Congrès de l'AAHM

AAHM 2026 Meeting

Call for papers

The American Association for the History of Medicine (AAHM) (https://histmed.org) invites abstracts for papers in any area of the history of health, healing, and medicine for its annual meeting held in Buffalo, New York, from June 3-7, 2026. This year the annual meeting will be held in conjunction with the American Association for the History of Nursing (https://www.aahn.org). We also invite abstracts for a virtual meeting to be held in March 2026.

This year’s Program Committee, led by co-chairs Rana Hogarth and Jacob Steere-Williams, invites proposals that embrace the multi-disciplinary nature of the field, expanding the methodological, chronological, and geographical scope of what constitutes the history of medicine. In addition to continuing critical conversations about epidemics, race, gender, public health, disability, and pharmaceuticals, we especially welcome proposals that bring fresh perspectives on heath and healing in the ancient and early modern world, and to non-western and Indigenous approaches and understandings of health, disease, and medicine. The Garrison lecturer for the 2026 meeting will be Dr. Monica Green, a renowned specialist on gender and disease in the medieval and early modern world.

This year’s annual meeting is an opportunity to reflect on and learn about the diverse roles that we play as historians of medicine; as educators, clinicians, as authors, and as public intellectuals. We are thus actively seeking proposals for workshops that address key areas of professional development, including, but not limited to: new pedagogical approaches in universities and medical schools; mentorship and avenues in academic and popular publishing; and the ways that historians of medicine engage with public audiences.

Proposals for this year’s meeting can take six forms, identified below: individual papers, prepared panels, roundtables, workshops, posters, and flash talks. Flash talks are a new format that will feature short presentations about exciting new work in the field. Please note that submissions are limited to one per person per category. Presenters, however, can also be chairs or discussants of an organized panel, roundtable, or workshop. Submission types include:



Individual papers: All papers in this category should represent original scholarship not already published or in press. Speakers should expect to give a presentation of no more than twenty minutes followed by ten minutes of discussion.

Panels: Panels (ninety minutes) should consist of three to four individual papers featuring original scholarship (limited to fifteen to twenty minutes each) addressing a common topic. An appointed chair should submit a proposal for the entire panel and coordinate individual speakers. Each speaker should submit an individual abstract as well, with a note indicating their participation in the panel. Please note that both panels and individual abstracts for the papers included in them will be judged collectively, with a goal of keeping proposed panels intact as proposed; occasionally, however, the program committee may make changes. Panels may include an invited discussant, bearing in mind the time limit.

Roundtables: Roundtables should engage with pressing historiographical questions. Roundtables are thus opportunities to address audiences or use formats not well supported by a more traditional panel format. Only one abstract need be submitted by the organizer, although a slate of four to six participants (including the chair) should be confirmed at the time of submission.

Workshops: Workshops should focus on issues of professional development: teaching, research methods, and advocacy. These sessions have a flexible format and can include four to five participants (including the chair), while leaving ample space for discussion with the audience. Only one abstract need be submitted by the organizer, although all participants should be confirmed.

Posters: Posters are well-suited to works that emphasize non-textual content. A limited number of them, representing original work not already published or in press, will be accepted for display in a designated area, with planned times for discussion during the meeting.

Flash Talks: Flash Talks are a new feature of the AAHM program. Geared at the early stages of a research project, these talks offer scholars around ten minutes to present new case studies and innovate works in progress. The Program Committee will feature Flash Talks at highly visible parts of the conference program to encourage large audiences and conversation.

The AAHM uses an online abstract submission system. Links to this submission system can be found at: https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/79799/submitter. Submissions must include an abstract of no more than 300 words, including title, your name and institutional affiliation, three descriptive keywords, and three Continuing Medical Education (CME) learning objectives. (The learning objectives are not considered part of the word count.) For suggestions on developing learning objectives, see www.histmed.org/learning-objectives. For examples of successful abstracts from selected past programs, see www.histmed.org/meetings.


Individuals are not required to be AAHM members at the time of submission, but they must join AAHM before registering for and presenting at the meeting.


Note: No duplicate papers will be accepted for both the 2026 virtual meeting and the in-person meeting in Buffalo.


Abstracts must be submitted by midnight, Eastern Time (ET) 15 October 2025. Late submissions will not be considered.