Bourses de la Edward Worth Library de Dublin

Fellowships at the Edward Worth Library, Dublin

Call for applications


The Edward Worth Library, Dublin, is offering two research fellowships (duration one month), to be held in 2025, to encourage research relevant to its collections. The Worth Library is a collection of c. 4,300 books, left to Dr Steevens’ Hospital by Edward Worth (1676-1733), an early eighteenth-century Dublin physician. The collection is particularly strong in three areas: early modern medicine, early modern history of science and, given that Worth was a connoisseur book collector interested in fine bindings and rare printing, the History of the Book. Research does not, however, have to be restricted to these three key areas. Further information about the collection and our catalogues may be found on our website:

http://www.edwardworthlibrary.ie/Home-Page



The closing date is Friday 4 April 2025. Further details and application procedures may be found here: https://edwardworthlibrary.ie/research-fellowships/



If you have any queries, please contact:

Dr Elizabethanne Boran,
Librarian,
The Edward Worth Library,
Dr Steevens’ Hospital,
Dublin 8,
Ireland
E-mail: eaboran@tcd.ie

La variole au Népal

Implementing a global health programme: Smallpox and Nepal

Susan Heydon

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Manchester University Press (February 18, 2025)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1526176660

Worldwide eradication of the devastating viral disease of smallpox was devised as a distant global policy, but success depended on implementing a global vaccination programme within nation states. How this was achieved remains relevant and topical for responding to today’s global communicable disease challenges. The small and poor Himalayan kingdom of Nepal faced enormous geographical and infrastructure challenges if it was going to succeed in a nationwide vaccination programme. This book acknowledges the key role of the WHO but disrupts the top-down, centre-led standard narrative. Against a background of widespread internal political and social change, Nepal’s programme was expanded, effectively decentralised and a vaccination strategy introduced that aligned with people’s beliefs. Few foreign personnel were involved.

L’avortement à travers la littérature et les arts visuels

L’avortement à travers la littérature et les arts visuels

Modern & Contemporary France (33.1) -February 2025 special issue 

guest-edited by Dominique Carlini Versini



Introduction
Dominique Carlini Versini, 'L’avortement à travers la littérature et les arts visuels'


Research Articles

Kathryn Bryan, 'Invisible chain: breaking the taboo of abortion in Jeanne Caruchet’s L’Ensemencée (1904), Annie Ernaux’s L’événement (2000) and Audrey Diwan’s L’événement (2021)'

Dominique Carlini Versini, 'Avortement et sororité chez Diwan, Haroun et Sciamma'

Marta-Laura Cenedese, 'The Other Side of Abortion: The Doctor-Writer in Martin Winckler’s La Vacation (1989)'

Frédérique Collette, 'Filiations abortives : l’avortement dans la littérature française de l’extrême contemporain'

Marion Hallet and Elizabeth Miller, 'Abortion in French cinema during the long 1960s and beyond'

Jordan Owen McCullough, 'Doubly disenfranchised: the experience of paternal grief following medical termination in Jérémie Szpirglas’ Pater dolorosa'

Hannah Olsen, 'Clémentine ou la contraception: reproductive health in a 1970s bande dessinée'




Book Reviews


Anaïs Pédron, 'Women moralists in early modern France'

Pamela Pilbeam, 'Herminie and Fanny Pereire, elite Jewish women in nineteenth-century France'

Dominique Carlini Versini, 'Un sang d’encre : Du corps en littérature contemporaine'

Antonia Wimbush, 'Fictions of race in contemporary French literature: French writers, White writing'

Congrès de la BSHM

BSHM Congress 2025

Call for papers

The 31st BSHM Congress will be held at the University of Leeds
Wed 10 – Sat 13 September 2025

The President and Officers of the British Society for the History of Medicine look forward to welcoming all who are interested in the history of medicine and healthcare to the BSHM Congress at the University of Leeds.

The venue for the meeting is a state-of-the-art conference facility at Cloth Hall Court, a Grade II listed merchant trading hall, situated close to the main railway station in the heart of the city.
The academic programme, which will run for three full days on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, will include a mixture of keynote lectures, and oral and poster presentations, relating to the three main themes of the Congress: Herbs, Potions and Magic Bullets; Disability and Rehabilitation; and Medical and Healthcare Learning.

There will also be sessions of presentations on miscellaneous topics in the history of medicine and healthcare based on abstract submissions from delegates.

Congress Themes

Herbs, Potions and Magic Bullets
The history of medicines and their uses and abuses across time, culture and modality from herbal remedies through chemicals, pharmaceutical drugs and biologics to hi-tech treatments in Western medicine; traditional, non-Western and Indigenous practices; alternative, controversial and failed approaches; and innovators, practitioners and patients.

Disability and Rehabilitation
The history of physical and mental disabilities, including: the recognition, definition and description of disablement over time; diagnosis, support and self-help; medical, surgical and psychiatric treatment; the challenges, successes and failures of rehabilitation; and the roles of practitioners, experiences of patients, and limitations of healthcare.

Medical and Healthcare Learning
The history of learning in medicine and healthcare in the context of formal and informal organisations and sites involved with research and education in the UK and internationally: medical schools and teaching hospitals, universities and research institutes, medical societies and colleges; key contributions, major protagonists and notable developments.

Miscellaneous Topics
Presentations on diverse subjects in the history of medicine and healthcare, which reflect the broad interests of our community, form an important element of the Congress. The organisers will seek to group presentations on related topics, such as local medical history, in mini-themed sessions where possible.

Keynote Lectures
A Quiet Revolution: How Monoclonal Antibodies Transformed Medicine – Dr Lara Marks
Since their creation 50 years ago, monoclonal antibodies have radically reshaped medicine and spawned a whole new industry. They have improved the accuracy and speed of diagnostics, which proved crucial in the COVID-19 pandemic, helped transform the treatment of certain cancers, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, and many other significant disorders, and have major potential in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.

Lara Marks DPhil (Oxon) FRSB, Visiting Researcher in the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge, is a historian of medicine who has published numerous articles and books on a range of subjects, including The Lock and Key of Medicine: Monoclonal Antibodies and the Transformation of Healthcare. She is currently managing editor of the charitable online educational resource WhatisBiotechnology.org.

The History of Disability: Myths, the Everyday and Tales of the Unexpected – Dr Simon Jarrett
The history of disability is suffused with myths. Many of these frame the disabled person as an eternal outcast – shunned, or at best pitied, by society. The historical excavation and examination of people’s everyday lives creates a new prism through which unexpected insights emerge. Within all this lurks the tense and uneasy relationship between Disability and Medicine.
Simon Jarrett PhD is a Visiting Fellow in the School of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care at the Open University. He is the author of Those They Called Idiots: The Idea of the Disabled Mind from 1700 to the Present Day and A History of Disability in England from the Medieval Period to the Present Day.

THE JOHN BLAIR TRUST LECTURE

John Blair and his Legacy to the History of Medicine – Mr Iain Macintyre
In addition to a lifetime’s work as a busy general surgeon, John Blair made important contributions to the history of medicine. This commemorative lecture will pay tribute to his acclaimed work on the Royal Army Medical Corps, the medical schools at St Andrews and Dundee, and other areas. It will examine John Blair’s legacy and explore the relevance of the history of medicine in an increasingly technological era.

Iain Macintyre MB ChB MD FRCSEd was Vice President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh during its 500th anniversary celebration and served as surgeon to the Queen in Scotland until he retired in 2004. He now researches, writes and lectures on the history of medicine and has contributed to several books, including Surgeons’ Lives, Scottish Medicine – An Illustrated History, and Scotland’s Contribution to Naval and Military Medicine and Surgery.

