war reorganisation of mental health care,
the move from the asylum to the community
and the consequent shifting boundaries between
what was constituted as mental illness/
abnormality and mental health/normality.
and time periods of the history of medicine and
emotions, including discussions of its relevance
and applicability for social policy and public
practice. Yet the papers I’ve discussed here
highlight what I found most inspiring about this
conference – the depth of the analyses offered
and the way that connections and dissonances
between different contexts and time frames
were discussed and debated. Perhaps most
impressive of all was the engagement of the
audience and the diverse, but always informed,
debates following the talks, the buzz of which
continued well into the coffee breaks.
Just before I started my PhD three years ago I
remember coming across various articles
debating the possible demise of the social
history of medicine, following first the ‘cultural
turn’ and more recently what some have called
the ‘neuro-turn’. Whatever the merits of those
arguments, on the evidence of this conference,
the social history of medicine is alive and kicking
and the organizers of the conference are to be
congratulated for providing this forum to
highlight the vibrancy of the field.
The genealogy of the concept of stress was also
addressed by Mark Jackson, in his stimulating
plenary lecture ‘Secret Places of the Heart: Stress
and Emotion in 1922’. Although not claiming
the year 1922 was a watershed, Jackson
highlighted that this year saw the publication of
several important works on stress, emotion and
disease, including by Walter Canon, George
Crile, the report of the Committee of Enquiry
into Shell-Shock, Freud’s Beyond the Pleasure
Principle, as well as T. S. Eliot’s poem The
Wasteland and H.G. Wells’ novel, Secret Places
of the Heart. Historians have often characterised
the period from the late nineteenth century
through to the mid-twentieth century as one
which saw a shift from physiological
understandings of ‘nerves’ to a focus on the
psychology of the mind. Jackson contended that
although there were many differences of
approach in the 1922 works he cited, they were
linked by an understanding of stress that still
relied on a physiological model. Like Millard’s
earlier paper, Jackson suggested that the
reshaping of physiological understandings of
stress did not take place until during and after
the Second World War. These papers resonated
with questions raised in my research about
understandings of the ways in which
‘psychological resilience’ was understood by
psychiatrists in the Second World War, and have
prompted me to probe a little deeper in my
analysis of the ways in which wartime mental
disorders were conceptualised and diagnosed.
See also:
http://emotionsblog.history.qmul.ac.uk/?p
=1712
__________________________________
40th International Congress
World Association for the History of
Veterinary Medicine
Utrecht, Netherlands,
22-25 August 2012
Alive and Kicking: The papers I’ve highlighted
were of course only a small part of an extremely
wide-ranging conference covering all aspects
-9-
It has been suggested to me that in academic
circles not many people think about vets. Given
the prolific and nuanced scholarship
surrounding human medicine, and the interest in
public health which often crosses disciplinary
boundaries, this seems an odd omission from
historical enquiry. Yet whilst it is still an
emerging field in Britain, The Congress of the
World Association for the History of Veterinary
Medicine (WAVHM) demonstrated that across
the globe there is significant interest in the
history of veterinary medicine. 112 delegates
from 22 countries, a mixture of both active and
retired practitioners and academics working in
the field, met from 22-25 August to deliver a
packed and impeccably organised schedule.
“endemnicity” during the early 1900s,
emphasising how the plague could be carried by
wild rodents as well as humans. This theme of
‘One Health’ was a continual reference point for
many of the papers, most explicitly in one given
by Abigail Woods of Imperial College London.
In detailing the ‘reports of specimens from the
lower animals’ submitted by human doctors to
the Pathological Society in London, she argued
that interest in animal diseases were not
confined to vets, but were rather a legitimate
pursuit of medical doctors. An intriguing paper
given by Jasmine Dum-Tragut of the University
of Salzburg revealed a beautiful manuscript
which promises to give further insights in late
medieval Armenian Horse Medicine. It was a
timely reminder of the long lineage of veterinary
medicine, but also of the impressive detective
skills of those working outside the field of
modern history.
Given my work on the
feminisation of the veterinary profession in
Britain, I was also particularly interested in the
paper given by Daria Deraga on the role of
women in equine medicine in Mexico. Due to
both cultural boundaries and the strength
required, women have been routinely excluded
from professional work with horses in Mexico
and whilst this has relaxed in recent years, their
own testimony would suggest that women still
seem to prefer to ride rather than treat horses.
With equine medicine still regarded as one of
the most prestigious specialisms in Britain, and
one in which women found it particularly
difficult to break in to, it was an important
reminder to me to think about whether women
exclude themselves based on their own
preferences, rather than simply being ‘excluded’.
To mark the 150th anniversary of the Royal
Netherlands Veterinary Association, this year's
theme was the history of veterinary
associations. Examples as diverse as Britain,
Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Australia,
Romania, Mexico, the US and the Netherlands,
demonstrated a trend in associations emerging
in the mid-nineteenth century in response to the
changing circumstances of their profession. The
keynote speech delivered by Wijnart Mijnhardt,
head of Utrecht University’s Descartes Centre
for the History and Philosophy of the Sciences
and Humanities, anticipated many of the other
contributions in highlighting the national
associations’ role in raising professional standing
and standards and gaining legal protection in the
face of unqualified practice. Tjeerd Jorna, Past
President of the World Veterinary Association,
emphasised the role that organisation had played
in bringing together these national organisations
to understand epizootic diseases and their
relationship to public health, as well as
veterinary education and training. There were
also a number of papers given about student
societies and their relationships not only to their
national associations but also with the national
governments, most notably in Korea in the
1970s and 1980s where they became heavily
involved in the anti-dictatorship movement.
The Congress was an interesting and wellorganised event. The cattle bell calling delegates
to the hall became a familiar sound throughout
the week, and the buzz of the timer ensured the
schedule did not overrun; even during an
enjoyable evening at the Railway Museum on
Thursday night for dinner and dancing, the tour
guide ably marshalled his group through the use
of his whistle. Being in an environment with
not only academics but also practitioners was
particularly instructive: Gerhard Weissengruber’s
paper on the history of castration of female pigs
was accompanied by illustrations which made
the informed audience both laugh and wince,
and a show reel of veterinary movies produced
The Free Communication strand of the
Congress produced some of the most interesting
papers. Susan Jones of the University of
Minnesota focused on the work of the
veterinarian Karl F. Meyer and his role in
contributing to the theories of disease
- 10 -
by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture between
1909 and 1961 caused ripples of discussion
about how priorities and techniques have shifted
over the years.
Five speakers gave short papers on their area of
expertise, followed by a question and answer
session chaired by Professor Peter Kirby (CoDirector of CSHHH, Glasgow). Two papers
were given on funding opportunities for early
career historians.
Professor Jim Mills
(University of Strathclyde) gave a dynamic
presentation which aimed, as he himself put it,
to put the ‘fun’ back into postdoctoral funding;
alas for many, the process has been far from
fun. His efforts were not completely in vain,
however, as he showed what personal and
environment building grants are available, and
provided a very useful funding timeline that
covered the entire period from early career to
senior scholar years. Dr Nils Fietje (Wellcome
Trust Medical History and Humanities Funding
Advisor) gave a very useful paper on how to
write a successful funding proposal to the
Wellcome Trust, with excellent tips from the
‘inner sanctum’. He guided attendees through
the application process from the initial contact
stage, through to the dreaded interview. He also
encouraged attendees to persevere with the
Wellcome Trust if their application is
unsuccessful. They should ask the office for
feedback, amend and try again.
The next congress will be held in 2014 and
hosted by the British Veterinary History Society
and held at Imperial College London. With
current interest in One Health running so high,
this has been selected as one theme. This will
include the history of zoonotic diseases,
comparative medicine, veterinary public health,
antimicrobial resistance, the animal as
experimental
model,
veterinary-medical
relationships, examples of particular individuals
and institutions whose work exemplified a ‘One
Health’ approach, and the recent history of the
movement for One Health. The second topic is
war, animals and the veterinary profession.
Potential topics include the use of animals in
warfare, their management in health and disease,
the war-time roles of vets in military and civilian
settings, and the relationship between war and
the development of veterinary knowledge and
institutions. More details will be posted soon at :
http://www.veterinaryhistorylondon.com/
Julie Hipperson (Centre for the History of
Science, Technology and Medicine, Imperial
College London)
___________________________________
With regard to publishing, three papers were
given by different editorial experts. Professor
Bill Luckin (University of Bolton) gave practical
advice on writing and submitting journal articles.
This ranged from finding the correct journal for
a paper, structuring an article, and responding to
criticisms from peer-reviewers and editors. As a
former editor of Social History of Medicine,
Professor Luckin’s advice was thoroughly
digested by attendees, all of whom respected his
experience in this area. Dr Keir Waddington
(University of Cardiff and series editor for the
Society for the Social History of Medicine series
with Pickering and Chatto), explained how to
turn a doctoral thesis into a monograph, and
encouraged early career historians to question
as to whether their thesis would be suitable
either as a book or rather a series of articles. He
explained how to write an effective book
proposal to Pickering and Chatto, and what
aspects of the thesis to revise before submission.
Ms Emma Brennan (Manchester University
Press, Editorial Director, Commissioning
Editor: History) presented a paper on how to
write an effective book proposal to the
Workshop Report
Publishing and Funding for Early Career
Historians
Centre for the Social History of Health and
Healthcare, Glasgow
27 June 2012
This one-day workshop allowed early career
historians of health and medicine to discuss the
process of establishing a career in this field with
experts from academic, publishing and funding
bodies.
The topics for discussion were
postdoctoral funding, publishing journal articles,
turning a doctoral thesis into a monograph,
writing an effective book proposal, and
submitting a successful postdoctoral application
to the Wellcome Trust. It was a well-attended
event, with early career historians and doctoral
students from all over the British Isles present.
- 11 -
Manchester University Press. She stated that
many section editors will not accept a thesisbased book unless it has been broadened
chronologically or thematically. Ms Brennan
also explained that proposals for textbooks are
always welcomed by Manchester, and
encouraged the audience to write their own. All
speakers were thoroughly questioned by those in
attendance and their papers were well received.
Professor of Clinical Surgery (1877-1892).
Organised by the Centre for the Humanities and
Health at King’s College London (see:
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/innovation/groups/chh/i
ndex.aspx)
the
meeting
attracted
a
multidisciplinary
audience
of
surgical
practitioners, medical academics, pathologists,
historians of medicine, infection and medical
safety, and over a dozen members of the Lister
and Watson Cheyne families. It generated 35
academic papers, presenters ranging from
Richard Horton, the editor of The Lancet, Liam
Donaldson, the Chairman of the National
Patient Safety Agency and former Chief Medical
Officer for England, practising surgeons and
medical academics, to medical historians and
museum professionals.
The quality of
presentations was excellent and much
enthusiasm was apparent from participants,
including a group of children from the Lister
Community School (situated close to the site of
Lister’s family home in East London), who
collectively gave a paper about Lister’s life and
achievements.
Papers re-mapped the tensions existing between
different viewpoints concerning hygiene and
antisepsis, and theories of germs contemporary
with Lister and re-emphasized many facets of
Lister’s research and practice, including his lifelong zeal for searching out evidence across a
wide medical terrain, and ‘his penchant for
seeing the sort of experiment necessary to clear
a doubtful point’. (1) Papers also developed
fresh lines of enquiry into Lister’s work,
scrutinised his insatiable curiosity and pervasive
experimentalism across a broad swathe of
medical work, which went far beyond surgical
practice, leading to work on the microstructure
of inflammation, the nature of fermentation
processes and the properties and behaviour of
micro-organisms, tasks to which Lister brought
a distinctive style of thinking as well as an array
of innovatory techniques. We also heard papers
on his relationship with his patients, his
students, his rhetoric, nursing, midwifery,
antispesis, and his influence on surgical practices
in Canada, Germany, the UK and its Empire, as
well as means of commemorating his life. The
continuing relevance of much of this work today
was apparent in papers on the global burden of
sepsis, the over-emphasis on antibiotics in
surgery in some quarters, and in the continuing
importance of a culture of surgical and hospital
The day was rounded-off by a wine reception,
kindly sponsored by the Society for the Social
History of Medicine, which allowed those in
attendance to engage with the speakers further
and to establish contacts. This workshop was
considered a success by all involved, and would
not have been possible without the generous
sponsorship of the Centre for the Social History
of Health and Healthcare, Historylab+, the
Society for the Social History of Medicine, and
the Wellcome Trust. More events like this
should be organised across the country on an
annual basis, as they provide excellent advice
and information for those ready to make the
transition from doctoral student to the world of
work. Special thanks should be given to Dr
Janet Greenlees, Dr Annie Tindley and Ms
Rhona
Blincow
(Glasgow
Caledonian
University) for organising this excellent
workshop.
Lynsey Shaw
DPhil Student
University of Oxford
_____________________________________
Learning from Lister
RS/RCSE/Centre for the Humanities and
Health, King’s College
London
March 2012
This conference took place at three London
institutions with which Joseph Lister was
associated, to mark the centenary anniversary of
his death. It demonstrated why we should
celebrate Lister in the 21st century. Learning from
Lister: antisepsis, safer surgery and global health,
commenced at the Royal Society, where Lister
was President (1895-1900), moved on day-2 to
the Royal College of Surgeons, where he was
Vice President (1886-88), and moved again on
day-3 to King’s College London, where he was
- 12 -
safety, and clean-air operating theatres. (full
programme:
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/cultural/archive/lister201
2/programme/index.aspx).
In tandem with the Conference, King’s College
Special Collections developed an exhibition of
Lister’s life and work spanning student days at
University College London, his surgical career in
Scotland, culminating in chairs in surgery at
Glasgow and Edinburgh, and his time at King’s.
The exhibition benefited from borrowings from
the Science Museum, the Royal College of
Surgeons of England and University College
London, and included examples of Lister’s
student anatomical drawings (1847-1852), his
King’s Inaugural Lecture on 1st October 1877
(manuscript by a member of the audience), and
a copy of the testimonial given to Lister by his
Glasgow students (1860).
The Royal Society’s Notes and Records has agreed
to publish a Lister special issue of the journal,
comprising a selection of Conference papers, to
appear next year. We would like to thank Dr
Sam Alberti, Curator of the Hunterian Museum
of the Royal College of Surgeons for help in
planning and staging the Conference, as well as
the following funders: SSHM, KCL, King’s
College Hospital Charity, the Lister Institute and
the Lister Hospital, London.
Junior faculty, post-docs and graduate students
are invited to submit paper proposals on any
theme in the history of science, technology,
medicine and nursing. Proposals should be no
more than 300 words and should include your
name, title, affiliation, and contact information.
Submission deadline: December 3rd, 2012.
Proposals and questions should be directed to
Jessica Martucci, sohostconference@yahoo.com
For more information and details, visit the
conference website at:
http://www.iversity.org/i/g/ghyhak
_____________________________________
British Psychological Society
History & Philosophy of Psychology Section
Annual Conference 2013
DSM: The History, Theory, and Politics of
Diagnosis
University of Surrey, Guildford
25-27 March 2013
Keynote Speaker: Professor Ian Parker
2013 marks the 40-year anniversary of the vote
by the members of the American Psychiatric
Association to remove ‘homosexuality’ from its
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). 2013
is also the publication date of the fifth edition of
the DSM.
Brian Hurwitz, KCL
Marguerite Dupree, University of Glasgow
1. Cuthbert Dukes, Lord Lister (1827-1912)
(London: Leonard Parsons, 1924), p. 177.
_____________________________________
CONFERENCES: CALLS FOR PAPERS
7th Annual Southern Regional Conference
for the History of Science, Technology and
Medicine (SoHoST)
Mississippi State University
March 22-23 2013
SoHoST provides a welcoming environment for
presentations by graduate students and more
established scholars in a collegial setting. In the
tradition of the Midwest Junto and the Joint
Atlantic Seminars in the History of Biology and
Medicine, SoHoST seeks to foster community
and scholarship in the HoST(M) fields in the
South.
To mark this anniversary and this event, the
History and Philosophy Section have themed
the 2013 conference 'DSM: The History,
Theory, and Politics of Diagnosis.' Individual
papers or symposia in any area dealing with
conceptual and historical issues in Psychology,
broadly defined, are invited. The conference is
open to independent and professional scholars
in all relevant fields, not just Section or British
Psychological Society members. A limited
number of bursaries will be available to students
who have had their paper accepted for
presentation. All submissions (abstracts of 200
words) should be sent via email to
Dr Geoff Bunn: g.bunn@mmu.ac.uk by Friday
14 December 2012.
- 13 -
Further information is available on the Section's
website:
Mail or e-mail your abstract to Gary Linn, Steve
Brown, or Debra Wilson, at the following
addresses:
http://www.bps.org.uk/history/events/events_
home.cfm
_____________________________________
James G. Linn, Ph.D.
Optimal Solutions in Healthcare & International
Development
1406 Beechwood Avenue
Nashville, TN 37212, USA
Western Social Science Association
Section on Chronic Disease and Disability
Denver, Colorado at the Grand Hyatt,
Denver.
April 10-13 2013
Phone:
615-415-6943/
jlinn87844@aol.com
email:
Steven E. Brown, Ph.D.
Center on Disability Studies
University of Hawaii at Manoa
1776 University Ave. (UA-4-6)
Honolulu, HI 96822
e-mail: sebrown@hawaii.edu
The Section on Chronic Disease and Disability
(the precursor of the Society for Disability
Studies) encourages research and papers on
policies, problems, health issues, cultural
representations, and experiences that involve
people with disabilities and/or chronic illness.
We hope you can join us in 2013 to present your
latest work.
Debra Rose Wilson, Ph.D. RN
Middle Tennessee State Univ.
303 Luna Drive
Nashville, TN 37211-4120
debrarosewilson@comcast.net
The WSSA conference provides an affordable
opportunity to present at a peer-reviewed
national conference. In addition to scholars,
graduate students and junior faculty are
particularly welcome because of their fresh
perspectives. Mentors of junior faculty and
graduate students are encouraged to offer joint
papers. In addition, self advocates, community
advocates, providers, and government agency
personnel are especially welcome to submit
proposals. If you can write a decent abstract
relating to the presentations, it will be accepted
subject to room.
_____________________________________
Civilising Bodies: Literature, rhetoric, and
image,
1700 to the present day
Centre for Medical History at the University
of Exeter
25-26 April 2013
The narratives, discourses, and imagery of
bodies and their relationship with civilisation
have affected a diverse range of media, from
novels, poetry, and political tracts to art and
film, and we are eager for submissions
examining a wide a range of sources from 1700
to the present day.
Attached to this email, you will find an Abstract
Form Call for Papers.doc and other conference
related material (WSSA-Abstract Form Call for
Papers 2013.pdf). To look at past or future
conferences or explore more about WSSA,
please visit http://wssa.asu.edu/ .
We welcome abstracts that examine issues
surrounding the themes of bodies and
civilisation and their relationship to literature
and the arts from researchers of any discipline,
including History, Art History, Film Studies,
Cultural Studies and Literature.
Your abstract must be received either via e-mail
or post-marked regular mail by December 9,
2012. Please include the following information:
Title of Presentation, First author’s name,
affiliation, mailing Address, telephone number
and email address; Other author’s names,
affiliations, and emails, and an abstract that does
not exceed 200 words.
Topics and themes may include:
• Discourses of progress
- 14 -
• Concepts of savagery and barbarism
conference is to interrogate the concept of the
Indian Ocean as a "world" using the exchange
of medical goods, texts, instruments and ideas as
a lens through which to examine how far the
region may be regarded as a cultural entity. As
well as being an article of trade, medicine is
associated with religious, spiritual, and cultural
ideas about the body and its relation to the
environment. These ideas both govern the
acceptance, modification or rejection of
medicines and medical ideas, and are altered by
them. Medical exchanges can thus be used to
provide a cultural perspective on historical
events and trends, such as the spread of Islam
and other faiths, the movement of migrant and
diaspora communities, free and enslaved, and
the rise and fall of empires in the region. The
conference being multidisciplinary, papers from
geography, sociology, anthropology and area
studies as well as the history of medicine and
science are welcome.
• The science of race
• Ailments of civilisation
• Medicine and modernity
• Mental health
• Sexuality and the body
• Issues of class and gender
• The politics of medical language
• Theoretical or speculative pieces
Guest Speakers


