Avortement sous l'apartheid

Abortion Under Apartheid. Nationalism, Sexuality, and Women's Reproductive Rights in South Africa
Susanne M. Klausen

Oxford University Press
October 2015
ISBN: 9780199844494 

Abortion Under Apartheid traces the criminalization of abortion in South Africa during the apartheid era (1948-1990), the emergence of a flourishing clandestine abortion industry, and 1975 passage of the country's first statutory law on abortion. The book examines the politics of sexuality, racism and nationalism in apartheid culture, arguing that the authoritarian National Party Government regulated white women's reproductive sexuality in the interests of maintaining white supremacy. One major focus is the battle that erupted in the late 1960s when doctors and feminists called for liberalization of the colonial-era laws criminalizing abortion. The movement for abortion law reform spurred a variety of political, social and religious groups to grapple with the meaning of abortion in the context of changing ideas about the traditional family and women's place within it. Abortion Under Apartheid shows that all women, regardless of race, were oppressed under apartheid. Yet, although the National Party was preoccupied with denying young white women reproductive control, black women bore the brunt of the lack of access to safe abortion, suffering the effects of clandestine abortion on a shocking scale in urban centers around the country.

At the heart of the story are the black and white girls and women who -- regardless of hostility from partners, elders, religious institutions, nationalist movements, conservative doctors and nurses, or the racist regime -- persisted in determining their own destinies. Although a great many were harmed and even died as a result of being denied safe abortion, many more succeeded in thwarting opponents of women's right to control their capacity to bear children. This book conveys both the tragic and triumphant sides of their story.

Poisons et médicaments dans la Chine médiévale

Toxic Cures: Poisons and Medicines in Medieval China

Dr Yan Liu (Jackman Humanities Institute Postdoctoral Fellow)


4.10 -5pm, Wednesday 25th of November 2015

Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto
125 Queens Park, 3rd floor, Room 310

A striking feature of traditional Chinese medicine, perhaps against our common knowledge, is its regular use of poisons. For example, one of the most frequently deployed drugs in China was aconite (fuzi), a highly toxic herb. Why did poisons figure prominently in traditional Chinese pharmacy? What contributed to their therapeutic value? And how does a study of poisons teach us about medieval Chinese society? Probing the roots of this tradition from the third to the tenth century, when the major outlines of Chinese toxicology took shape, my talk examines the centrality of poisons to the practice and theory of medicine in China with special attention to a variety of techniques that transformed poisons into medicines. Moreover, it explores how poisons altered the body in Daoist alchemical practice and how this knowledge shaped the medical understanding of toxic substances. I also highlight the complexity of drug materiality that defied stable categorization. Whether a substance was a medicine or a poison, I contend, always depended on the method and context of its usage, the bodily experience it induced, and its perceived value in society. This study seeks to not just unveil an important yet ignored history of Chinese medicine, but also bring fresh insights into the paradoxical nature of drug therapy in our own life.

For enquiries contact: n.everett@utoronto.ca

Histoire de la relation médecins-patients

Doctors and Patients: History, Representations, Communication from the Antiquity to the Present 

Maria Malatesta (ed.)

San Francisco
University of California Medical Humanities Press
 2015

For the first time, a book considers the doctor/patient relationship in the long period and from a broad geographical perspective. Historians, anthropologists and doctors reflect on the factors that, from the Classical age until the present, have altered the care relationship and the power relations embedded within it. The book also highlights that communication and narration, understood as constitutive aspects of care, are the elements which link the past to the present. From the encounter between religion and medicine to the centuries-long struggle between doctors and patients in defence of their respective positions, from medical dramas to efforts to humanize medicine, the book describes the doctor/patient relationship in all its cultural, transnational and transtemporal dimensions.

Médecine et modernité dans le long 19e siècle

Medicine and Modernity in the Long Nineteenth Century


Call for papers


St Anne’s College, Oxford

10th – 11th September 2016

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: CHRISTOPHER HAMLIN AND LAURA OTIS

In our current ‘Information Age’ we suffer as never before, it is claimed, from the stresses of an overload of information, and the speed of global networks. The Victorians diagnosed similar problems in the nineteenth century. The medic James Crichton Browne spoke in 1860 of the ‘velocity of thought and action’ now required, and of the stresses imposed on the brain forced to process in a month more information ‘than was required of our grandfathers in the course of a lifetime’. Through this two day interdisciplinary conference, hosted by the ERC funded Diseases of Modern Life project based at Oxford, we will explore the phenomena of stress and overload, and other disorders associated with the problems of modernity in the long nineteenth century, as expressed in the literature, science, and medicine of the period. We seek to return to the holistic, integrative vision of the Victorians as it was expressed in the science and literature of the period, exploring the connections drawn between physiological, psychological and social health, or disease, and offering new ways of contextualising the problems of modernity facing us in the twenty-first century. We are particularly interested in comparative perspectives on these issues from international viewpoints.

Topics might include, but are not limited to:

• Representations of ‘modern’ disorders and neuroses in literature and the medical press
• Defining modernity and its problems in the nineteenth century
• Medical and psychiatric constructions of modern life
• Social and mental health and welfare
• Diseases from pollution and changing nineteenth-century environments
• Diseases from worry, overwork, and mental or physical strain
• Diseases from excess, self-abuse, stimulants, and narcotics
• The role of machinery and technology in causing or curing disease
• Changing relationships between doctors and patients
• Emerging medical specialisms
• Global modernities

We welcome proposals from researchers across a range of disciplines and stages of career. We plan to publish a selection of papers from the event in the form of an edited volume. Please send proposals of no more than 300 words accompanied by a short bio, to medicineandmodernity@ell.ox.ac.uk by Friday, 4th December 2015.