Provisional Programme

Wednesday 10 September 2025
13.00 Editorial Board Meeting (invitation only)
14.00 John Blair Trust meeting (invitation only)
15.00 BSHM Officers and Representatives Committee (invitation only)
17.00 Registration opens
17.30 Welcome Reception at Cloth Hall Court
19.30 Evening close

Thursday 11 September 2025
THEMES: HERBS, POTIONS AND MAGIC BULLETS/MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS
08.30 Registration and refreshments
09.00 Keynote lecture: Dr Lara Marks
16.30 Afternoon close
16.45 Transport to the Thackray Museum of Medicine
19.45 Visit ends

Friday 12 September 2025
THEMES: DISABILITY AND REHABILITATION/MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS
08.30 Registration and refreshments
09.00 Keynote lecture: Dr Simon Jarrett
17.30 Afternoon close
19.00 Congress Dinner at The Queens Hotel

Saturday 13 September 2025
THEMES: MEDICAL AND HEALTHCARE LEARNING/MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS
08.30 Registration and refreshments
09.00 The John Blair Trust Lecture: Mr Iain Macintyre
16.00 BSHM Annual General Meeting
17.00 Congress close

THE CONGRESS PROGRAMME INCLUDES MORNING AND AFTERNOON TEA & COFFEE BREAKS AND BUFFET LUNCH ON THURSDAY, FRIDAY AND SATURDAY
ANYONE WISHING TO PARTICIPATE IN THE ACADEMIC SESSIONS MUST BE REGISTERED AS A PAID DELEGATE TO THE CONGRESS
PLEASE NOTE THAT CONGRESS THEMES MAY EXTEND ACROSS TWO DAYS DEPENDING ON THE NUMBER OF ABSTRACTS ACCEPTED THE CONFERENCE PROGRAMME MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE

Social Programme
Welcome Reception
At 17.30 on Wednesday 10 September, Cloth Hall Court.
Please join us at the Congress venue for advance registration and to meet with friends and colleagues at a reception with drinks and nibbles, sponsored by Jon Baines Tours.
Price per person, £15.
Museum Visit
From 16.45 on Thursday 11 September, Thackray Museum of Medicine.
Visit the UK’s largest independent medical museum, which recently underwent a £4m redevelopment. Includes transport from the Congress to and from the Museum, drink and nibbles on arrival, curatorial introduction, and private viewing of the exhibition galleries. Please book early to guarantee a place.
Price per person, £25.
Congress Dinner
At 19.30 on Friday 12 September, The Queens Hotel.
The Queens Hotel is an elegant Art Deco Grade II listed building located on City Square, close to the Congress venue. Enjoy a welcome drink and 3-course dinner with wine. A pay bar will be available.
Price per person, £60.
PLEASE NOTE THAT SOCIAL EVENTS MUST BE BOOKED IN ADVANCE

General Enquiries
Please direct enquiries to: congress2025@bshm.org.uk

Abstract Submission
We invite abstract submissions for oral presentations and posters on the three symposium themes and miscellaneous topics in the history of medicine and healthcare for consideration by the Congress review panel.
THE DEADLINE FOR RECEIPT OF ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS IS TUESDAY 20 MAY 2025.
The abstract text should be between 150 and 250 words in length. Titles should be no longer than 15 words.
Oral presentations will be 15 minutes long with 5 minutes for questions and presenters will be required to keep strictly to time. Presentations must be in PowerPoint (maximum file size, 20Mb) and must be submitted to the organisers by TUESDAY 2 SEPTEMBER 2025. The format required for posters will be confirmed upon acceptance.

IT WILL NOT BE POSSIBLE FOR DELEGATES TO USE THEIR PERSONAL LAPTOPS OR MEMORY STICKS AT THE CONGRESS.
THE ORGANISERS CANNOT GUARANTEE TO ACCEPT MORE THAN ONE SUBMISSION FOR ORAL PRESENTATION AND ONE FOR POSTER PRESENTATION FROM EACH DELEGATE.
AUTHORS OF SUCCESSFUL SUBMISSIONS WILL BE NOTIFIED OF THE DAY AND SESSION OF THEIR PRESENTATIONS BY TUESDAY 17 JUNE 2025.
PLEASE NOTE THAT FINAL ACCEPTANCE IS SUBJECT TO THE PRESENTER COMPLETING REGISTRATION AS A PAID DELEGATE TO THE CONGRESS.
ABSTRACTS OF CONTRIBUTIONS ACCEPTED FOR PRESENTATION AT THE CONGRESS WILL APPEAR IN THE PROGRAMME AND WILL BE PUBLISHED ON THE BSHM WEBSITE.
The editors of the BSHM’s online journal Topics in the History of Medicine will be inviting manuscript submissions based on oral and poster presentations by delegates at the Congress on the three major themes of the conference and miscellaneous topics.
For abstract submission (and registration – see below), authors must first set up a user account with the conference management system and can then proceed to submit an abstract and register as a participant: https://www.conftool.pro/bshm2025/

Congress Registration
The BSHM welcomes all who are interested in the history of medicine to attend the Congress, participate in the academic sessions, and join us for the social events.
Non-members
3-day, early-bird registration fee, £310 (standard rate, £360)
Daily, early-bird registration fee, £155 (standard rate, £180)
BSHM members
BSHM members are entitled to a reduced registration fee.
If you are a member of an organisation affiliated to the BSHM, please register your status with us online: https://bshm.org.uk/membership/register-bshm-member-affiliated-organisation/
If you wish to apply for individual membership of the BSHM please complete the online application form: https://bshm.org.uk/individual-member/
Member, 3-day, early-bird registration fee, £270 (standard rate, £320)
Member, daily, early-bird registration fee, £135 (standard rate, £160)
Student delegates
Undergraduate and postgraduate students registered on a full-time course at a recognised university are invited to participate at a specially subsidised rate.
Student, daily registration fee, £30 (special rate)
The John Blair Trust offers a limited number of travel grants (up to £120 each) to support UK undergraduate students in medicine and allied sciences presenting at the Congress. For more information see: https://bshm.org.uk/about-us/john-blair-trust/
The John Blair Trust also offers prizes (£100 each) for the best oral presentation and best poster presentation by an undergraduate student. All student presentations accepted for the Congress are eligible provided the work has been completed as an undergraduate and the abstract has been submitted no longer than one year after graduation.
EARLY-BIRD RATES ARE AVAILABLE UNTIL TUESDAY 8 JULY 2025.
STANDARD REGISTRATION WILL CLOSE ON TUESDAY 19 AUGUST 2025.
PLEASE NOTE THAT REGISTRATION WILL NOT BE POSSIBLE AT THE CONGRESS.
For congress registration, participants must first set up a user account with the conference management system and can then proceed to register as a delegate and pay the registration fee: https://www.conftool.pro/bshm2025/

Important Notice
The BSHM Congress is intended to facilitate networking and collaboration among both members and non-members interested in all aspects of the history of medicine and healthcare.
The organisers are dedicated to providing an environment in which participants have an enjoyable and fulfilling experience. Accordingly, we request that all attendees treat other delegates, guests and staff with due respect and courtesy at all times. Harassment or disrespect will not be tolerated and any offender may be asked to leave the Congress.
Presenters give their time freely. Many have travelled a considerable distance. Some are very distinguished; some are students or early career researchers, perhaps giving a lecture at this level for the first time. All deserve a fair and polite hearing and respectful treatment.
All communications should be sensitive with regard to the audience, which includes people of many backgrounds and with different experience, especially when covering material expressing historical material and views that have the potential to offend.