Dr Lesley Hall (Wellcome Library)
Professor Mark Jackson (University of
Exeter)
We invite applicants to submit abstracts of up to
300 words for 20 minute papers (previously
unpublished), sent civilisingbodies@gmail.com
by 14th January 2012 with the subjec of the
email as ‘Civilising Bodies abstract’.
SUBMISSION AND REGISTRATION
Papers should be in English or French. Each
paper will be grouped according to theme.
Individual authors will have a certain amount of
time to present their papers, to be followed by a
summary presentation by a discussant during
sessions devoted to each theme, followed by
general discussion.
Sarah Jones & Jessica Monaghan
Centre for Medical History
University of Exeter
College of Humanities:
civilisingbodies@gmail.com
Visit the website at
http://centres.exeter.ac.uk/medhist/conference
s/Civilising%20Bodies/index.shtml
_____________________________________
A registration fee of $110 CAD ($65 CAD for
students) will be charged. The fee for late
registration is $130 CAD ($75 CAD for
students).
Deadline for submission of abstracts is 14
January 2013.
Deadline for payment of registration fees is 1
March 2013.
Histories of Medicine
in the Indian Ocean World
Indian Ocean World Centre (IOWC)
McGill University, Montreal, Canada
26-27 April 2013
Abstracts should be submitted to the following
address: iowc@mcgill.ca.
Enquiries
may
be
directed
to
anna.winterbottom@mail.mcgill.ca.
Organiser: Anna Winterbottom (IOWC, McGill
University)
Methods of payment for registration, locations
and accommodation will be available online by
the end of September.
_____________________________________
The IOWC is looking for papers that address
any aspect of medicine in the region of the
Indian Ocean world, including Northeast, East
and South Africa; the Middle East, the Indian
Ocean islands; South, Southeast and East Asia,
in any historical period. The aim of the
- 15 -
dialogue between disparate as well as
overlapping fields of study: the boundaries of
disciplines as well as the boundaries of
sensation—our
suffering,
our
pleasure,
ourselves.
We particularly welcome the perspectives of
medical anthropologists, medical humanists,
medical historians, professionals, physicians,
care-givers, patients, and those exploring the
boundaries between creative arts and healing,
narrative and medicine.
4th Global Conference
9-11 May 2013
Prague, Czech Republic
What is pain? What is the meaning of pain?
How can we attempt to make sense of it—and
should we? Pain is a complex multi-layered,
multi-leveled phenomenon. Standard definitions
of pain view it primarily in physical terms as
being a life-preserving response to negative
stimuli in sentient beings. It is something that
happens to and/or in parts of the body. It is
described in terms of physical qualities, as an
object to be observed, assessed, analysed,
managed, overcome and/or eliminated.
The following themes are suggested as guides to
the formulation of topics for presentations,
papers and workshops:



At the same time, pain is something we
experience, endure, live through and, at times,
die from. It is something which intrudes into
our sense of who we are, our sense of
embodiment, our desires and our fears. It
becomes the basis of stories, narratives, reports
and observations we tell to others. The telling is
addressed and attuned to the context of the
other – the clinical, the professional, the social.





