La nourriture comme médecine

Food as medicine: Historical Perspectives

Call for papers

9-10 October 2015, Dublin.


9 October 2015: The Edward Worth Library, Dr. Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin 8.
www.edwardworthlibrary.ie

10 October 2015: Dublin City Library & Archive, Pearse Street, Dublin
(http://dublincity.ie/main-menu-services-recreation-culture-dublin-city-public-libraries-and-archive-heritage-and-histor-3)

The energy and output of the contemporary debate around food, diet and health might suggest that this was a new area of interest. In fact, our present concern is just the most recent version of a long running debate about the relationship between what we eat and our well being. This international conference provides a forum to discuss how these ideas have been expressed in the past and how they have changed. Our views on food and health have been affected by changes in society, economy, culture, medicine and science. This conference seeks papers that explore these changes around the central theme of food as medicine. We are interested in perspectives from the history of medicine and the history of science, but also from social and cultural history and in papers examining any period of history. Some potential areas of interest include early modern regimens, foods for healing, chemical approaches to food, the impact of medicine on cookery, health and homemaking, the use of medicinal plants, the role of food in maintaining and restoring health, changing dietary advice, the role of cooks and cooking books in medicine and the changing perceptions of the concept of a balanced diet.

Keynote Lecture:
Professor Steven Shapin (Franklin L. Ford Research Professor of the History of Science, Harvard): ‘The Medical Making of Modernity: Knowing about Our Food, Our Bodies, and Ourselves over the past 2,000 years.’


The conference organisers:
Dr Juliana Adelman (St Patrick’s College, Dublin City University); Dr Elizabethanne Boran (The Edward Worth Library, Dublin); Dr Máire Kennedy (The Gilbert Library, Dublin); Prof. Andrzej Kuropatnicki (Pedagogical University, Krakow).


Abstract submission:
Abstracts of no more than 200 words should be submitted to food.as.medicine.conference@gmail.com no later than 31 March 2015.