Congress Venue
Congress sessions will be held at Cloth Hall Court (University of Leeds), Quebec Street, Leeds LS1 2HA, which is a two-minute walk from Leeds Railway Station, located on City Square.
Travel to Leeds
Leeds is situated in the heart of the country equidistant between London and Edinburgh. The city is one of the most readily accessible in the UK with direct inter-city rail links across the country, close proximity to Leeds-Bradford airport serving more than 70 overseas destinations, and road connections to the M1, M62 and A1(M) for travel by car or coach. For more information, see https://www.conferenceleeds.co.uk/why-leeds/travelling-to-leeds/
Delegates from outside the UK are advised to check their requirement to obtain permission to travel to the UK in advance following the introduction of Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA). For information, see: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-an-electronic-travel-authorisation-eta
Accommodation
Leeds has a variety of city-centre hotels to suit all budgets. Delegates are requested to arrange their own accommodation. For more information see: https://www.visitleeds.co.uk/where-to-stay/
The organisers have reserved a limited number of rooms with en-suite bathroom at Charles Morris Hall/Storm Jameson Court on the University of Leeds campus, located about one mile (a quick bus-ride or 20-minute walk) from Cloth Hall Court. The rooms are priced at £55 per night and are available on a first-come, first served basis. Delegates must book these rooms directly with the university: https://eu.eventscloud.com/ereg/index.php?eventid=200286170&
Leeds Tourism
Leeds is a lively modern city which has many interesting attractions that reflect its prosperity during the Industrial Revolution, including a variety of museums, Victorian shopping arcades and other historic buildings, and is home to the Royal Armouries Museum. For more information, maps and guides see: https://www.visitleeds.co.uk/
Medical History
Thackray Museum of Medicine: https://thackraymuseum.co.uk/
Leeds History of Medicine Trail: https://www.visitleeds.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Leeds-History-Of-Medicine-Trail.pdf
Medical Mile Podcast and Walking Tour: https://open.spotify.com/show/0FzGpWcC8lHvQ3II069Lb7
Within Easy Reach
Bradford, City of Culture 2025: https://www.visitbradford.com/
Harrogate, Victorian spa town: https://visitharrogate.co.uk/
Saltaire Village, UNESCO World Heritage Site: https://saltairevillage.info/
York, historic city: https://visityork.org/
Further Afield
North York Moors National Park: https://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/
Yorkshire Dales National Park: https://www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/

La gynécologie-obstétrique dans l’Europe chrétienne médiévale

Pratiques, croyances et acteurs en gynécologie-obstétrique dans l’Europe chrétienne médiévale

Diane Chaudonneret Croquette




L'Harmattan

Date de publication : 23/01/2025

Collection : Pratique sage-femme/Sciences-Maïeutique



Ce livre détaille les changements que connut la gynécologie-obstétrique en Europe, à l’ère médiévale, tant au niveau de la pratique des soins que de la formation des praticiens. Cela en parallèle des changements scientifiques, sociaux ou encore religieux ayant transformé la société à cette époque.
Ainsi, au travers de la régulation de la pratique des métiers de santé ou avec la création de guildes professionnelles et des universités de médecine et de chirurgie, ce qui restait de la pratique et du savoir de la médecine antique fut progressivement assimilé aux nouvelles théories du Moyen Âge, permettant l’apparition des premières ébauches d’une véritable science médicale, laquelle resta toutefois marquée par des notions de magie et de croyances que l’on pourrait qualifier de superstitieuses, et qui perdurent dans l’imaginaire collectif encore de nos jours au sein même de la communauté des professionnels de santé.
 

Entre le global et le local

Between the Global and the Local

Call for papers



I'm happy to share the CfP for the annual meeting of the HSTM Network Ireland.
The meeting will take place on 9/10 May 2025 at Ulster University, Belfast Campus.


We welcome the submission of organised panels as well as individual papers on any topic related to the history of science, medicine, and technology. We encourage scholars at any stage of their career from inside and outside of academic institutions.

We encourage papers and panels on themes, such as:

– The past and future of the HSTM of Ireland

– Decolonise HSTM and/or decolonial research in HSTM

– Feminist and gender-critical approaches to HSTM

– HSTM in the classroom, at the desk, and in public

– Disability between science, technology, and medicine



Submissions of papers on any theme relating to HSTM are welcome, and need not be related specifically to Ireland.
Abstracts (no more than 300 words) and a short biography (no more than 100 words) should be submitted by 21 March 2025 using this Google Form.

We will notify all prospective speakers at the latest by the end of March.


The conference fee will be small and will include tea/coffee/lunch.
We are a small organisation and cannot support speaker travel expenses. Please note that there are a number of small grants for conference travel for postgraduate students available from other organisations, such as the Society for the Social History of Medicine.
We are looking forward to seeing you Belfast.

La station thermale dans la littérature européenne moderne

The Health Resort in Modern European Literature. Transnational Trajectories

Henrike Schmidt, Astrid Köhler



Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

Published 20 Feb 2025
Format Hardback
ISBN 9781350377967


This innovative open access book reappraises the health resort in literature from its rise in the late Enlightenment period to the wellness age of the 21st century. Most of the existing body of academic work on the subject is concerned with either the classic spa novel or sanatorium narratives, and focuses on distinct national literatures, selected canonical texts, and particular themes. Contrary to this convention The Health Resort in Modern European Literature covers all types of health resort texts and sees them as part of a "transnational resort narrative" that covers the whole of Europe. Its uniquely broad corpus goes beyond the famous English, French, German and Russian novels and includes work in all genres, by female and male authors, from high literature and popular culture, in less studied languages such as Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Polish, Swedish or Ukrainian, right up to the present day.

Drawing on theorists such as Barthes, Deleuze and Foucault, Henrike Schmidt and Astrid Köhler compellingly argue that the literary health resort represents a social microcosm that responds to and reflects historical developments in special ways. Being an 'other place' where time and space are configured differently, it has both utopian and dystopian potential, while its intertextual interconnectedness enables it to interrogate assumptions and discourses not just about sickness and health, but also about European society in its different iterations.

The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA).



Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Introduction: Writing (in) the Resort
1. Imbricated (Hi)Stories: Spa Guides, Spa Tourism and Literary Imaginings
2. Modern Founding Myths: The Creation of Health Resorts in Literature
3. From the Spa to the Sanatorium: Changing the Setting
4. Of Meandering Motifs and Erupting Source Texts. Exemplary Intertextual Trajectories Within (and Beyond) the European Resort Narrative
5. Scrutinizing Health Resorts as Places of Discipline and Surveillance
6. Spas and Sanatoria as Places of Trauma and Memory
7. All our Yesterdays: Paradigms of Reflective Nostalgia
8. The Health Resort in the Popular Literary Imagination
9. The New Worlds of Wellness
10. Conclusion. The Phantasmatic Power of the European Resort Narrative
Bibliography
Notes

Prix de thèse de la Société française d'histoire des sciences et des techniques

Prix de thèse de la Société française d'histoire des sciences et des techniques

Appel à candidatures



Comme chaque année, fidèle à sa mission d’encouragement et de promotion des études relatives à l’histoire des sciences et des techniques, la Société française d'histoire des sciences et des techniques (SFHST) récompense des travaux de recherche dans ces domaines.


En 2025, le Prix de thèse de la SFHST sera décerné à la meilleure thèse soutenue en histoire des sciences et des techniques entre le 1er janvier et le 31 décembre 2024 et rédigée en langue française. Il sera doté d’un montant de 1 000 €.

Les candidats désireux de concourir doivent envoyer au plus tard le 31 mai 2025 un mail à prixdethese.sfhst@gmail.com pour faire part de leur intention.

Ils recevront alors un lien internet afin de déposer électroniquement leur dossier, qui devra contenir : une version électronique de leur thèse ;
leur rapport de thèse ;
un CV ;
le formulaire de candidature dûment complété, disponible en pièce jointe.

Le Prix de thèse de la SFHST 2025 sera remis lors des Journées Jeunes Chercheurs de la SFHST, qui se dérouleront en novembre ou décembre 2025.

Pour plus d'informations, vous pouvez consulter le site de la Société.

Histoire économique des hôpitaux au XXe siècle

Business History of Hospitals in the 20th Century. Entrepreneurship, Organization, and Finances

Editors: Paloma Fernández Pérez


Springer Cham

Published: 15 June 2024
Hardcover ISBN 978-3-031-59422-9

This book offers a business history of modern hospitals in the 20th century. Presenting case studies from around the world, it examines the long-term institutional and historical evolution of hospital organization and management models, applying a business history approach to do so. Drawing on reports from international organizations and other historical data, it explores the evolution, path dependencies, actors and institutions that have shaped the diversity of hospital organization and management models. At the same time, it analyzes the historical origins of major problems faced by today’s hospitals, such as cost-inefficiencies, lack of specialized human capital, etc. The contributing authors cover topics such as the history of hospital finance and accounting, hospital price regulation, entrepreneurship models, hospital privatization, and hospital governance. The book will appeal to scholars and students of economic and business history, and to anyone interested in the history of hospitals.