Pain also sits as a nexus at the centre of
innumerable intersecting relationships. In
cultures for whom self-inflicted pain is a means
of experiencing vitality, pain, body and self are
critically linked. This principle recognizably
appears in aspects of ritual, of consumption, of
sexuality, of psychological pain, of dissociation
and body dysmorphia. In so many ways, in
sickness and in health, pain is the means by
which we navigate the vulnerable, permeable
boundary between ourselves and others—the
inside and outside of our bodies and minds.




What tools can we bring when grappling with
and trying to make sense of, pain? This interand transdisciplinary conference provides a
forum for inquiry into the vicissitudes of pain:
its nature and significance biologically,
anthropologically, historically, culturally and
socially. More specifically, as a means of probing
the boundaries, this conference aims to create a

- 16 -
Pain of the physical body
Pain and the animal body—sentience
and the experiences of pain in animals
Pain and ability/disability—
chronicity; disability. Associated
perspectives – social policy, architecture,
law
Pain of the psychological and
psychosocial self
Pain as action/reaction—pain as a
weapon. Torture, sadism, self-harm,
neglect, abuse and disregard
Pain in/as dissociation
Pain as a pleasure principle
Pain and sexuality studies—sexual
identity, transgender and LGBTA, as
well as sexual practices
Pain as Communication – expressing
pain, understanding pain, describing
pain, pain as metaphor, silences about
pain
Representations and expressions of
pain—in art, music, cinema, theatre
Illness Narratives/Perspectives on
pain – patients’ and professionals’
The nexus of pain—creative and
destructive relationships: suffering and
affliction; anguish, torment; illness and
disease
Practices, philosophies and
dilemmas of overcoming pain–
should it be overcome? Personal,
professional, cultural, economic and
political (macro and micro) perspectives
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the
submission of pre-formed panel proposals.
Papers will also be considered on any related
theme.
1st Global Conference
Probing the Boundaries of Reproduction:
Origins, Bodies, Transitions, Futures
12-14 May 2013
Prague, Czech Republic
What to Send:
300 word abstracts should be submitted by
Friday 4th January 2013. If an abstract is
accepted for the conference, a full draft paper
should be submitted by Friday 8th March 2013.
Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to
both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in
Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the
following information and in this order:
This conference seeks to explore the boundaries
of reproduction, not merely as physical birth but
more broadly as an agent of change, of bodily,
sexual, cultural (and even viral) transitions.
From iconic images of the incarnation to
depictions of monstrous births, the cultural
rituals and mythologies of reproduction
continue to fascinate us. Bodies that copulate,
bodies that reproduce, bodies that replicate,
change, decay—or divide—produce anxiety
about the boundaries of self and identity.
Reproduction, like evolution, reminds us that we
are ever in flux, that change is inevitable. Birth,
like death, forces us to acknowledge the limits of
our bodies and our ‘selves.’ Additionally, this age
of epidemics and viral warfare incites dystopic
visions of a future where the effective
reproducers are micro-organisms, where
humans have been replaced by a replicating
other. We seek to explore not only the biological
imperative of preserving a species, but also our
search for origins, our search for ourselves, our
desires, our sexual identities, our gods.
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d)
title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10
keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: PAIN4 Abstract
Submission.
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and
abstain from using footnotes and any special
formatting, characters or emphasis (such as
bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge
receipt and answer to all paper proposals
submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us
in a week you should assume we did not receive
your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace!
We suggest, then, to look for an alternative
electronic route or resend.
We invite perspectives that explore identity,
bodies, boundaries, sexuality and futurity. We
likewise invite reflections on whether the nature
of our origins tells us anything about who and
what we are; whether it lays the ground for
understanding what we will become and how
our future will unfold. What is the nature of our
transition from birth through life to death? Is
the end present in the beginning, and does this
complicate our notions of evolutions and
transitions as forward progress? What does it
mean to be pregnant? To impregnate? What
concerns are raised about a woman’s body
historically, culturally, politically, her ability to
feed, grow and harbour new life, as well as her
control over her own reproductive destiny?
What about bodies that replicate without sex?
Cloning? Hermaphroditic reproduction? What
about non-human reproduction, about invasive
species, about viral epidemics?
Organising Chairs
Brandy Schillace: bschillace@interdisciplinary.net
Rob Fisher: pain4@inter-disciplinary.net
The conference is part of the Making Sense Of:
Hub series of ongoing research and publications
projects conferences, run within the Probing
the Boundaries domain which aims to bring
together people from different areas and
interests to share ideas and explore innovative
and challenging routes of intellectual and
academic exploration.
All papers accepted for and presented at the
conference will be eligible for publication in an
ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed
for publication in a themed hard copy volume.
_____________________________________
- 17 -
We encourage scholarly contributions from
inter, multi and transdisciplinary perspectives,
from practitioners working in all contexts,
professionals, NGOs and those from the
voluntary sector. We will entertain submissions
drawn from literature, medicine, politics, social
history, film, television, graphic novels and
manga, from science to science fiction.
Presentations will also be considered on any
related theme. 300 word abstracts should be
submitted by Friday 4th January 2013. 300
word abstracts should be submitted
simultaneously to both Organising Chairs;
abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF
formats with the following information and in
this order:
Topics may include but are not limited to:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d)
title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10
keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: BR1 Abstract
Submission
Historical medical discourses about
reproduction

The monstrosity of birth: monstrous
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and
abstain from using footnotes and any special
formatting, characters or emphasis (such as
bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge
receipt and answer to all paper proposals
submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us
in a week you should assume we did not receive
your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace!
We suggest, then, to look for an alternative
electronic route or resend.
births

Birth in the dystopic narrative

Freak(s) – of nature; of technology;
accidents of birth

Religious discourse of reproduction

Gender and biomedicine

Queering reproduction

Motherhood/fatherhood/parenthood

Technologies of and for the body

Reproduction and ethical practice

Managing reproductive bodies: law,
Organising Chairs:
Brandy Schillace: bschillace@interdisciplinary.net
Rob Fisher: br1@inter-disciplinary.net
The conference is part of the Probing the
Boundaries programme of research projects. It
aims to bring together people from different
areas and interests to share ideas and explore
various discussions which are innovative and
exciting. All papers accepted for and presented
at the conference will be eligible for publication
in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be
developed for publication in a themed hard copy
volume(s).
_____________________________________
health care and medical practice

The “changing” body: rebirth and
metamorphosis

Invading and possessing bodies

Eugenics, social biology and inter-racial
generation

Genetic engineering and “nightmare”
reproductions

AfterShock: Post-traumatic cultures since
the Great War.
University of Copenhagen, 22-4 May 2013.
Science fiction: inter-species
reproduction: non-human reproduction

