Travailler à l'hôpital la nuit

Working in the hospital at night, past and present 

Call for papers 

 

7th International Conference on Night Studies (online 7-9 october 2026) 

Co-Convenors: Sophie Panziera (EHESS- Centre Alexandre Koyré) and Kristin Hussey (Newcastle University)

Night-time within the hospital is a unique and often paradoxical context. In both general and psychiatric hospitals, the night can be peaceful a time of sleep and rest for patients and staff alike. But it can also be active and dangerous – a time for admissions, emergencies, accidents and deaths.

The night-time atmosphere in hospitals reflects this particularity and affects sensory perceptions (perceptions of sounds in relative silence, alternating between rooms that are lit, dimly lit or plunged into obscurity, etc.). The organisation of night-time hospital care must therefore respond to a paradox: conditions must allow patients to sleep, while the hospital must remain operational and the healthcare staff must stay vigilant. Working overnight challenges the physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of hospital staff – who grapple with fatigue while often making life and death decisions. At the same time, the nighttime hospital can be a space of relative freedom – for rest, reflection and connection between patients and staff. The transition between day and night, and the kinds of care delivered in these different periods, has been and is today, subject to intense administrative management and supervision. In this panel, we want to ask – how is the night time hospital navigated and experienced by hospital staff, past and present?

As part of the 7th International Conference on Night Studies, which will be held online from 7 to 9 October 2026, we would like to propose an interdisciplinary panel that examines this specific space-time of the night from the perspective of hospital staff. We invite papers which interrogate the specific atmospheres, sensations, emotions, structures and practices of the hospital by night in any period or geographical location. We hope papers in this panel will contribute to an exploration of the unique characteristics of the nighttime hospital and the ways that staff (broadly defined) manage this context.

Proposals may cover, but are not limited to, the following topics:

– Night-time organisation of the hospital (history of night-time emergency services, night-time administration)

– Sociology and history of night-time staff (gender, career paths, professional issues, etc.)

– Night-time knowledge: does night-time work in hospitals require specific knowledge and skills?

– The experience of night work in hospitals/night-time working conditions in hospitals

– Social and professional representations of night-time hospital staff (heroes or lazy?)

– Literary and cultural representations of the night shift in the hospital

– Night-time atmosphere and sensitivities in hospitals (anxiety, rumours or beliefs, altered perceptions, ghost stories)

We invite interested people to send their proposals for papers to sophie.panziera@ehess.fr by 28 April at the latest. Abstracts (250-300 words) and papers (15 min + discussions) will have to be in English.