Les psychiatres québécois

Ces danseurs autour du fou


Hubert Wallot



Nombre de pages 342
Date de publication 2024-07
ISBN 9782980233142

L’ouvrage Ces danseurs autour du fou constitue en quelque sorte un complément à l’ouvrage La danse autour du fou dont les deux éditions (Naaman,1998; EDISEM-TÉLUQ, 2020) ont été primées par l’Association des médecins psychiatres du Québec. Le choix du mot fou a été justifié dans le précédent ouvrage.
Mais si l’on danse autour du fou en habits d’époque et en costumes du pays, ce fou a de quoi être parfois médusé et avoir par moments le fou rire. En effet, cette danse n’est pas sans problèmes de chorégraphie et de mise en scène, allant de la gestion des ressources aux prétentions de savoir et à l’envie du pouvoir en passant par la tromperie. Il faut alors parler de folie organisationnelle.

Comparativement à La danse autour du fou, l’ouvrage porte sur une période temporelle beaucoup plus réduite et adopte des perspectives plus approfondies, estimées représentatives, mais beaucoup moins étendues dans le temps et dans l’espace que dans l’ouvrage précédent. L’auteur a choisi des situations qu’il estime plus révélatrices des enjeux humains des Danseurs. Ces situations sont présentées de façon non exhaustive notamment en termes de durée couverte.

Postdoctorat sur le consentement

Recrutement d’un·e post-doctorant.e d'une durée de 18 mois
 

(septembre 2025 à février 2027)
 

Projet ANR-21-CE27-0026 ConSent
Consentement, éthique sexuelle et sensibilités érotiques
 

Le contrat se compose :
d’⅓ de travail d’appui à la recherche
de ⅔ de recherche scientifique
 

Le ou la post-doctorant·e sera rattaché·e au laboratoire Triangle (UMR 5206), à Lyon.
Niveau de rémunération : 2258 euros net
Un budget est prévu pour l’achat de matériel informatique et pour les déplacements
nécessaires à la recherche du ou de la post-doctorant·e tout au long du contrat (à noter
que les ordres de mission ne peuvent se faire qu’au départ de la résidence
administrative, c’est-à-dire Lyon).
 

Les candidatures doivent être envoyées à l’adresse suivante :
caroline.muller@univ-rennes2.fr (responsable de l’axe 2)
anne.verjus@ens-lyon.fr (coordinatrice du projet)
 

Calendrier et processus de recrutement
Les candidatures devront être transmises avant le 31 mars 2025, 20h (heure de Paris).
Une audition en visioconférence aura lieu le 2 mai dans la matinée.
Prise de poste le 1er septembre 2025.
Devront figurer au dossier :
• un curriculum-vitae (10 pages maximum)
• le diplôme de doctorat ou l’attestation de réussite
• un résumé de la thèse (5 pages maximum) et la thèse
• le rapport de soutenance de la thèse
• un projet de recherche (4 pages maximum avec la bibliographie).
• la fiche de renseignement ci-après complétée

Critères d'éligibilité :

→ Le ou la candidat·e devra être docteur·e

→ Son doctorat doit avoir une inscription majoritaire en histoire, et le projet devra
reposer sur un terrain au moins pour partie archivistique. Un solide ancrage
théorique et méthodologique en études sur le genre et sur les sexualités est
requis.
 

Activités prévues dans le cadre du contrat post-doctoral

→ Projet scientifique
Les travaux de la personne recrutée s’inscriront dans l’axe 2 du projet ConSent, intitulé
« Histoire du consentement à la sexualité » (XVIIIe – XXIe siècles) ».
La publication (sous forme d’article) du travail réalisé pendant le post-doc est
attendue ; un numéro spécial de revue sera aussi préparé en collaboration avec les
membres du projet.
 

→ Animation collective
La personne devra participer aux activités du projet ConSent (webinaires, journée
d’étude) et présenter son travail à l’occasion de l’un des événements scientifiques du
projet.
 

→ Missions administratives

En sus du développement de son projet scientifique, la personne devra assurer une
mission d'appui à la recherche :
• soutenir l’organisation d’une journée d’études qui se tiendra au printemps 2026
(faire l’intermédiaire entre les participant.e.s et les services
administratifs/financiers, assurer la logistique des événements scientifiques,
prendre en charge le volet communication…)
• nourrir le carnet Hypothèses et la communication du projet.
 

Les principales informations relatives au projet sont disponibles sur :
https://anr.fr/Projet-ANR-21-CE27-0026
Le projet complet est disponible sur https://consent.hypotheses.org/projet-consent

 

 

CANDIDATURE À UN CONTRAT DE RECHERCHE POST-DOCTORALE
2025-2027 (18 mois)
Cette fiche de candidature devra être accompagnée d’un CV, d’un projet de travail
détaillé (4 pages maximum), de la thèse et d’un résumé de la thèse, et du rapport de
soutenance le cas échéant.
 

FICHE DE RENSEIGNEMENTS
Nom : Prénom :
Adresse électronique : Numéro de téléphone :
Nationalité : Date et lieu de naissance :
Situation professionnelle en France ou à l’étranger au moment de la candidature (le
cas échéant, nom du laboratoire ou de l’organisme, adresses postale et électronique,
pays) :
Titre du projet de recherche pour les 18 mois de contrat :
Indiquer le chantier dans lequel s’inscrit principalement le projet :

 

DOSSIER SCIENTIFIQUE
Résumé en 10 lignes du projet de recherche :
Le ou la candidat.e s’engage à participer aux activités du projet ConSent et à
présenter son travail lors d'un des événements scientifiques du projet ; le post-
doctorat devra aboutir à au moins une publication dans le cadre du projet.
Fait à le
Signature du ou de la candidat.e au contrat post-doctoral

Comment la génétique a changé l'histoire de la peste noire

How Genetics Has Changed the History of the Black Death, And How History Has Changed Genetics

The Dr. Martin A. Entin Lecture in the History of Medicine


by Monika Green, Independent Scholar 


March 12, 2025 2:30-4:00pm



In 2011, four nearly complete genomes of Yersinia pestis were retrieved from two fourteenth-century London cemeteries. In the fourteen years since then, about 100 genomes of Y. pestis have been retrieved from Second Plague Pandemic sites in Central and western Eurasia. Thus far, their evolutionary relationships tell a consistent story: that one single lineage of Y. pestis was carried westward in the thirteenth century, most likely from a marmot reservoir in or near the Tian Shan mountain range separating present-day China from Kyrgyzstan.

That’s the story from genetics. The story from historical sources is only now beginning to be pieced together, because historians are only now learning how to take information coming from the genetic and ecological sciences of plague and apply it to the testimony created by human actors in the pre-microscopic era. That new cross-interrogation has pushed back the history of the pandemic by a century, and complicated assumptions that have driven evolutionary genetics. This talk will present what is currently known of the origins and transmission of the zoonotic disease of plague, documenting hitherto unperceived outbreaks that led up to the disease’s explosive proliferation in the mid-fourteenth century and its persistence in Afro-Eurasia up to the present day.

Études de provenances des collections de sciences naturelles et humaines

Études de provenances des collections de sciences naturelles et humaines. Muséologie et histoire pour le temps présent


Appel à communication

Colloque international
1-3 octobre 2025 Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (Paris)
Auditorium de la Grande Galerie de l’Évolution


Les études de provenance se sont imposées dans les institutions muséales, entre autres celles de France, essentiellement à travers des questionnements propres aux collections d’art et d’histoire et souvent dans le cadre des procédures de règlement et restitution de biens spoliés pendant la Seconde Guerre ou, du fait de l’élargissement de la notion depuis une vingtaine d’années, acquis en contexte colonial.

Alors que ces recherches relèvent d’abord de la nécessité pour les musées de connaître leurs biens pour mieux les conserver et les valoriser, l’idée de mener de telles études hors du domaine des collections artistiques et historiques peine à acquérir sa légitimité. Du côté des collections de sciences naturelles et humaines, elles sont encore trop souvent confondues avec une démarche élémentaire de documentation des collections, voire sont considérées comme l’étape liminaire d’une opération de restitution.