Viral reproduction and pandemic
Please see the link below for further details:
http://engerom.ku.dk/english/research/confer
ences/aftershock/
What to submit:
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the
submission of pre-formed panel proposals.
Dr Peter Leese
- 18 -
Translating health: Cultures of Prevention
and (Bio)Medicine in Europe after 1945
Mainz, Germany
23-25 May 2013
Programme
Thursday, 23. May 2013
KEYNOTE I
The central aim of this conference lies in its
focus on translation and transfer of knowledge
in (bio)medical cultures of prevention.
Underlying such approach are proposals
stemming from cultural analysis and history of
science approaches, which have shifted the view
from understanding a one-way dissemination of
knowledge production (or of preventive
concepts) to one that rather allows for an
“integrated” history by stressing the travelling
character of knowledge dissemination. Thus,
while we are in need of research into
comparative studies on cultures of prevention
on a national or medical disciplinary level in the
second half of the century, the conference
specifically calls for considering the transfer and
translation of knowledge as a base from which
to rethink knowledge dissemination on health
and cultures of prevention after WWII.
Drawing upon pertinent suggestions to take
stock of how we employ analysis of concepts of
dissemination and translation to medical history,
the conference offers a venue for disconcerting
preventive health stories.The conference offers a
venue to critically reflect upon research that is
producing "readings from the center" which
make universalizing claims and do not reflect
enough on their own geopolitical and historical
specificity, with major shifts taking place in the
political, environmental, economic and sociocultural settings in Europe after WWII. We are
thus interested in scholarship that investigates
the limitations, ruptures, fault lines or expansion
of cultures of prevention when concepts of
health have travelled in Europe after 1945. We
explicitly ask these considerations to be
conducted with sensitivity to the notions of
gender, class, race, and age. Considering recent
stress on the relevance of these categories with
regard to social determinants of health, we think
it is timely to return to the advocacy and impact
of these categories on the meanings of bodies
and prevention. Understanding health and
prevention as travelling concepts at the
crossroads (entangled histories of) of the history
of knowledge, medical history and public health,
the conference focuses on the perspective of
translation from several interrogating angles.
Virginia Berridge (London)
PANEL I: TRANSLATING HEALTH
BETWEEN
POLITICAL
AND
SOCIAL-CULTURAL SYSTEMS
Chair: Hans Georg Hofer (Bonn)
Donna Harsch (Pittsburgh)
Translating Smoke Signals: East and West
German Responses to Anglo-American
Research on Tobacco and Cancer
Henning Tümmers (Tübingen)
AIDS and AIDS prevention in the
two Germanys
Philipp Osten (Heidelberg)
"Who wants to be indoctrinated?"
Health education in the East
German TV series "Du und Deine
Gesundheit"
Sabine Schleiermacher (Berlin)
Translating
Prevention:
Public
Health in a Divided Germany in the
1950s
Christian
Sammer,
M.A.
(Bielefeld)
Where colleagues meet:
How health exhibitions and teaching
material fairs served as spaces of
knowledge interchange between the
GDR and the FRG in the field of
health education, 1950-1970
Commentary Ulrike Lindner (Bielefeld)
PANEL II TRANSLATING HEALTH
INTO SOCIAL RELATIONS: THE
CASE OF GENDER
Chair: Cay-Rüdiger Prüll (Mainz)
Elianne Riska
Helsinki)
- 19 -
(University
of
Masculinity as a risk factor for men's
health: Diagnoses and prevention
Commentary Christoph Gradmann (Oslo)
PANEL IV: TRANSLATING HEALTH
BETWEEN LABORATORY AND
BENCHSIDE
Jeannette Madarász-Lebenhagen
(Mainz)
Gendered approaches to the
Prevention
of
Cardiovascular
Diseases in Germany, 1949-2000
Chair: Sybilla Nikolow (Bielefeld)
Carsten Timmermann and Michael
Worboys (Manchester)
”Translational Medicine”: An introduction
to its introduction
Annette Timm (Calgary)
TBA
Commentary Tracy Penny Light (Waterloo)
Robert G W Kirk (Manchester)
‘A pointless experiment’? Translating
from Monkey to Human and
Human to Monkey in the
development of Constraint Induced
Movement Therapy, c.1981-
Friday, 24. May 2013
PANEL
III:
TRANSLATING
HEALTH AMONG EXPERTS
Chair: Donna Harsch
Stephanie Snow (Manchester)
‘We brought those criteria home and
worked them up into our plan’:
Translating Knowledge from the
Laboratory to the Bedside in the UK
and the US
Anna
Geltzer
(Independent
Scholar)
Surrogate epistemology and the
erosion of Soviet biomedicine
Sophie Meyer (Berlin)
Translating Utopia: Immune RNA
research in the GDR around 1970
Duncan Wilson (Manchester)
‘Alzheimer’s Epidemiology and “The
Natural History of Mental Disorder”
in 1960s and 1970s Britain’
Beat Bächi (Bern)
Artificial
Insemination
as
a
Technology of Prevention and
Reproduction: Translations between
Veterinary
Medicine,
Cattle
Breeding, Sanitary Institutions, and
Population Genetics
Commentary Steve Sturdy (Edinburgh)
Saturday, 25. May 2013
KEYNOTE II
Antje Kampf (Mainz)
"Placing age on the map: Translating risk
and disease in cancer registers in two
Germanys"
Ilana Löwy (Paris)
PANEL V: TRANSLATING HEALTH
BETWEEN MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE
AND TREATMENT
Cay-Rüdiger Prüll (Mainz)
„Potentially an Early Leaver“? –
Translating disease or how Diabetics
became Government Officials
Chair: Axel Hüntelmann (Mainz)
Gabriele Moser (Heidelberg)
One
Language,
Different
Objectives?
Translating
(Occupational) Health in Germany
in the 1950s
Alexander von Schwerin (Braunschweig)
Crises of Limit Value Policy and
Prevention as Immunization of the
body
Zsófia Tóth (Budapest)
- 20 -
“Dr Bubó and his clients Drug use
and policy in Hungary from the
1970s through the 1990s Translating health in doctor-patient
relationships”
kburnett@lakeheadu.ca
<mailto:kburnett@lakeheadu.ca>/
jelliott@uottawa.ca
<mailto:jelliott@uottawa.ca>
Abstracts must not exceed 350 words. The
Committee will notify applicants of its decision
by 15 January 2010. /All presenters must be
members of one of the societies and, if invited
to present at the meeting, must to provide a
translation of their abstract for the bilingual
program book.
_____________________________________
Carsten Timmerman (Manchester)
Treating Lung Cancer, or: how to
write the history of a recalcitrant
disease
Commentary Martin Lengwiler (Basel)
Round table discussion
History of alcohol and drug regulation
London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine
21-23 June 2013
Chair: Hans-Georg Hofer
Participants: Steve Sturdy/ Virginia Berridge
/ Illana Löwy / Ulrike Lindner / Sybilla
Nikolow / Martin Lengwiler / Christoph
Gradmann
PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF LOCATION
Confirmed keynote speakers:
Organisers: Antje Kampf (Johannes
Gutenberg-University Mainz) , Donna
Harsch (Carnegie Mellon University) ,
Jeannette Madarász-Lebenhagen (Johannes
Gutenberg-University Mainz)
Professor Virginia Berridge (London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) Professor Paul
Gootenberg (State University of New York)
Professor James Simpson (Carlos III University
of Madrid)
Scholars interested in attending this
conference, should contact the conference
office:
translating-health@unimedizin-mainz.de
Panel proposals (3 x 20-minute papers) or
individual papers (20 minutes) are invited. We
will also consider proposals for fringe sessions
using non-conventional formats e.g. screenings,
debates etc.
Canadian Society for the History of
Medicine
Canadian Association for the History of
Nursing
Annual Conference
University of Victoria
1-3 June 2013
Subjects may include (but are not limited to):
- Global drugs trade and the war on drugs
- Crime and policing
- Prohibition
- Tobacco control
- Regulation of drugs in art, film and literature
- Temperance and its influences
- Alcohol licensing and pricing
- Media regulation / advertising and marketing
- Religion and alcohol or drugs
- Dependency and treatment
- Policymaking and the political process
- Alcohol and radical politics / revolutions /
social movements
- Use and control of drugs in premodern
cultures
- Alcohol and drugs in sport and popular culture
In 2013, a joint CSHM/CAHN annual meeting
will be held in conjunction with the Congress
for the Social Sciences and Humanities.
Abstracts on all topics relating to the history of
nursing, medicine, health and health care are
welcome.
Please submit your _abstract and one-page c.v._
for consideration by
30 November 2012 to: Kristin Burnett and
Jayne Elliott, program co-chairs
- 21 -
Proposal formats:
Panel sessions: brief abstracts (c. 200 words) of
each paper plus a brief statement (c. 200 words)
outlining the panel theme and a brief biography
of participants.
centre for Aboriginal and International
Health, will be showcased at that seminar.
Darwin is Australia’s northernmost city and
the one closest to Asia. It is a vibrant
multicultural society. It is a prosperous city
benefiting from its rapidly developing
resources and tourist industries. The web
site details the conference venue and directs
you to the range of accommodation
available. Darwin can be accessed by air
from Singapore and from Darwin most
other major destinations in Australia can be
reached. Darwin has a tropical savannah
climate and July is well into the year’s
delightful dry season. It is an excellent time
for exploring the many attractions of the
Northern Territory.
Single papers: brief abstract (c. 200 words) and
brief biography Fringe events: Outline of
proposed event (up to 500 words) including
proposed content, technical requirements and
rationale.
Please send all proposals to
undercontrol2013@gmail.com Revised deadline
for submission: 30 October 2012 For further
information see:
undercontrol2013.wordpress.com
Dr Alex Mold
Lecturer in History and Reviews Editor, Social
History of Medicine Centre for History in Public
Health Faculty of Public Health and Policy
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
15-17 Tavistock Place
London
WC1H 9SH
Brian Reid
Convenor
_____________________________________
Food in History
82nd Anglo-American Conference in Histor1
Institute of Historical Research
Senate House, London
11-12 July 2013
Tel. + 44 (0)20 7927 2166
www.lshtm.ac.uk/history
_____________________________________
From famine to feast, from grain riots to TV
cookery programmes, dieting to domesticity,
food features in almost every aspect of human
societies since prehistoric times. At its annual
summer conference in 2013 the Institute of
Historical Research aims to showcase the best of
current scholarly writing, research and debate on
the subject. Our plenary lecturers include Ken
Albala, Susanne Freidberg, Cormac O’Grada
and Steven Shapin. The conference will include
a publishers’ book fair, policy forum, film
screenings and a historic food recreation event.
Bursaries will be available enabling postgraduate
students to attend.
Australian and New Zealand Society of
the History of Medicine
Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
3-6 July 2013
The Society is a rich mixture of health
professionals with an interest in history and
professional historians with an interest in
medicine and health. The papers presented
at the conference will reflect that mixture.
The conference will have the broad theme
of Antipodean Health and papers are being
called for now. See the conference web site
for
details
(www.ANZSHM2013DARWIN.org).
Each day of the conference will begin with a
guest speaker and the guest speakers will
lead a panel discussion on an emerging
theme of the conference on the last day. As
is customary for Society conferences, there
will be a witness seminar on the afternoon
of the last day. The Menzies School of
Health Research, Australia’s leading research
Panel proposals (three papers each plus chair)
and individual paper proposals are invited on
topics across the full range of food history from
ancient to contemporary times, and from all
areas of the world: for example: food technology
and regulation; global foods and the
globalisation of food trade; migration and
culinary culture; restaurants; food religion and
status; diet and nutrition; individual
commodities; agriculture, distribution and
- 22 -
markets; retail, advertising and consumption.
Early career researchers are particularly
encouraged to participate.
Issues related to measurement are a key concern
for the history, philosophy and sociology of the
natural and social sciences. However, for
mathematics hardly any attention has been
devoted to them. Indeed, historians and
philosophers of mathematics have dealt with
measure, when it was a central notion in a
mathematical theory (for instance, in Euclid’s
Elements or Lebesgue’s measure theory).
Historians and sociologists of mathematics have
also addressed the symbolic or political
meanings of systems of measuring units, their
standardization, and their enactment. However,
the knowledge involved in the production of
measured quantities and the mathematical
operations with these quantities has hardly been
treated. In fact, mathematics studies (as in
“science
studies”) seem to have shared the tacit
assumption that the work with measured
quantities was of no interest for the field, since
past practitioners immediately converted any
numerical value into an “abstract number” and
their mathematical operations started when they
were working with such “numbers.” Measuring
units appear to have been transparent for this
research field. The symposium aims at exposing
the shortcomings of these assumptions and at
exploring the mathematical facets of
measurement, measuring units, measured
quantities and their uses.
Please send your proposal to
Foodinhistory@lon.ac.uk by 15 December
2012. The finalised conference programme will
be published in January 2013.
Ms Manjeet Sambi
Events and Publicity Officer
Room 322
Institute of Historical Research
University of London
Senate House (South Block)
Malet Street
LONDON WC1E 7HU
t: +44 (0)20 7862 8756
Email: manjeet.sambi@sas.ac.uk
Visit the website at
http://www.history.ac.uk/aach13
_____________________________________
More Manchester panels, calls for papers for
1. Panel on ‘Mathematical facets of
measurement,
measuring
units,
measured quantities and their uses’.
@24th The International Congress of
History of Science, Technology and
Medicine, Monday 22 – Sunday 28 July 2013,
Manchester (UK), http://ichstm2013.com/
— What were the mathematical facets of the
work engaged in the actual design of measuring
units and material standards for them? How did
these facets connect with other facets of the
design of measuring units? Do mathematical
texts reflect this work?
http://sawerc.hypotheses.org/205
Symposium organised by the ERC project SAW
– Mathematical Sciences in the Ancient World ,
http://sawerc.hypotheses.org/
— How were measuring standards used? This
question implies taking into account several
types of actors. Can issues related to measuring
standards help us perceive distinct social
groups? Can they cast light on the distinct social
uses of measuring units and show how different
social groups interacted in this respect?
Endorsed by IASCUD (DHST – IUHPS)
The Symposium organisers now invite proposals
for papers on the symposium topics. Please send
your abstract (maximal length 2500 characters)
in English or French to Karine Chemla, email
chemla@univ-paris-diderot.fr , to arrive by
Wednesday 31 October 2012.
— How did actors measure and use measured
quantities? Can we identify the knowledge
involved in the activity of measuring and
understand how this knowledge was acquired?
We also intend to identify strategies devised by
actors to deal with the values they obtained.
Symposium abstract
- 23 -

How was the shift between measured quantities
and abstract numbers conceptualized and
handled in different contexts? Were instruments
shaped to work and compute with measured
quantities? We hope that such questions allow
us to identify, through the variety of their
practices, distinct social groups and the kinds of
knowledge they shared.


Please send abstracts (of up to 2500 characters)
or queries to Don Leggett
(D.W.Leggett@Kent.ac.uk) or Roy MacLeod
(Roy.MacLeod@Sydney.edu.au). The deadline is
30 September.
— How can we assess the part played by
measurement in the context of various types of
activities and how practices of measurement
were organized? In this respect tax payment and
the organization of labour are as important as
business or domestic activities.
______________________________________
Making love, making gender, making
babies in the 1950s,
1960s and 1970s
CRASSH, Alison Richard Building,
7 West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DT
6-7 September 2013
We expect that this set of issues can bring
mathematics studies closer to an anthropological
study of actors of the past in their knowledge
activities.
2. Panel on ‘Putting Knowledge to War:
Place, Practice and Production in the
Great War’.
In putting together this symposium we are
interested in new perspectives on the history of
science, technology and medicine during the
Great War. While the symposium papers will
not be comparative in nature, we expect that
symposium discussions will take advantage of
the opportunity afforded by the congress to
draw together a range of speakers focusing on
different disciplines, contexts and nations.
http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/2080/
By the end of the twentieth century, a
combination of profound social changes and
major techno-scientific innovations had
reorganized ‘the sexual field’ into three separate
systems. The early twentieth century distinction
between sexual pleasure and reproduction was
supplemented by one between biological ‘sex’
and social ‘gender’, in which the figures of ‘the
transsexual’ and ‘transgender’ were central, with
the category of ‘gender’ eventually peeling off to
have an entirely different, surprising and
important historical destiny. In retrospect,
therefore, we can distinguish the ‘pleasuresystem’, the ‘gender-identity system’ and the
‘reproductive system’ as increasingly separate
but competing and interacting scientific research
fields with major technologies developed within
them, linking closely to new social categories
and modes of living; these three systems
emerged across the twentieth century through
the interaction of several different historical
processes, separate but interlinked, and each
with its own pace and rhythm. While the phrase
‘Sexual Revolution’ once evoked changes in
sexual mores and contraceptive practices of the
1960s and after, this well-known ‘revolution’
may have been part of a larger revolution in
which an entirely new configuration of the
Possible topics under the general scheme of
place, practice and production might include:






Models and cultures of research and
development devised (and revised)
during wartime.
Locally contingent definitions of pure
and applied science.
How actors sought to legitimate ideas of
science during wartime.
The proliferation of research and
development institutions.
How wartime concerns shaped sites of
scientific work, including laboratories,
universities and learned societies.
The transformation in the boundaries of
scientific expertise, and the places it was
brought to bear.
The use and adaptation of scientific
knowledge for national war efforts.
The social history of the wartime
scientific workforce.
How wartime concerns shaped scientific
practices.
- 24 -
pleasure-, gender- and reproductive-systems
emerged.
Risk, welfare and safety have long been sites of
historical inquiry.
This conference takes this literature as its point
of departure, and encourages both general and
trans-national appraisals of the history and
nature of modern ‘risk societies’, as well as
accounts which focus on particular technologies,
practices and discourses.
This conference will allow a comparison of the
contemporaneous political and ethical debates
over medical innovations in ‘sex’, ‘gender’ and
assisted conception.
Email: conferences@crassh.cam.ac.uk
In sum, the aim of ‘Accidents and Emergencies’
is to:
· rethink the history of risk, welfare and safety; ·
encourage a more integrated approach to their
empirical study and conceptualisation; · open up
new historical and sociological perspectives
through which we might better grasp the
present.
______________________________________
Accidents and Emergencies:
Risk, Welfare and Safety in Europe
and North America, c. 1750-2000
Oxford Brookes University
9, 10 & 11 September 2013
(supported by the University of Portsmouth)
Format and themes
We intend that the papers should be precirculated, in a draft form of around 5,000
words (though we appreciate this will not be
possible in all cases).
Keynote speakers
Professor Bill Luckin (University of Bolton,
UK) Dr Arwen Mohun (University of Delaware,
USA)
Context and aims
We live in a society obsessed with risk and
safety. Via a medley of state-related and
commercial agencies, we insure ourselves against
the possibility of death, ill-health, accident, theft
and unemployment, subjecting every facet of
our lives to the calculus of risk. Meanwhile, a
battery of signs, leaflets, manuals and adverts
spread the message of ‘health and safety’,
reminding us of the dangers lurking in our
everyday actions.
Equally, notions of risk and safety go to the
heart of our sense of collective welfare, and the
complex relations of self, society and the State,
and public and private agency. Indeed, for some
sociologists, we live in a ‘risk society’, premised
on the ‘reflexive’ processing of information, the
prevention of the accidental and the unexpected,
and the anxious desire to predict – even control
– the future.
Papers – conceptual and empirical – are invited
which address one or more of the following
themes:
1. Conceptualising and historicising ‘risk
society’: the work of Beck, Giddens, Luhmann
and Ewald – and others 2. The politics of risk
and solidarity: liberalism, social democracy and
neo-liberalism 3. Selling risk and safety: mixed
economies of welfare, and the insurance and
safety industries 4. Statistics, temporality and the
calculus of risk: histories of actuarial probability
5. Industrial risks (i): pollution and the
environment 6. Industrial risks (ii): technology
and workplace accidents 7. Shock, trauma and
sensation:
representing
accidents
and
emergencies 8. Logistics of risk and safety:
emergency services and technologies 9.
Preventing accidents (i): surveillance, inspection
and maintenance 10. Preventing accidents (ii):
health and safety education 11. Transnational
risks and exchanges: policies, innovations and
institutions 12. Key words: meanings of ‘safety’,
‘risk’, ‘probability’ and ‘accident’ in particular
contexts Over the three days we would like
speakers to raise the salient issues of their papers
in order to leave as much time as possible for
discussion and feedback. The conference
language will be English.
The aim of this conference is to take stock of
the present by focussing on modern Europe and
North America from roughly 1750 onwards. It
welcomes:
· historians from all sub-fields (social, medical,
cultural, etc.) · scholars from other disciplines
such as sociology and cultural studies.
- 25 -
We intend to publish a selection of the papers in
the form of an edited volume or special issue of
a journal.
Dr Sanders Marble, Office of Medical History,
US Army
sanders.marble@us.army.mil
Visit the website at
http://history.amedd.army.mil
____________________________________
Contacts
Expressions of interest to:
mike.esbester@port.ac.uk.
CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENTS
These should include:
· a brief ‘bio’ (detailing institution, publications,
research interests, etc.)
· a proposal/abstract (of roughly 300 words),
indicating the theme or
themes for which you wish to be considered.
1st Global Conference
Body Horror: Contagion, Mutation,
Transformation
Sydney, Australia
11-13 February 2013
The deadline for the submission of abstracts is
31 January 2013.
The body. My body. This thing which is with me
all day, every day, from my birth to my death.
This flesh which is me. My intimate life-long
friend.
Alternatively, if you are interested in attending as
a delegate please
email to reserve a place.
Conference organisation enquiries:
tcrook@brookes.ac.uk
Organisers: Dr Tom Crook (Oxford Brookes
University) and Dr Mike
Esbester (University of Portsmouth).
_____________________________________
In our day-to-day living we have no reason to
question or to doubt our bodies. Until the bond
of trust is shaken or broken. Something
happens. To my body. Something inside: going
wrong. A betrayal: a turning against: an
unwelcome and unwanted change. From which
there is no escape, no running away, nowhere to
hide. This is happening to me.
Medical History of WWII
Center of History and Heritage
Uniformed Services University of the Health
Sciences
Army Medical Department Museum
San Antonio, Texas
March 2014
This inter- and transdisciplinary forum aims to
explore the many layers and levels of body
horror, and the ways in which bodies can
become horrifying. Given the diversity and
scope of this theme we welcome
Deadline 9/1/2013
~ papers, panels, workshops, reports
~ case studies
~ performance pieces; dramatic readings; poetic
renditions; short stories; creative writings
~ works of art; works of music
In March 2014, the Army Medical Department
will be co-sponsoring a conference on the
medical history of WWII. Presentations on all
facets of medicine and the war are welcome,
including consideration of the repercussions of
the war on the practice of medicine, medicine in
various campaigns, effects on the home front,
and related topics.
Key aspects for discussion will include, but not
be limited to:
Biological horror. Organic horror
Betrayal; the body turns against you
Something inside; no escape
Change and transformation: the role of time
Pain, suffering, agony, the scream, contortion
mutation and mutilation
Obscene bodies
Disease. Infection, contagion, invasion, virus,
Presentations should be 30 minutes long, and
two-paper panels are welcome.
Further enquiries please email:
- 26 -
the parasite Surgery, cosmetic surgery, body
sculpture; huffing, tattooing, piercing; body art
Pleasure, perversion, fetish
Deformity; disability, affliction
Hybridity
Violence, brutality, torture
Rape
Innards guts, organs
Dismemberment; instruments of the body’s
destruction
Wounded bodies, dying bodies
the globe, the premise of this new conference is
that knowledge during the period of the
Scientific
Revolution
was
inherently
interdisciplinary, involving complex mixtures of
fields and objects that had not yet been
separated into their modern "scientific"
hierarchies. As such our approach needs to be
equally wide-ranging, involving Biblical exegesis,
art theory, logic, and literary humanism; as well
as natural philosophy, alchemy, occult practices,
and trade knowledge. Scientiae is for scholars
working in any area of early-modern intellectual
culture, with the emergence of modern natural
science serving as a general point of reference.
The conference offers a forum both for the
sharing of research and the sparking of new
investigations, and is open to scholars of all
levels.
More details from Organising Chair, Rob Fisher:
bh1@inter-disciplinary.net
The conference is part of the ‘At the Interface’
programme of research projects. It aims to bring
together people from different areas and
interests to share ideas and explore various
discussions which are innovative and exciting.
Topics and questions may include, but are by no
means limited to:
For further details of the conference, please
visit: http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-theinterface/evil/body-horror/call-forpresentations/
-- Theological origins and implications of the
new science
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-forprofit network and we are not in a position to be
able to assist with conference travel or
subsistence.
-- What do images contribute to our
understanding of early modern knowledge?
Priory House
149B Wroslyn Road
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
United Kingdom
-- Humanism and the scientific revolution
-- Nature and scripture: which interprets which?
-- Genealogies of "reason", "utility", and/or
"knowledge"
-- Paracelsianism,
where are we now?
Tel: +44 (0)1993 882087
Fax: +44 (0)870 4601132
Email: bh1@inter-disciplinary.net
Visit the website at http://www.interdisciplinary.net/at-the-interface/evil/bodyhorror/call-for-presentations/
_____________________________________
Neoplatonism,
alchemy:
-- What were the relations between the new
science and magic and demonology?
-- Health and medicine: separable economies?
-- Morality and the natural world: an on-going
relationship?
Scientiae 2013: Emergent knowledge
practices of the early-modern period (ca.
1450-1750)
Warwick University, UK
18-20 April 2013
-- Period conceptions
intellectual property
and
practices
of
-- Poetics and science: habits of thought?
Building on the success of Scientiae 2012
(Simon Fraser University, Vancouver) which
brought together over 100 scholars from around
-- Renaissance philosophy and the development
of a "new" cosmology and anthropology.
- 27 -
Scholars are asked to investigate space not just
as a backdrop for the lived experiences of
children but as a tangible, social, and discursive
construction, which shapes and is shaped by the
lives and experiences of children.
-- Information and knowledge: a clear divide?
-- Science and Medicine: Global Knowledges?
-- Early-modern literature
knowledge: friends, or foes?
and
the
new
Panel suggestions are closed but email the
organisers to find out (November 2012) what
panels are running and to see if your paper will
fit.
_____________________________________
-- Advances or reversals of period logic/dialectic
The keynote speakers will be Peter Dear
(Professor of the History of Science at Cornell
University) and Stephen Clucas (Reader in
Early-Modern Intellectual History at Birkbeck,
University of London).
VariAbilit(ies)
The History of Disability (all periods)
Emory University, USA,
4-7 July 2013
Other prominent speakers expected include:
Constance Blackwell, Isabelle Charmantier, Judy
Hayden, Kevin Killeen, Sachiko Kusukawa, Claire
Preston, Jennifer Rampling, Anna Marie Roos
Paul Kelleher and Chris Mounsey, are running a
small but wide ranging, interdisciplinary
academic conference on the History of
Disability: VariAbilit(ies). It will focus on the
body and how it was treated and represented
throughout history.
If you have any questions please contact the
conference
convenor
David
BeckD.C.Beck@warwick.ac.uk<mailto:D.C.Beck@warwi
ck.ac.uk>
It is no longer useful to distinguish people by
the binary opposition able-bodied/disabled. We
now recognize people on a continuum of ability
on which no-one is entirely able-bodied or
entirely disabled. But was it always true? And if
it is true now, does this require that we
reconsider the use of binary oppositions when
understanding people and their capabilities?
David Beck, Lecturer, History Department,
University of Warwick Network Administrator,
Early Modern
Forum<http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/emfo
rum>; Twitter
@EModForum<https://twitter.com/#!/EModFor
um>; Facebook EMForum<http://www.facebook.com/emforum>)
____________________________________
Subject areas will include:
Space and Childhood in History
Society for the History of Children and
Youth
6th Biennial Conference
The University of Nottingham
25- 27 June 2013