À rebours de cette situation, ce colloque entend questionner les études de provenances dans un perspective ouverte aux collections des sciences naturelles et humaines. Il offrira une première étape de réflexion autour du cadre théorique des études de provenances propres aux naturalia et des artificialia, des parcours et traitement des objets dans les institutions muséales et scientifiques, des liens actuels entre ces objets, les lieux de conservation et leurs environnements originaux.

Cette réunion scientifique entend contribuer à ouvrir un espace de sensibilisation et de dialogue entre les différents acteurs qu’ils soient scientifiques, historiens ou muséologues, professionnels des musées ou des universités dans les domaines de sciences naturelles et humaines, gestionnaires de collections, juristes.

Ce colloque doit aussi être l’opportunité de mettre en avant les travaux les plus récents en matière de muséologie et d’histoire matérielle des collections et d’en susciter.

Porté par des structures de recherche et la Société des amis du Muséum, il souhaite initier, à travers la muséologie, une nouvelle dynamique de recherche sur les collections de sciences naturelles et humaines ouvrant des perspectives de collaborations nationales et internationales.



Les organisateurs seront attentifs aux propositions de communication faisant le choix d’une approche analytique ou méthodologique affirmée, qu’il s’agisse d’études de cas ou de perspectives plus globales, et s’insérant dans l’une ou l’autre des sessions organisées selon quatre thèmes :

1/ les études de provenances, spécialement celles appliquées aux collections de sciences naturelles et humaines, dans leurs dimensions théoriques et pratiques : notion, histoire, objet, droit, pratiques de bonne gestion de collection, acteurs, usages et spécificités disciplinaires, relations entre études de provenances, biographie d’objet et documentation des collections, etc.

2/ les collections dans les institutions muséales et scientifiques de sciences naturelles et humaines, de la collecte à la gestion des collections par ces institutions : diffusion des connaissances, muséographie, conservation-restauration, demandes de restitutions, respect des normes internationales, valorisation, etc.

3/ les liens contemporains effectifs ou à tisser entre les objets, les institutions de conservation, les espaces et les populations originels de collecte, voire les collectifs militants transnationaux qui se mobilisent sur ces questions : formes de construction en commun de la connaissance sur ces collections, réalité et modalités de partage des objets et des informations, etc.

4/ le rôle, les initiatives et les compétences historiques des institutions scientifiques en matière de muséologie (état des lieux, histoire des pratiques et des concepts, publics, narratifs des expositions, évolution des discours portés par les musées, moyens mis en œuvre, etc.),les politiques culturelles publiques à l’égard des études de provenances.



Les propositions de communication seront reçues jusqu’au 15 avril 2025. Elles devront comprendre un titre, un résumé (en langue française ou en langue anglaise, 3000 caractères espaces compris) indiquant les sources et choix méthodologiques de l’auteur ou des auteurs, leurs titres et institutions de rattachement.

Les propositions devront être adressées à : provenances@sciencesconf.org

La vie médicale japonaise en transformation

Japanese Medical Lives in Transformation. Contesting Modernity in the Late Nineteenth Century

Ellen Gardner Nakamura

 

Bloomsbury

Feb 2025

ISBN : 9781350344242

At the end of the 19th century, Japanese modernizers abandoned the traditional Chinese-style medicine that had dominated for centuries, and turned instead to Western medical theory and practice. In this book, Ellen Gardner Nakamura reconsiders the story of the adoption of Western medicine through the eyes of six medical practitioners.

The men who took the lead in transforming Japanese medicine under the new Meiji government were Western-style Japanese physicians, an enthusiastic minority who had studied European medical texts and techniques in the era before the 'opening' of Japan. Their achievements in creating the institutions of modern Japanese medicine are celebrated in almost every Japanese medical history book. Japanese Medical Lives in Transformation, on the other hand, focuses on a selection of lesser-known men and women whose roles in the transformation of Japanese medicine were important but unspectacular. The Japanese doctors discussed here had various educational backgrounds. Most trained in the Dutch-style medicine which had become popular in the middle of the Tokugawa era, but they ultimately struggled with the transition to modernity. To what extent was their background in premodern Western-style medicine an advantage in adapting to the Meiji era? Who were the winners and who were the losers in the modernization process? What personal and professional challenges did they face? This book is shaped by these broad questions and the informative life trajectories of six fascinating contemporaries.

Genre et sciences

Genre & Sciences


Appel à contributions

N. Spécial de Lato Sensu 

Nouvelle date limite : 01 mars 2025

https://ojs.uclouvain.be/index.php/latosensu/announcement

Nous avons le plaisir de vous rappeler la publication d'un numéro spécial de Lato Sensu consacré à « Genre & Sciences », dans le sillage du Congrès SPS 2023. Nul besoin d'avoir assisté au congrès pour soumettre une contribution. Les personnes ayant participé au congrès sont en revanche vivement encouragées à soumettre leurs travaux.

Ce numéro vise à examiner de manière critique les questions surgissant à l’intersection entre genre et pratiques scientifiques. Il abordera aussi bien les inégalités observées au fil de l’histoire et le défi contemporain concernant l'accès à la science ou la pratique de la science. Les contributions pourront explorer les relations multiples existant entre genre et sciences, notamment (mais sans que cette liste soit exhaustive) : la sous-représentation des femmes et de tous les groupes marginalisés en raison de leur identité sexuelle et/ou de genre dans les domaines des STIM (sciences, technologies, ingénierie et mathématiques), les préjugés sexistes persistant dans les pratiques de recherche et de publication, l'impact des stéréotypes sexistes sur les carrières scientifiques et le rôle des perspectives féministes dans les transformations de la recherche scientifique. En outre, nous accueillerons favorablement les analyses de stratégies et d'initiatives inclusives visant à promouvoir l'équité entre les sexes dans les sciences.

Les principales questions en jeu sont les suivantes :

1. Nouvelles approches du genre et de la science telles que l'injustice épistémique.

2. Les préjugés et stéréotypes implicites affectant les résultats de la recherche et l'évaluation par les pairs.

3. Le rôle du genre dans l'élaboration des programmes de recherche et la production de connaissances.

4. Les disparités entre les hommes et les femmes dans la participation aux STIM et l'avancement professionnel.

5. Expériences sexuées de discrimination et de harcèlement dans les environnements scientifiques.

6. Approches intersectionnelles pour comprendre les complexités du genre dans la science.

7. Les politiques de promotion de la diversité et de l'inclusion dans les institutions scientifiques, et leur impact.

8. Considérations éthiques pour relever les défis liés au genre et promouvoir l'équité dans les pratiques scientifiques.

Nous encourageons les soumissions (en français ou en anglais) d’historien.nes et de philosophes des sciences, de chercheurs et chercheuses en sciences sociales et de scientifiques menant des enquêtes critiques sur le genre et la science.



Date limite de soumission : 01 mars 2025



Veuillez consulter https://ojs.uclouvain.be/index.php/latosensu/index pour les directives de soumission.



Éditeurs invités :
Thierry Hoquet
Anne-Lise Rey
Julie Jebeile
Francesca Merlin

Appétits lubriques

Lustful Appetites: An Intimate History of Good Food and Wicked Sex

Rachel Hope Cleves



Polity
February 2025
288 pages
229 x 152 mm / 9 x 6 in


We take the edible trappings of flirtation for granted: chocolate covered strawberries and romance, oysters on the half shell and desire, the eggplant emoji and a suggestive wink. But why does it feel so natural for us to link food and sexual pleasure? Rachel Hope Cleves explores the long association between indulging in good food and an appetite for naughty sex, from the development of the Parisian restaurant as a place for men to meet with prostitutes and mistresses, to the role of sexual outlaws like bohemians, new women, lesbians and gay men in creating epicurean culture in Britain and the United States. Taking readers on a gastronomic journey from Paris and London to New York, Chicago and San Francisco, Lustful Appetites reveals how this preoccupation changed the ways we eat and the ways we are intimate―while also creating stigmas that persist well into our own twenty-first century.