Direct queries to the co-chairs of the program
committee: James Marten, Marquette University
james.marten@marquette.edu, Marta Gutman, City
College of New York mgutman@ccny.cuny.edu
Literary representations
The Asylum
The History of Poor Relief
Gender/ Sexuality
Disability and Aesthetics
Disability and Race
And anything else you are interested in
For further information please contact:
French political philosopher Henri Lefebvre
posits that for any person, including children
and youth, there is a dynamic rather than a static
relationship between a physical place, its social
make-up, and childhood as an ideal or imagined
condition. The production of space, as Lefebvre
famously insisted, happens in the physical world,
the social world, and the imagined world.
Chris Mounsey
University of Winchester
chris.mounsey@winchester.ac.uk
Paul Kelleher
Emory University
pkelleh@emory.edu
- 28 -
conflict. These men happened, therefore, to
embody the destructiveness of war and
performed as human and living ‘sites of
memory’. Because of their heralded heroism in
the battlefields, shattered soldiers, however,
were commonly considered worthy and in need
of an (economic and medical) assistance that
disabled civilians had not experienced
beforehand. In spite of such considerations and
of the yet numerous studies focusing on the
interrelation between war and disablement (Julie
Anderson, Joanna Burke, Ana Carden-Coyne,
Deborah Cohen, David Gerber, Sabine Kienitz,
Marina Larsson just to mention few), there has
never been organized so far an international
conference dealing exclusively with such a topic
in an historical and comparative perspective.
You can also find more details on our Facebook
page
(http://www.facebook.com/VariAbilities)
and follow us on Twitter
(https://twitter.com/VaribConf).
_____________________________________
Commemorating the disabled soldier:
Comparative approaches to the
history of war, disability
and remembrance, 1914-1940
International conference
Ypres, Belgium,
4-6 November 2013 and
special issue First World War Studies
Organized/edited by Prof. Pieter Verstraete
(KU Leuven), Dr. Martina Salvante (Trinity
College Dublin) & Prof. Julie Anderson
(University of Kent) – with the financial support
of the Province West-Flanders, the In Flanders
Fields Museum, the Centre d’Histoire des
Sociétés, des Sciences et des Conflits & the
Fund for Scientific Research Flanders.
Disabled veterans have always been involved in
the commemorations of the Great War, but they
have never been the focal point of any
celebration. That is why we believe that the
upcoming centenary of 2014 may provide us
with an important opportunity to reflect upon
the impact of war on the individual lives of
those (and their families) who came back
impaired, as well as on the institutions (charities,
governmental agencies, ministries, associations,
etc.) taking charge of their care and assistance
during and after the conflict. Hence, we’d like to
explore the question of the political, social,
medical and cultural legacies of war disability in
postwar society. The conference as well as the
special issue will be specifically interested in
strengthening comparative and transnational
approaches. Contributions on rather unknown
case studies and geographical/national areas are
especially welcomed.
2014 will mark 100 years since the outbreak of
the Great War. On the occasion of this
important anniversary the Centre for the History
of Education of the KU Leuven (Belgium), the
Centre for War Studies of Trinity College
Dublin (Ireland) and the Centre for the History
of Medicine of the University of Kent (United
Kingdom) propose to organize an international
conference aimed at reflecting on the impact of
that specific event on soldiers’ bodies and
minds. Millions of men all over the globe, in
fact, returned home limbless, sightless, deaf,
disfigured
or
mentally
distressed.
The gathering of international scholars coming
from different countries would be, therefore, the
occasion for in-depth discussions, reviews of
previous studies, and outlining of future
research perspectives. Potential topics might
include, but are not limited to: medicine/surgery
and treatment, rehabilitation and vocational
retraining, associations and self-advocacy,
charities and care-giving, war pensions,
experience and memory, visual and textual
representation (of the disabled themselves),
suffering and pain, the place and function of the
disabled body at inter-war commemorative
activities, the international shaping of a global
In the last decades disability history has attracted
an increasing interest in the scholarly
community, thus becoming a well-established
field, which has been highlighting, among
others, the experiences of impaired people,
medical and rehabilitative techniques, charitable
institutions and welfare measures, public
reception and private emotions. The First World
War has somehow represented a watershed both
in the visibility and the treatment of impairment
and disablement owing to the massive amount
of men who suffered physical injuries or mental
disorder symptoms as a consequence of the
- 29 -
discourse on the mutilated body, the influence
of war-related discourse on the over-all care for
the disabled in general etc. Although the main
conference will be focused on the First World
War the call for papers, however, also is open
for contributions that deal with the impact of
subsequent conflicts on the soldier’s body and
mind.
Timeline & deadlines
Submission of abstract and short CV:
December 1st 2012 – Abstract=600
words/CV=Maximum 20 lines
Letter of acceptance (abstract): January 2013
First draft of the manuscript: June 1st 2013
Comments by the editors: September 1st 2013
Conference at Ypres: November 4th-6th 2013
Second draft of the manuscript: December 1st
2013
Final manuscript for First World War Studies:
February 1st 2014
Besides the organization of an international
conference which will be held on November
4th-6th 2013 the organizers also envisage first of
all a special issue in the International Journal of
the Society for First World War Studies. The
Editor-in-chief already has approved the idea
and the issue would be published in 2014.
Furthermore, the organizers aim at publishing a
book that would gather some/all of the papers
presented at the conference. That would be the
first book presenting a wide array of
(trans)national cases on the subject of disability
and the Great War, by getting together, thus,
diverse hypotheses, methodologies and sources;
In this way it would make European scholars as
well as European citizens aware of the existence
of disabled soldiers from the Great War and
their particular place in the upcoming centennial
celebration.
Submission of abstracts
Abstracts containing no more than 600 words
and a CV of no more than 20 lines should be
sent
to
Pieter.verstraete@ppw.kuleuven.be<mailto:Piet
er.verstraete@ppw.kuleuven.be>
before
December 1st 2012.
Looking forward to some thought-provoking
contributions as well as fruitful discussion.
The editorial committee,
Pieter Verstraete, Martina Salvante & Julie
Anderson
Practical & financial information
_____________________________________
We are very pleased to announce that we will be
able to accept and reimburse 13 scholars a sum
of maximum 500 euro’s to cover their travel
expenses to and from Ypres/Belgium where the
conference will be held. Besides that the
organizational committee will also pay for the
accommodation (2 nights). Included also is a
visit to the world famous and recently renovated
In Flanders Fields Museum as well as a guided
tour on the second day to the Western front
line.
SYMPOSIUM, WORKSHOP,
SEMINAR & ANNOUNCEMENTS
Workshop
Generation and Reproduction
in Medieval Europe
King’s College, Cambridge
8 December 2012
(organisers: Debby Banham, Peter Jones)
For programme and registration details:
http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/medicine/medievaleuro
pe.html
Please do also note that after the international
conference “Commemorating the disabled
soldier” will be ended, there will be another
conference organized dealing especially with the
relation between medicine and the Great War.
Closely linked to this event two exhibitions will
take place in Ghent and Ypres on the history of
psychiatry and medicine in relation to the Great
War. Unfortunately we will not be able to pay
for
additional
nights.
Conception, pregnancy, childbirth, and the raising
of healthy children (or animals) were high-risk
endeavours in the Middle Ages, the focus of
many hopes and anxieties. These emotions
found expression in prayers and charms, in
private letters, in hagiography and miracle
- 30 -
accounts, in records of ecclesiastical and secular
courts, as well as in advice literature and medical
writings. Themes to do with generation and
reproduction were also at the centre of
imaginative writings, notably romance and fable,
and of medieval art. The range of evidence
available for historical investigation is thus very
wide, though the private experiences of those
involved are as always hard to plumb.
(Cardiff University). An edited collection based
on the presented papers is planned.
This meeting will explore the beliefs and
practices that surrounded generation and
reproduction and the frames of understanding
that underlay these. One focus of interest is the
tension between normative discourse, texts that
tell people how they should believe and act, and
other discourses that are resistant to or
circumvent the injunctions of law, dogma and
discipline. Another is the extent to which the
development of scholastic methods of analysis
in the medieval universities, as applied to
philosophical issues in generation and
reproduction, produced new interpretations of
gender roles in conception, of ensoulment in the
developing child, and of the responsibilities of
church and state in promoting robust children
and population numbers. A third area of interest
is the extent to which generation and
reproduction came to be thought of as health
issues at all in the Middle Ages. How far did
concepts of disease and disability seem to apply
to mothers, fathers and children?
Context
The infertile woman is a familiar figure in
popular culture. Soap operas dramatise the
tragedy of infertility, right-wing tabloids threaten
career women with the horrors of involuntary
childlessness, and the news media greets each
new breakthrough in reproductive technology
with a strange combination of celebration and
dread at the potential Brave New World we are
sleep-walking towards. This portrayal of a realm
where science fiction threatens to spill over into
fact adds to our sense of infertility as a peculiarly
modern condition. Yet there is a longer history
of involuntary childlessness – a history which
stretches back to the Book of Genesis and
beyond – as well as many different potential
experiences of infertility according to nation,
class, gender, and race.
Proposals are invited that address the themes of
the conference in any historical period and
geographical context. Abstracts of c.250 words,
for papers of 20-30 minutes, plus speaker
contact
details
should
be
sent
to
LoughranTL@cardiff.ac.uk by 25 January 2013.
Aims
This symposium will explore the history of
infertility, and the place of infertility in science
and culture. Our primary focus is historical, but
we welcome contributions from scholars in
different disciplines and employing a range of
approaches – social scientific, literary, feminist,
psychological, and legal. We aim to bring
together researchers working on this fascinating
and under-explored field in order to better
understand historical and contemporary
representations and experiences of infertility
across different cultures and from different
perspectives. Potential topics for papers include,
but are not limited to:
- the role of gender, class and race in
shaping experiences and representations
of infertility;
- individual, familial, and social contexts
of infertility;
- infertility
as
a
bodily
and/or
psychological experience;
- heterosexuality, homosexuality, and
involuntary childlessness;
NB: on 7 December 2012 there will be a public
lecture by Dr Marianne Elsakkers at the
Department of History and Philosophy of
Science, Free School Lane, Cambridge, at
5.30pm. Her title is: ‘What the small print in the
early medieval penitentials tells us about
abortion’. No registration required for this
lecture.
_____________________________________
Symposium
Infertility in History, Science and Culture
(Cardiff and Edinburgh Universities)
University of Edinburgh
4-5 July 2013
The symposium is co-convened by Gayle Davis
(University of Edinburgh) and Tracey Loughran
- 31 -
-
-
-
-
closer to the University, Canterbury East is
slightly
more
convenient
for
the
accommodation). For those from further afield,
any of the London airports have excellent rail
links, but London Gatwick probably involves
the shortest journey.
reproductive science and access to
reproductive technologies;
the interplay of medical, scientific, and
cultural understandings of infertility;
the role of politics, law, and religion in
shaping experiences of and attitudes
towards infertility;
changing experiences of infertility across
time and space, including comparative
histories;
the relation of perceptions of infertility
to beliefs about fertility control, the
constitution and social role of the family,
and sexuality;
different disciplinary approaches to
infertility.
Conference Fees
We expect the conference fee to be in the region
of £20 (this will be confirmed when registration
opens), and all delegates will be warmly invited
to a formal dinner on Friday 4th January, which
is an additional £30. Hotel accommodation on
Thursday and Friday in the local hotel Best
Western Abbotts Barton will be available on a
first-come, first-served basis at a rate (subsidised
by the BSHS) of between £20 and £32.50 per
night. So the full conference cost will be around
£105.
POSTGRADUATE EVENTS
______________________________________
The British Society for the History of
Science Postgraduate Conference 2013
University of Kent, Canterbury
3 - 5 January 2013
LECTURES
Lecture series
http://cmrs.osu.edu/events/lectureseries/2
012-13.cfm
Here is the link to an AMAZING series of 10 (!)
invited lectures throughout this year that our
Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
(CMRS) will do all focused on disability in the
medieval and renaissance periods
_____________________________________
This annual 3-day event gives postgraduates in
the history of science, technology and medicine
a chance to get to know each other and to
present their work to a wider audience. The
conference is organised by and for
postgraduates, aiming to offer the opportunity
of presenting a fifteen minute paper in a
supportive environment. Our aim is for
postgraduates to convene from a wide range of
universities and disciplines to discuss our
common interests, share experiences and
network in a friendly and receptive
environment.
Programme
CALLS FOR ARTICLES
The programme will see parallel sessions of
papers spanning all three days. There will be a
drinks reception on Thursday evening and a
conference dinner on Friday evening. Additional
sessions to be confirmed!
Histories of Accounting and the Hospital
Hospitals are not only bastions of modern
medicine but also major sites of economic
activity. Together with other health services,
they now account for more than 10 per cent of
GDP in many developed countries. Amid
increasing concerns about the cost of health
services, the hospital has become a major focus
of accounting research. Much emphasis has
Venue and Travel
The University of Kent is located in South-East
England, close to the M2 and the A28. Those
travelling via rail can travel to either Canterbury
West via London St Pancras International or
London Charring Cross or Canterbury East via
London Victoria (Canterbury West is slightly
- 32 -
been placed on studying accounting practices in
the contemporary hospital setting. The historical
development of such practices remains
substantially unexplored. A forthcoming special
issue of Accounting History Review will focus on
the history of hospital accounting to stimulate
further research in this emerging field.
Manuscripts should be sent electronically to the
guest
editors,
Florian
Gebreiter
(f.gebreiter1@aston.ac.uk) and William Jackson
(w.jackson@hw.ac.uk). Submissions should
follow the style guidelines of Accounting History
Review and will be subject to double-blind
review. Potential contributors are encouraged to
contact the guest editors at their earliest
convenience.
Dr. Bill Jackson
The special issue will adopt wide parameters in
relation to the period and location studied. To
encourage innovative and interdisciplinary
research on hospital accounting papers drawing
on a range of methodological and theoretical
approaches will be considered and a definition
of accounting will be adopted which extends
beyond the mere recording of financial
transactions. Moreover, reflecting historical
notions of the hospital as a place offering moral
and spiritual support as well as medical
treatment, we encourage submissions focusing
on institutions concerned with broader social
functions such as the care of the poor and
needy, both in terms of their physical and
spiritual wellbeing.
Lecturer in Accountancy
Department of Accountancy, Economics & Finance,
School of Management & Languages Heriot-Watt
University Edinburgh.
Liverpool City Hospital's account book bearing the name of one E. Rigby.
Topics for the special issue may include, but are
not limited to, historical aspects of the
following:











______________________________________
AWARDS/FELLOWSHIPS/STUDE
-NTSHIPS
Accounting and the hospital economy
Accounting for hospital organisation at
the regional and/or national level
Accounting for medical practice and
accounting by medical and allied
professionals
Accounting in small or cottage hospitals
Accounting in the pre-modern hospital
Hospital accounting in its social and
institutional contexts
The state and hospital accounting
Performance measurement in the
hospital setting
Issues relating to auditing and
accountability in the hospital
The relationship between financial and
medical knowledge in the hospital
The professionalisation of hospital
accountants, and organisations of
healthcare accounting and finance
professionals
Vanderbilt University
Robert Penn Warren Center for the
Humanities
2013-2014 William S. Vaughn
Visiting Fellowship
One year residential research fellowship for a
scholar interested in participating in a broadly
interdisciplinary seminar entitled “Diagnosis in
Context: Culture, Politics, and the Construction
of Meaning.” The fellowship pays a stipend of
up to $50,000. The seminar is co-directed by
Vanderbilt University faculty members Vanessa
Beasley (Communication Studies) and Arleen
Tuchman (History).
The submission deadline is 28th of February
2014, but earlier submissions are welcomed.
- 33 -
Applications must be submitted by January 15,
2013. For more information, see our website:
http://vanderbilt.edu/rpw_center.
do. If the study involves sources requiring
approval by an Institutional Review Board
protecting human subjects, funds will not be
awarded until documentation is received.
_____________________________________
American Association for the History of
Nursing
Grants for Historical Research
http://www.aahn.org/grants.html
Aims:
Begin with a concise statement of the aims of
the research that you wish to do and relate these
aims to your own long term historical research
goals.
The American Association for the History of
Nursing, Inc (AAHN) initiated a grant program
in 2008. The H 15 Grant, for new researchers;
and the H 31 Pre-doctoral Research Grant,
designed to encourage and support graduate
training and historical research at the Master's
and Doctoral levels. The deadline for all Grants
is April 1. Only AAHN members are eligible to
apply for these grants.
Background Significance:
Give a brief background of your research
problem. This will enable reviewers to place
your proposal within the context of the present
state of historical knowledge about the study
area. Explain the importance you expect your
results to have. Please be sure to cite the
published work of others which relates to your
topic.
H 15 Grant
Previous Work:
Describe briefly any work that you have done in
this area or in closely related studies. Cite your
publications, if any. Be Sure to Enclose a Sample
of Your Writing Whether Published or
Unpublished.
Directions For Applicants
The American Association for the History of
Nursing is offering a research grant of $3000 for
historical research. (Indirect costs of 8% are also
available) Applicants must be members of
AAHN and hold the doctorate. They may be
faculty members or independent researchers. It
is expected that the research and new materials
produced by the award winner will help ensure
the growth of scholarly work focused on the
history of nursing.
Methods:
Explain how you intend to approach your study
and, where appropriate, identify the collections
or archives you will use to achieve your aims.
Facilities:
Describe existing resources at your disposal
which will help you in carrying out this project.
Deadline for Submission of applications: April 1
Other research support:
Include an overview of your existing and
pending research support.
Date of Award: June 1
Application
Budget:
Outline and itemize the budget detailing the
ways you will use the award and briefly justify
each item. For example, travel, purchase of
equipment, copying, or salary support may be
requested.
A copy of the proposal should be sent by email
to AAHN Headquarters. Only word or pdf
documents will be accepted.
The application should not exceed 6 pages
double-spaced, excluding references, curriculum
vitae and writing sample. The outline below
specifies the information which should be
included in your application.
Curriculum Vitae:
Please include a resume of professional
accomplishments including education, research
publications and other publications relevant to
the project you propose.
The form and length of your application should
be adapted to the research that you propose to
- 34 -
Secondary source background and primary
source availability.
Any additional relevant facilities and resources.
Significance of the study.
Attachments
Curriculum vitae of the student.
Letter of support from advisor.
Process of Review
Each application will be reviewed by three
members of the AAHN Grant Review Panel.
The Panel will make its decision about the award
by May 15 and the recipient will be notified by
June 1 of each year.
Funding will start July 1 of the grant year and
last for one year. A no-cost extension may be
granted on request. Grantees will be expected to
submit a report on research when the project is
completed.
A copy of the proposal should be sent by email
to AAHN Headquarters. Only word or pdf
documents will be accepted.
The Award
Selection criteria include the scholarly merit of
the proposal, consideration of the student's
preparation for this study, the advisor's
qualifications for guiding the study and the
project's potential for contributing to
scholarship in the field of nursing history.
Publications arising from AAHN funded
research should acknowledge funding from
AAHN. For example: Research for this work
was funded by the American association for the
History of Nursing.
H 31 Pre-doctoral Research Grant
If the study involves sources requiring approval
by an Institutional Review Board protecting
human subjects, funds will not be awarded until
documentation is received.
This grant is designed to encourage and support
graduate training and historical research at the
Masters and Doctoral levels. The grant will be
$2,000.
Funds will be awarded directly to the student.
Eligibility Criteria
Publications arising from the research partially
supported by AAHN should acknowledge this
source of support.
Proposals will focus on a significant question in
the history of nursing.
Review
The student will be enrolled in an accredited
masters program or doctoral program.
The Research Review
proposals.
The student will be a member of AAHN.
will
review
Applications will be reviewed and recipients and
other applicants will be notified of the selection
by early summer.
The research advisor will be doctorally prepared
with scholarly activity in the field of nursing
history and prior experience in guidance of
research training.
Publications
Application: Form
Publications arising from the research partially
supported by AAHN should acknowledge this
source of support.
Title Page
Narrative (four
maximum).
Panel
[4]
double-spaced
pages,
The proposal of the study selected for funding is
not considered confidential.
Include the following:
The deadline for all Grants is April 1
Purpose and focus of the study.
AAHN
10200 W. 44th Avenue, Suite 304
- 35 -
Wheat Ridge, CO 80033
Applicants must be citizens of the United States
or be a U.S. lawful permanent resident.
The stipend is $2,500.00 per month for the
duration of the fellowship.
Any expenses incurred beyond the amount of
the fellowship are the responsibility of the
Fellow.
Phone: (303) 422-2685
Fax: (303) 422-8894
Email:
aahn@aahn.org<mailto:aahn@aahn.org>
_____________________________________
The Lloyd Library and Museum (LLM)
Inaugural Curtis G. Lloyd Research
Fellowship
2013-14
LLM collections are largely unparalleled in depth
and breadth of topics relating to botany,
pharmacy, and phytomedicine. Fellows will
have work space provided and supervised stacks
privileges as appropriate will be made available,
along with photocopying and other imaging
capabilities.
The library has a stellar reputation and is wellregarded by scholars throughout the world, all
with a diverse range of expertise and interests.
Please visit www.lloydlibrary.org for further
information about the library and its collections.
Named after the youngest Lloyd brother of
Lloyd Brothers, Pharmacists, Inc. (1885-1936),
the fellowship honors the work of Curtis Gates,
pharmacist, botanist, and mycologist, in building
the collections of LLM as Chief Acquisitions
Officer. The fellowship is for a period of one to
three months, with a possible extension of up to
three months for work that is primarily based on
resources within LLM collections. Research
topics can include, but are not limited to the
following:

Medicinal Botany

Organic/Botanical/Medicinal Chemistry

Natural History

Early travel and exploration

Ethnobotany

History of Science, Medicine, and
Pharmacy

Pharmacognosy/Natural Product
Development

Visual Arts

Cultural, Ethnic, and Social history

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
Upon completion of the fellowship, Fellows are
expected to deliver a public lecture or
presentation of an appropriate nature; an art
show; or, a print publication with the approval
of the Fellowship Committee on the Fellow's
topic of research. Acknowledgement of the
fellowship and LLM are expected in the chosen
outcome.
Interested candidates should submit in writing,
either via postal service or email, a resumé,
unofficial transcripts (successful candidates will
be asked to submit official transcripts), and a
research proposal (at least two pages, singlespaced) about how LLM's collections are
relevant to and will be used in the candidate's
research.
Applications due by January 15, 2013. For
questions, please email:
aheran@lloydlibrary.org.
The Lloyd Library and Museum, located at 917
Plum Street, downtown Cincinnati, is a local and
regional cultural treasure. The library was
developed in the nineteenth century by the
Lloyd brothers-John Uri, Curtis Gates, and
Nelson Ashley to provide reference sources for
Lloyd Brothers Pharmacists, Inc., one of the
leading pharmaceutical companies of the period.
Today the library is recognized worldwide by the
scientific community as a vital research center.
The library holds, acquires, and provides access
Successful candidates will hold at minimum a
Bachelor's Degree or equivalent. Fellows will be
expected to work at LLM at least two full days
per week for the duration of their fellowship.
- 36 -
to both historic and current materials on the
subjects of pharmacy, botany, horticulture,
herbal and alternative medicine, pharmacognosy,
and related topics. Although our collections
have a scientific focus, they also have relevance
to humanities topics, such as visual arts and
foreign languages through resources that feature
botanical and natural history illustrations,
original artworks, and travel literature, thereby
revealing the convergence of science and art.
The Lloyd is open to anyone with an interest in
these topics. Free parking is available for
patrons and visitors behind the library building.
For more information, visit the Lloyd website at
www.lloydlibrary.org.
This Bill wanted to restrict the reasons why a
woman could get an abortion and change which
doctors could perform one. The demonstration
was a success and the campaign was set up
officially the following month. By June 1975
NAC was able to organise a large demonstration
which was attended by 20,000 people, the
biggest rally since the women's suffrage
campaign. The Bill was not passed and the NAC
campaigned against two more Abortion
Amendment Bills by MPs in the 1970s: one in
1977 proposed by William Benyon and the other
in 1979 by John Corrie. Large demonstrations
and events were organised against them by the
NAC, locally and on a larger national scale.
Lloyd Library and Museum
917 Plum Street
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
513-721-3707
www.lloydlibrary.org
Maggie Heran, MLS, Executive Director
Lloyd Library and Museum
Historical Research Center for the Natural
Health Movement
mheran@lloydlibrary.org
During the 1980s the NAC fought several
campaigns and tried to launch more positive
abortion legislation. In 1983 at the National
Conference the group split into two: one
continued as NAC and the other formed as the
Women's Reproductive Rights Campaign.
Eighteen months later NAC started the Reverse
Gillick campaign, this was against the High
Court ruling (instigated by mother of ten,
Victoria Gillick in 1983) that children under 16
could not be prescribed or talk to doctors about
contraceptives without their parents’ knowledge.
The House of Lords overruled this in 1985, as
long as doctors followed certain guidelines when
discussing contraceptives with young people.
_____________________________________
LIBRAY, DIGITAL RESOURCES &
ARCHIVE NEWS
Another Abortion Amendment Bill was
introduced in the late 1980s by the MP David
Alton, and this focused on changing the time
limit. This Bill got a large amount of support
and several adverts were printed in national
newspapers by the Society for the Protection of
Unborn Children (SPUC) asking MPs to vote
yes. The NAC again held several large
demonstrations and eventually the Bill failed.
The NAC also campaigned against the Human
Fertilisation and Embryology Bill in 1990. This
was passed and it mainly concerned the
regulation of fertility treatments, but the
Abortion Act was also effected: the time limits
were reduced from 28 to 24 weeks.
News from the Wellcome Library
National Abortion Campaign archives now
available
The archive of the National Abortion Campaign
has recently been catalogued and is now
available to researchers at the Wellcome
Library.
The National Abortion Campaign (NAC) was
formed in 1975 and the group defended the
1967 Abortion Act against several proposed
amendment bills during the 1970s and 1980s.
The collection covers a wide range of campaign
material, conferences, publications and a variety
of correspondence.
In 2003 the NAC merged with the Abortion
Law Reform Association (ALRA), whose
archives are also in the Wellcome Library, to
form Abortion Rights, more information can be
found on their website The National Abortion
Campaign collection is part of the Wellcome
The group initially started when the Working
Women's Charter called a demonstration against
the Abortion Amendment Bill in February 1975.
- 37 -
Library’s Archives and Manuscripts collection.
The catalogue can be searched on our online
catalogue using the reference: SA/NAC.
The Medical Registers were published annually,
and list all the doctors who were licensed to
practice in the UK, including foreign doctors
who qualified here. Residence, qualification and
date of registration are also included. The online
version contains the Registers at four-yearly
intervals from 1859-1959, and is available to our
registered readers both within the Library and
offsite.
For further information about our holdings on
birth control and abortion see the relevant
online sources guide.
Wellcome Film added to the Medical
Heritage Library
The Registers are part of a suite of family history
sources on Ancestry Library Edition, including
census records, births marriages and deaths, and
parish records – all now available online to our
registered readers.
We are delighted to announce the Wellcome
Library has become a content contributor to the
Medical Heritage Library, with Wellcome Film
being added to the Medical Heritage Library’s
online content.
More details on how to access the Registers
online are available through the Library
catalogue.
An online digital collection of moving images
from the collections of the Wellcome Library,
Wellcome Film chronicles the history of
medicine over the last hundred years and has
been freely available in Internet Archive since
2010. The content of Wellcome Film includes
rare footage of Sir Henry Wellcome (1853-1936)
filmed at the archaeological digs he funded in
the Sudan in 1910s, alongside films exploring
the development of medicine in the twentieth
century, including specific surgical techniques
and drug treatments.
Rare videos of Roy Porter now online
As a content provider, the Wellcome Library
becomes the latest historical institution to make
its collections available through the MHL. The
MHL was established in 2010, with funding
from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation via the
Open Knowledge Commons, to digitize 30,000
rare medical books. Now, over two years later,
nearly 40,000 books, videos, and audio
recordings are freely available online, with
content provided from many of the leading
history of medicine libraries (a full list of the
MHL’s content providers is available on their
website).
Roy Porter (1946-2002) needs no introduction
to the readers of the Gazette, but despite being a
prodigious author, a frequent broadcaster on
BBC Radio and a popular lecturer to a range of
audiences, not many recordings of him remain.
Both the Wellcome Library’s catalogue and the
Sound and Moving Image catalogue of the
British Library, lists a number of items but very
few recordings of him are freely available across
the web (a notable exception being an
appearance on Melvyn Bragg’s In Our Time,
available through the BBC Radio 4 website).
Online Access to UK Medical Registers
The printed volumes of the UK Medical
Registers are one of our key research resources,
and are particularly utilised by genealogical
researchers. After a successful trial period, all
registered Wellcome Library users now have
online access to the Registers through our new
subscription to Ancestry Library Edition.
Given this, it’s with a great deal of excitement
that we recently discovered a lecture given by
Porter at the New York Academy of Medicine
- 38 -
in 1999. It was recorded by C-Span, a US cable
network which specialises in broadcasting
federal government deliberations, and is free
available through the C-Span website.
The NIH Library plays a key role in the mission
of the National Institutes of Health - "science in
the pursuit of fundamental knowledge about the
nature and behavior of living systems and the
application of that knowledge to extend healthy
life and reduce the burdens of illness and
disability." The NIH Library's large collection of
online and print resources supports and
advances the discovery efforts of NIH
researchers and programs.
The lecture was in support of the Porter’s then
newly published Greatest Benefit to Mankind, his
one-volume History of Medicine and broadly
consists of a discussion of the book’s themes. It
also includes a detailed discussion of William
Buchan’s Domestic Medicine, one of the most
popular medical books ever published, which
Porter situates in the political upheavals of the
late 18th century.
The NIH Library has scanned an important
collection of over 800 annual reports and other
program materials issued by NIH Institutes and
Centers dating from the 1950s to the 1990s.
Each annual report consists of a list of
investigators, project summaries, and individual
project reports that describe objectives,
methods, and major findings. Annual reports
created since the mid-to-late 1990's have already
been searchable by the public online, however,
these older reports remained limited to in-library
usage.
We found this video while putting together a
presentation for new students on the Society of
Apothecaries Diploma Course in the History of
Medicine. In a nice coincidence, a recording of
Porter’s lecture to this course from 1990 is held
in the Wellcome Library’s collections.
Such a discovery would be pleasing enough, but
a search of C-Span’s archive has found another
talk by Porter, also recorded in New York, this
time in support of his title, The Creation of the
Modern World (2000, published in the UK as
Enlightenment). Again, this is also available
through the C-Span website.
Digitizing this material provides a historical
perspective
on
the
activities
and
accomplishments of the Institutes and individual
researchers.
In order to carry out the project, the NIH
Library initiated a partnership in 2009 with
FedScan, a digitization effort operated by
Internet Archive and hosted by the Library of
Congress. All volumes were made available to
the public at that time through the Internet
Archive web site as well as linked through the
NIH Library catalog.
For regular updates on the work of the
Wellcome Library, see our Blog
(http://wellcomelibrary.blogspot.com) or follow
us on Twitter
(http://twitter.com/wellcomelibrary)
Ross MacFarlane
Research Engagement Officer
Wellcome Library
r.macfarlane@wellcome.ac.uk
_____________________________________
Now these materials are also available in the
Medical Heritage Library collection in Internet
Archive, alongside 43,000 other titles from
contributing libraries. Included in the NIH
Library materials are important works such as
the Report of Program Activities for the
National Cancer Institute from 1954 and the
program and paper abstracts for the Third
International Conference on AIDS in 1987,
which was sponsored by the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services and the World
Health Organization. The addition of these
materials adds further depth to MHL's holdings,
making us better able to support historical
research into 20th-century topics.
NIH Reports Included in Medical Heritage
Library
The Medical Heritage Library
(http://www.medicalheritage.org/) is proud to
announce the inclusion of over 800 digitized
reports from the National Institutes of Health
Library, which is located on the NIH Campus in
Bethesda, Maryland.
- 39 -
You will notice the change in formatting-this is
the new ProQuest platform-no more short
versions but they do give you all the
bibliographic information you will need.
ONLINE
Blogs
______________________________________
Center for the History of Medicine and
Public Health at the New York Academy of
Medicine
has
a
new
blog:
http://nyamcenterforhistory.org/. The blog will
carry news of events, activities, and
developments in our collections. We welcome
announcements for events in the New York
region relating to the history of medicine, public
health and the book, to be posted on our
calendar.
_____________________________________
Simon Forman’s Casebooks
The notorious London astrologer, recorded
10,000 consultations between 1596 and 1603.
Most of these are medical. Forman's casebooks
can now be searched by name (of any party
involved), date, sex, age, topic of consultation
and many other criteria. The edition includes
images of all the manuscript pages of Forman's
first volume, and more will follow soon:
http://www.magicandmedicine.hps.cam.ac.uk
Grogs
Please send us feedback about how you are
using the site--and about how you would like to
be able to use it. hps-casebooks@lists.cam.ac.uk
http://www.magicandmedicine.hps.cam.ac.uk/o
ur-edition/read
Dr Lauren Kassell
Department of History & Philosophy of Science
University of Cambridge
Free School Lane
Cambridge CB2 3RH
www.hps.cam.ac.uk
_____________________________________
It is with great pleasure that we present to you
the summer 2012 edition of THE GROG. In
our attempt to meet our standards of variety, we
offer you original articles on: Navy Medicine in
the War of 1812, A Look Medicine and Hygiene
in the Royal Navy, A Brief History of the Navy
Mobile Care Team Program, Notes on the first
African-American in the Dental Corps, and
much more. As always, we hope you enjoy this
humble tour of the seas of Navy medical culture
and heritage.
BAAS Reports
For those of you who might be interested, many
of the annual reports of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science
are available in digital format on the Internet
Archive at:
http://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%
3A%28%22British%20Association%20for%20t
he%20Advancement%20of%20Science%22%29
THE GROG is accessible through the link
below. Feel free to share with anyone with an
interest in history. If you prefer a PDF version
to be sent directly to your inbox please let us
know. For all those who have already requested
to be put on the PDF mailing list a low
resolution version will be sent to you shortly.
http://issuu.com/thegrogration/docs/the_grog
_summer_2012
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
U.S Nineteenth Century Periodicals
Pathfinder
Dissertations Online
Visit the website at
http://libguides.marist.edu/19thcentperiodicals
The most recent dissertations pertaining to the
history of science and medicine from the August
2010 volumes of Dissertation Abstracts can be
viewed at:
http://www.hsls.pitt.edu/guides/histmed/resea
rchresources/dissertations/index_html
The Research Services team at the Marist
College Library recently published a new
pathfinder listing full text nineteenth century
periodicals that are freely available on-line .
The periodicals are presented in three
- 40 -
different groupings: chronological,
geographic and by the topics listed below.










wonderful collection of primary source material
and I hope you find it useful.
Agriculture
Arts & Fashion
Children’s magazines
Industry & Economy
Literature
Political Science
Science
Social Science
Theology
Women
Please contact Elizabeth Clarke with any
comments or questions.
Elizabeth.Clarke2@marist.edu
. John Ansley
Head, Archives & Special Collections
Marist College
3399 North Road
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
The Nineteenth Century Periodicals Pathfinder
offers access to hundreds of periodicals, the
majority of which provide images and covers in
addition to the full text of the articles. It is a
Email: john.ansley@marist.edu
Visit the website at
http://libguides.marist.edu/19thcentperiodicals
Disclaimer
Any views expressed in this Gazette are those of the Editors or the named contributor; they are not necessarily
those of the Executive Committee or general membership. While every care is taken to provide accurate and
helpful information in the Gazette, the Society for the Social History of Medicine, the Chair of its Executive
Committee and the Editor of the Gazette accept no responsibility for omissions or errors or their subsequent
effects. Readers are encouraged to check all essential information appropriate to specific circumstances.
The Society for the Social History of Medicine is a charitable body registered in the U.K.
with the registration number 27841
Please visit the SSHM Website at http://www.sshm.org
- 41 -