Postes à l'Université de Vienne

Three positions at the newly established Chair of History of Medicine and Biosciences at the University of Vienna

 

Call for papers

 

 

University Assistant (predoctoral)

https://jobs.univie.ac.at/job/University-assistant-predoctoral/1159634301/

Job ID: 3491

Application deadline: 17/02/2025

 

University Assistant (postdoctoral)

https://jobs.univie.ac.at/job/University-Assistant-postdoctoral/1159635801/

Job ID: 3492

Application deadline: 17/02/2025

 

University Assistant (postdoctoral)

https://jobs.univie.ac.at/job/University-Assistant-postdoctoral/1159637501/

Job ID: 3493

Application deadline: 17/02/2025

René Crevel

René Crevel. À poumons perdus

Patrick Albert Pognant



L'Harmattan
Date de publication : 06/02/2025
Collection : Médecine à travers les siècles



Avec René Crevel (1900-1935) se parachève le triptyque consacré aux écrits de douleur de trois auteurs de la même génération (Artaud, Bousquet et Crevel). Des trois, René Crevel est mort le plus jeune ; il doit une partie de sa renommée à son suicide.
Le même plan que pour les deux précédents opus est proposé : une biographie abrégée, une présentation de l’œuvre, une sélection des écrits de douleur de l’auteur, une tentative d’explication de son suicide, un point sur sa sexualité compliquée et un autre sur son improbable toxicomanie ; pour finir, seront détaillés ses pathologies et les traitements mis en place pour le soigner, hélas ! sans guérison possible.
Dada, surréalisme, fêtes somptueuses... furent le théâtre de Crevel qui aimait aussi traîner dans les bars interlopes et se vivre comme un révolutionnaire. Mais il dut effectuer de longs séjours dans les sanatoriums où, comme tous les tuberculeux, il fut astreint à la climatothérapie. Il eut aussi à subir des traitements délétères contre la syphilis.
Avec le regard médical posé sur la courte vie de l’auteur, cet ouvrage dense offre ainsi un éclairage sur ses souffrances et, partant, une meilleure compréhension d’une œuvre à (re)découvrir.

Objets puissants dans les musées et collections médicales

Material Matters. Powerful Objects in Medical Museums and Collections

Call for contributions

IAMMC Conference, 10–13 September 2025


First Biannual Conference of the “International Association of Medical Museums and Collections” (IAMMC), formerly “European Association of Museums of the History of the Medical Sciences” (EAMHMS)

The last conference (Leiden 2023) investigated “New Horizons” for medical museums and collections as a whole. The 2025 conference takes a different approach. It seeks to explore the power and needs of the single object in medical museums and collections. How can it serve as a starting point and source for specific research, teaching, and outreach? What are the challenges and opportunities of its sheer materiality? And how does our “care work” in museums and collections open up new approaches for the understanding of the object itself?

Furthermore, the current temporary exhibition of the DMMI “Heart of the Matter: Human specimens in the museum” serves as a focus for the sensitive object group of human remains with its specific needs and challenges. It raises the question of how to deal with these items on public display in the museum.

Call for papers: https://www.dmm-ingolstadt.de/fileadmin/doc/cfp_material_matters_iammc_conference_ingolstadt_2025.pdf

We are looking forward to your proposals for a contribution by 28 February 2025.

Feel free to contact us via dmm(at)ingolstadt.de

For more details see the pdf or check https://www.dmm-ingolstadt.de/2025-iammc-conference.html.

Équité et appartenance dans les soins infirmiers

Significance of Race and Place: Historical Examination of Equity & Belonging in Nursing & Healthcare

Call for papers

The American Association for the History of Nursing (AAHN) invites abstract submissions for the 42nd Annual Nursing and Healthcare History conference, to be held in Wilmington, NC from October 16-18, 2025. The AAHN is offering three separate abstract tracks: (1) original research; (2) teaching nursing and healthcare history; or (3) thematic proposals. While we encourage the submission of research & educational innovations that examine the historical significance of race and/or place for nursing or healthcare practice, education, and/or policy which align with our conference theme, as always, we are happy to receive abstracts on any aspect of nursing and healthcare history. Submissions should match the criteria in one of the three abstract tracks and, where applicable, must indicate the preferred presentation option, either poster, podium, or panel presentation. The conference call for abstracts opens Monday, December 2, 2024, and closes on Friday, February 28, 2025. Presenters will be notified via email of their acceptance status by Friday, April 4, 2025.

Track Descriptions

Track 1: Original Research

As the premier forum for researchers, faculty, and enthusiasts of nursing history to share their scholarship, AAHN welcomes abstracts of original, completed work utilizing historical methodology. The research can address events, issues, and topics in any area of nursing and healthcare history, from any region or time period, as well as those that engage related fields such as women’s labor, technology, economic history, and race and gender studies.

Track 2: Teaching Nursing and Healthcare History

Building on the success of the education-focused pre-conference session at the 40th Annual conference, AAHN welcomes abstract submissions describing completed work in teaching nursing or healthcare history. Submissions focused on education can describe an entire course, a module or unit, an individual class or seminar, or a specific teaching and learning activity but must include information on planning, implementation, and evaluation.

Track 3: Thematic Proposals

AAHN also welcomes abstracts for thematic proposals. These presentations are intended not for original scholarship, but to address topics of broad interest such as new themes in historiography, teaching, research methods, and advocacy. Though limited to 60 minutes, presenters may utilize a flexible format and structure. They should, however, include several speakers for a more multidimensional perspective.

Guidelines for Submission

Abstracts must arrive on or before February 28, 2025, and must be submitted via the Oxford Abstracts submission portal: Oxford Abstracts Submission Portal. Presenters will be required to select an abstract track and indicate their desired presentation format, either poster, podium, or panel.

Abstracts should be 500 words or less, exclusive of footnoted references and learning objectives. Abstract content must be blinded; all references to the organizations and/or authors by name must be omitted from the title and body of the abstract to ensure a fair, unbiased review process. Failure to comply with this blinded process will result in automatic abstract disqualification. A complete submission will include all of the following elements: Abstract Body, References, and Learning Objectives.

Abstract Body: 500 words max; each section of the abstract should be clearly identified using the 4 following headers:

Purpose and Background: Research and Thematic Tracks: provide an overview of the topic, including the problem identified, the major actors, their interests, and the historical period. Summarize the historical literature on the topic and contextualize your work within the key texts and approaches in the field. Describe how your work is different and what it contributes to the extant body of knowledge.
Teaching Track: provide an overview of the learning need by identifying the problem that was addressed through education with historical content. Describe and summarize any background literature utilized in the development of the learning activity.

Methods / Course Design / Implementation Plan: Research and Thematic Tracks: identify and describe the methodology, framework, or theory underpinning the work. Include information on data sources and/or archival collections accessed for primary source material.
Teaching Track: identify and describe the theory, philosophy, or framework guiding the development of the learning activity. Provide an overview of the education, including a description of the intended learners and the history content that was incorporated. Discuss the implementation plan and describe any challenges incurred during course planning or execution.

Results / Outcomes: Research and Thematic Tracks: describe key findings from the work, supported by evidence discovered during data collection. Discuss the data analysis methods that informed your findings.
Teaching Track: identify and describe the learning assessment and evaluation methods used to determine the impact and effectiveness of the education activity. Summarize outcome data and discuss the data analysis methods that informed your findings.

Conclusions / Implications: Research and Thematic Tracks: summarize your conclusion and discuss the significance of your findings for nursing research and/or practice. Indicate how your work contributes to a more inclusive history of nursing or healthcare and/or addresses a significant gap in nursing scholarship.
Teaching Track: discuss any planned changes to the learning activity based on outcome data and experiential feedback from learners and describe plans for continuous evaluation moving forward. Summarize the implications of the education on the learners’ future nursing practice.

References: Any footnoted references from the abstract text should be cited using the Chicago Manual of Style, 18th Edition. References are a separate section and are not considered part of the abstract word count.

Learning Objectives: Please state a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 3 learning objectives that you expect participants to meet by attending your session. Learning objectives utilize an action verb and must be congruent with the abstract text. New knowledge must be gained to qualify for continuing education (CE) contact hours.


Contact Information
American Association for the History of Nursing

Contact Email
aahn@aahn.org

URL
https://www.aahn.org/2025-call-for-abstracts

Une histoire de la médecine transgenre aux États-Unis

A History of Transgender Medicine in the United States: From Margins to Mainstream 

Carolyn Wolf-Gould, Dallas Denny, Jamison Green, Kyan Lynch (Editors) 

Publisher ‏ : ‎ State University of New York Press (February 1, 2025)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 592 pages
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8855801224


Arriving at a critical moment in the struggle for transgender rights, A History of Transgender Medicine in the United States takes an empathic approach to an embattled subject. Sweeping in scope and deeply personal in nature, this groundbreaking volume traces the development of transgender medicine across three centuries-centering the voices of transgender individuals, debunking myths about gender-affirming care, and empowering readers to grasp the complexities of this evolving field. More than forty contributors-including patients, advocates, physicians, psychologists, and scholars-weave an illuminating, sometimes surprising narrative of collaboration and conflict between trans people and the scientists who have studied and worked with them. An indispensable guide to understanding the current tumult surrounding trans health-care access in the United States, the volume underscores a crucial message: gender diversity is not a new phenomenon but an integral part of our shared human history.

Culture et paradigmes psychiatriques pendant la guerre froide

Culture and Psychiatric Paradigms during the Cold War

 

Call for papers

 

Workshop

JUme 18-19, 2025

Charité University, Berlin

 

At the same time when culture became part of discussions in the medical and psy fields from the 1950s
onwards, there was a questioning of the psychosurgeries and the exclusion and confinement of psychiatric
patients. There was also a wider openness and debate about diagnoses, the limits of “madness”, and the cultural forms in which psychic suffering appeared in different societies. During the Cold War, these discussions became global agendas, crossing East and West Europe, as well as the Global South.
From recent research on the Brazilian psychiatrist Nise da Silveira (1905-1999) and her relationship with Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), art therapy, and the anti-asylum movement, we have verified a change in psychiatric strategy at that time. When the confinement of psychiatric patients and psychosurgery began to be questioned, as early as the 1940s in Silveira's case, psychiatry changed its strategy of appeasing the subject using psychotropic drugs. From the 1950s onwards, part of psychiatry was unable to support psychosurgery to keep the “mad” calm and within acceptable social standards. One of the hypotheses is that there was a change in technique, but not necessarily in the psychiatric paradigm: Did drugs still aim to control subjectivity towards an acceptable social “normality”?
One of the core questions to be explored is whether there has been a paradigm shift with the introduction of psychotropic drugs and how the cultural perspective and treatments have become (or not) an alternative to both techniques (psychosurgery and drugs). In this sense, another relevant debate is how culture was used to criticize the notions of “madness” at that time, especially among psychotic patients, broadening the debate regarding what was considered normal and abnormal for society and medicine. This workshop aims to identify these debates through different case studies, considering especially Eastern and Western Europe, and the Global South.

We invite participants who can contribute to the debates listed above, focusing on, but not limited to, the
following topics during the Cold War:
1.Historical studies of clinical cases in which culture was an important vector in the treatment of psychiatric patients
2.Theoretical-clinical discussions by psychiatrists, anthropologists, or other health professionals on the use of psychotropic drugs as an alternative to psychosurgery, analyzing how culture played or not an important role in these discussions
3.Art therapy and other forms of socio-cultural treatments as alternatives to compulsory hospitalization,
medication and psychosurgery

The workshop will be organized in cooperation with the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with
Ethnographic Museum (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences-BAS) and the Institute for the History and Ethics of Medicine, Charité Berlin, as part of the ERC Synergy Project “Leviathan.” In-person attendance is mandatory.
Further information about the project can be found here: https://leviathan-europe.eu/.
The workshop is intended for an initial exchange and intense discussion. The prepared contributions will be circulated in advance and only briefly presented at the workshop so that there is sufficient time for discussion.
Pre-circulated texts (approx. 2,000 words) should be submitted one month in advance, by May 18, 2025.
Applications will be accepted until February 28, 2025, via e-mail with an abstract (max. 350 words) and a short CV. The program will be announced at the beginning of March. Funding is available for accommodation and travel expenses. For any further questions, please contact the responsible organizer, 

Tiago Pires (IEFEM-BAS).
tiago.pires@iefem.bas.bg

La surdité dans la Grande-Bretagne moderne

Echoes of Care. Deafness in Modern Britain
 

Jaipreet Virdi



Part of the McGill-Queen’s/AMS Healthcare Studies in the History of Medicine, Health, and Society (number 65 in series)
330 Pages, 6 x 9
24 photos, 1 table
ISBN 9780228023654
February 2025



More than one billion people live with hearing loss, making deafness one of the most common disabilities in the world. Despite the size of deaf communities and their rich cultural histories, in the Western world deafness is perceived primarily as a medical problem requiring a fix. In nineteenth-century Britain the shift from viewing deafness as auditory difference to framing it as a condition in need of medical intervention came at the insistence of an emerging group of professionals: aurists

Echoes of Care describes how British ear specialists sought to reshape deafness as a curable affliction that they were uniquely able to treat. Navigating a medical landscape fraught with professional rivalries and public distrust about the likelihood of a cure, aurists extended their authority towards key sites of intervention - the census, school medical testing, public health, deaf schools - to argue for the necessity of specialist care. Beneath the surface of these claims lay deeper questions about access to healthcare, cultural perceptions of disability, and the rise of eugenics.

Jaipreet Virdi explores the complex legacy of the medicalization of deafness and its profound implications for deaf history, culture, and lived experience.

Médecine, fertilité, maternité et reproduction

Women's Ideas in the History of Medicine. Fertility, Maternity, and Reproduction

2025 Webinars Series



Organised by
Jil Muller
Fabrizio Bigotti




Organised in collaboration with the Centre for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists – University of Paderborn, this series seeks to understand the role of women in the history of medicine by exploring their contributions in fields such as natural philosophy, household remedies, plant manipulation and selection, as well as midwifery.

 
 
Aspasia and the Others: Women and Medicine in Late Antiquity
Irene Calà

19 March 2025 – 4.00 PM (CEST)


Medical texts from Late Antiquity are invaluable for our understanding of lost medical sources. This is particularly true for the medical work of Aetius, a physician native to Amida, lived in the first half of the sixth century AD, and author of a 16-book treatise known as Libri medicinales. This compilation is considered one of the most significant and source-rich works of its time. While female sources in medical texts appear quite limited or entirely absent—such as in the works of Oribasius of Pergamum—they undoubtedly represent one of the primary sources for the last of the Libri medicinales, where Aetius lists a certain Aspasia as a specialist in various medical practices related to gynaecology and obstetrics.

The prominence of Aspasia seems, at times, to overshadow that of the more renowned Soranus of Ephesus, who is considered the foremost authority on women’s diseases. From this observation, we will attempt to trace the remnants of a medical literature written by women, echoes of which are preserved in the medical texts of Late Antiquity. The selected passages related to fertility, pregnancy, and childbirth management will be discussed, highlighting the physical and psychological approach that characterizes Aspasia’s medical practice and the concrete role played by women in the care of women.


About the Speaker…

Irene Calà is research associate at the Institute for Ethics, History, and Theory of Medicine at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. She is specialist of Greek medicine in Late Antiquity, with a focus on the continuity of medical knowledge from antiquity through the Renaissance. She is currently working on the first critical edition of the unpublished books of Aetius of Amida, in the DFG project led by Mathias Witt.


Women’s Health in Early Islamic Medical Works: Contextualising al-Maǧūsī’s "Kitāb al-malakī"
Anna Gili

2 April 2025 – 4.00 PM (CEST)

Al-Maǧūsī, a Zoroastrian physician from the Fārs province, composed his Kitāb al-malakī during the second half of the tenth century. This medical encyclopaedia in ten books which aims to synthesizes and systematizes all earlier medical knowledge into a unified whole also devotes great attention to women health issues. Al-Maǧūsī’s analysis encompasses topics such as foetal formation, growth, and female anatomy along gynaecological diseases, the diet of pregnant women and the role of midwifes, while also examining cures for gynaecological ailments and specific surgical operations.

Based on the assumption that the Kitāb al-malakī should be studied as an organic treatise, my talk will present an overview of how and why reproduction, maternity, and fertility were considered relevant in the tenth century. I will also be assessing to what extent the Kitāb al-malakī relies on earlier sources and which innovations are contributed by al- Maǧūsī himself.


About the Speaker…

Anna Gili is a PhD student in Latin and Arabic philology at the University of Padua and the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (cotutelle de thèse). Her main research interest is the transmission of medical knowledge from Greek into Arabic and from Arabic into Latin during the Middle Ages. Her PhD project aims to critically edit and study the books on pathology in the medical encyclopaedia al-Kitāb al-Malakī, composed by ʿAlī ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Maǧūsī (10th c.) and in its two Latin translations, namely the Pantegni by Constantine the African and the Liber regalis by Stephen of Antioch.



Women’s Reproductive Lives in Renaissance Italian Lyric Poetry
Shannon McHugh

16 April 2025 – 4.o0 PM (CEST)


What can a sonnet teach us about the history of women’s reproductive bodies? For the early modern world, notions about pregnancy and childbirth have been well documented by historians, who have combed through archival and print materials composed by the period’s medical, religious, and humanist authorities. Literary texts, however, have been consulted less, including lyric poetry; short, emotional poems are not normally among the historian’s go-to objects. Yet lyric is rife with representations of motherhood. Examples appear in verse written in vernacular and in Latin, in poems of Marian worship and of autobiographic account, such as the prolific poet Francesca Turina (1553–1641), who composed numerous poems on miscarriage, childbirth, and early motherhood.

The details captured in her descriptions both complicate standard historical narratives and flesh out our understanding of family practices in this period, shading in scholarly models with affective dimensions. This paper expands our understanding of the history of women’s reproductive autonomy by tracing depictions of pregnancy, abortion, miscarriage, birth, and nursing in Renaissance Italian lyric poetry. Unlike texts by medical and theological authorities, lyric provides access to personal experience and can do so on a wider scale: it was the most democratic of literary genres, practiced by men of various social stripes, and, in early modern Italy, by numerous women.


About the Speaker…

Shannon McHugh is Assistant Director of Research at The Huntington Library. Her research focuses on early modern Italian and French lyric poetry and gender. Publications include Petrarch and the Making of Gender in Renaissance Italy (Amsterdam UP, 2023) and the co-edited volume Vittoria Colonna: Poetry, Religion, Art, Impact (Amsterdam UP, 2021). She was the 2023–24 Molina Fellow in the History of Medicine at The Huntington, where she researched her current book project, “Women’s Reproductive Lives in Renaissance Lyric Poetry.”


Fluids as Dynamic and Organic Forces. Medical knowledge in Oliva Sabuco de Nantes
Karin Durin

30 April 2025 – 4.00 PM (CEST)

This work will examine the study of organic fluids and movements in the Nueva filosofía de la naturaleza del hombre, published by Oliva Sabuco de Nantes in 1587. The representation of the internal anatomy shows the dynamics that flow back and forth, combining the power of emotions and affects, the processes of digestion and the influence of the environment, all of which are expressed in Sabuco’s vision through the ebb and flow of movements of growth and decay. The categories of dry and wet are themselves governed by the emotions, in particular tristeza y descontento, when the soul and body are in discord. The regulating role of the emotions on the movement of fluids and even on the principles of digestion brings us back to the centre of the vital composition, which for Sabuco is the brain. From then, the flow of fluids in all their forms (milk, semen, bile, gastric fluid, tears, white blood, chyle) led us to follow Sabuco’s project of medical reform. But what happens in this text with the legacy of ancient and galenic physiology’s theories on fluids and humours? What philosophical interpretation stems from this interpretation of the bodily fluidity, which affects men, women and animals equally? The bodily fluidity in Sabuco gives rise to a rich metaphorical expression and highlights a vitalism correlated with a global vision of society whose reform project concludes the 1587 work.


About the Speakers…

Karine Durin is Full-Professor at the University of Nantes (France). She is a specialist of intellectual history in the Early Modern Iberian World. She recently published a chapter on Sabuco de Nantes, between Epicureanism and Stoicism (“A Female Dissenter in Counter-Reformation Spain”, De Gruyter, 2024) and a contribution on feminine reading of Baltasar Gracián in XVIIth century France (Classiques Garnier, 2024). She is currently working on the first translation of Sabuco’s treatise in French.



A History of Breastfeeding: Its Iconography and Medical Importance
Viktorya Vasilyan

14 May 2025 – 4.00 PM (CEST)


During human history, infants were fed human milk for survival, either through breastfeeding by their mothers or adoptive breastfeeding by other women. From antiquity to today, breastfeeding has been valued, reflected in mythology, philosophy, art, and religion worldwide. In ancient Armenia, it was prized for its health benefits, with wet nurses serving the upper classes while rural women breastfed for economic reasons. Colostrum was once deemed harmful but gained recognition in 1699 through Michael Ettmüller. During the European Renaissance, breastfeeding saw renewed appreciation in art, with depictions like suckler Lady and suckler Eve symbolising respect for motherhood.

Figures such as Hildegard of Bingen and Regina Areshian, founder of the Research Center of Maternal and Child Health Protection in Armenia, studied maternal hygiene and wet nursing. This work explores sociological, medical, and moral treatises on these themes, informed by research on the Virgo Lactans and Virgin of Humility. Iconography studies, such as those by Williamson, Sperling, Rivera, and Bergmann, provide critical insights into the Eve-Mary relationship and sacred images, though scholarly consensus on breastfeeding and wet nursing in the Middle Ages remains elusive.


About the Speaker…

Viktorya Vasilyan holds a PhD in History and serves as a researcher and the head of the Scientific Organisational Department at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, NAS RA. Additionally, she is a lecturer at the Traditional Medicine University of Armenia. Currently, she manages the “100 Archaeological Monuments of Armenia” project, an initiative aimed at exploring and documenting significant archaeological sites across the nation. More information about this project is available at https://ama100.am/en. She is also honoured to serve as a Goodwill Ambassador for Peace, Human Rights, and Humanity with the IHRO in Armenia.


Pregnant Women’s Wellbeing in Jane Sharp’s "The Midwives’ Book" (1671)
Martina Guzzetti

29 May 2025 – 4.00 PM (CEST)


Women’s health, wellbeing, and medical conditions have always been at the centre of gendered debates concerning, among other things, who has the necessary knowledge and authority to discuss and provide advice about them. Of the many branches of medicine involved in these debates, midwifery certainly holds a prominent position: in particular, between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, these controversies saw the rivalry between midwives and the emerging men-midwives encapsulated in their own publications. While men’s textbooks on midwifery were limited to the description of women’s anatomy and the discussion of the birth event itself (without taking into consideration what happened to women before, during, and after pregnancy), the midwives’ manuals offered a different point of view, that is, one of a skilled practitioner (despite the misogynist stereotypes) who could also share with her patients the same experience, thus having access to a kind of knowledge which went beyond the purely technical one. This contribution deals in particular with Jane Sharp’s The Midwives’ Book (1671) and offers to focus precisely on an aspect often overlooked in men’s textbooks, that is, pregnant women’s wellbeing, be it physical and/or mental. The analysis considers the creation of discourses related, for example, to factors helping the conception of a child, to easing labour, and to preventing diseases after childbirth. In the discussion, particular attention will be devoted to the peculiar connection between midwives and pregnant women, and to the references to professional and private experience used to back up such knowledge.



About the Speaker…


Martina Guzzetti is a Post-Doctoral Researcher and Lecturer of English Language and Linguistics at the University of Insubria and the University of Milan. Her research is based around language and gender studies in historical perspective, with a focus on news discourse, lexicography, and the popularisation of medical knowledge. She is currently working on a project about pregnant women’s wellbeing in midwifery manuals and domestic dictionaries.