Amelia Bonea, Melissa Dickson, Jennifer Wallis, Sally Shuttleworth.

Le corps souffrant dans l’œuvre philosophique de Sénèque

Sapientia contemptrix doloris. Le corps souffrant dans l’œuvre philosophique de Sénèque 

Jean-Christophe Courtil

 Leuven, Peeters, 

« Latomus » 351, 

2015, 620 p.

Sénèque respecte scrupuleusement l’orthodoxie stoïcienne en affirmant à plusieurs reprises que l’intégrité physique, en tant qu’« indifférent » moral, ne doit en aucun cas être un objet d’attention. Toutefois, parallèlement à ces considérations, il compose une œuvre dans laquelle la souffrance physique occupe une place considérable. La présente étude, à travers l’examen des théories et des représentations du dolor physique dans l’œuvre philosophique de Sénèque, se propose de résoudre ce paradoxe apparent, et de déterminer précisément les fonctions d’un tel emploi. Après avoir défini la notion de dolor physique, elle démontre l’omniprésence du motif du corps souffrant et en dégage les raisons contextuelles. Elle envisage en outre la dimension médicale des représentations de la souffrance, afin de définir le niveau des connaissances techniques du philosophe et l’origine des théories pathologiques et thérapeutiques qui affleurent dans son œuvre. Enfin, elle examine le dolor physique au sein de la pensée philosophique de Sénèque afin de démontrer que le dolor possède une fonction éthique de premier ordre, aussi bien d’un point de vue théorique que pratique.

La médecine antique en question

Where does it hurt? Ancient Medicine in Questions and Answers

Call for papers

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
LEUVEN 30–31 AUGUST 2016
CONFIRMED KEYNOTE SPEAKER: PROF. DR. ROBERT MAYHEW (SETON HALL UNIVERSITY)

Asking the right questions and obtaining the right answers is vital to modern medical healthcare. It is
essential for efficient doctor-patient communication, forming an important component of medical treatment. This was no different in Antiquity. Already the Hippocratic writings give us an idea of which kinds of questions physicians asked in diagnosing their patients, and which answers they received in return (see, e.g., the case histories in the Epidemics). However, one can imagine that patients or, in case of severe illness, their relatives were often incapable of providing an accurate answer to (some of) the doctor’s questions. Galen, for instance, says that certain types of pain are actually felt by patients, but cannot be described by them when asked to (Loc. Aff. 2, 9 [8, 117 Kühn]). As such, a good doctor had to be able not simply to ask the right questions, but also to look for the right answers himself, if necessary.
The use of question-and-answer (Q&A) formulas is widely attested in ancient medical literature. By
employing specific interrogative turns in their discourses, medical authors not only sought to provide
practical information for proper treatment of patients, but also to amass theoretical insights about the
human body and its physiological and pathological processes more generally. They dealt with several
types of questions, including questions that sought to locate, define and explain certain illnesses or disorders in the body (“Where does it hurt?”, “What is it that hurts?”, ”Why does it hurt?”). Questions of this kind were common in medical treatises of the Greco-Roman period (they can be found, e.g., in medical manuals, medical papyri and collections of problemata). The popularity of the Q&A format is largely due to the fact that it became well-entrenched in the ancient medical school curriculum.
Through its dialogical and interrogative structure, it provided teachers and students with a useful method to question and memorize all types of medical knowledge, both practical and theoretical. Once condensed in a textual form, it was also useful in transferring this knowledge between author and reader.
This conference aims to bring together scholars from the field of medical history and related fields (history of science, [natural] philosophy, theology, literary studies, linguistics, ...) with the goal of examining the role of Q&A in medical literature, from the Hippocratic writers to Late Antiquity and its reception in the Middle Ages. The conference is open to various approaches, and aims to address –
but is not restricted to – questions of content (e.g., transfer and transformation of medical knowledge in Q&A style), textuality (e.g., development from orality to written text), context (e.g., sociointellectual relations between doctor/patient, teacher/student, author/reader), and use (e.g., theoretical contemplation vs. practical application of medical knowledge).
Please send your abstract (ca. 500 words) and a short bio (ca. 10 lines) by 15 January 2016 to Erika Gielen (Erika.Gielen@hiw.kuleuven.be) and Michiel Meeusen (Michiel.Meeusen@arts.kuleuven.be).
Presentations should be 20 minutes in length. In your abstract, please include a clear summary of your argument and an indication of how your paper would contribute to critical reflection on the topic as a whole. Early career researchers are especially encouraged to send in an abstract. The organisers hope, but cannot promise, to be able to offer accommodation to speakers.

Malades, soignants, hôpitaux, représentations en Roussillon, Languedoc & Provence

Questions de santé sur les bords de la Méditerranée. Malades, soignants, hôpitaux, représentations en Roussillon, Languedoc & Provence XVIe-XVIIIe siècle

Gilbert LARGUIER  (éd.)

Presses Universitaires de Perpignan

ISBN ou ISSN : 9782354122423
Prix : 20.00 €
Collection : Etudes
Thème : Histoire

C’est au cours de l’époque moderne (XVIe-XVIIIe siècle) que les questions de santé commencent à être abordées de manière éclairée, avec une attention plus grande apportée à l’hygiène, la mise en place de mesures visant à éviter la propagation des épidémies, la réorganisation des établissements hospitaliers et d’assistance, les débuts d’une véritable recherche médicale. Tous ces thèmes, facettes d’une révolution en profondeur qui touche à la fois à la société, à l’Etat, à la médecine et aux sciences, aux comportements et aux croyances, sont abordées de manière concrète dans les différentes contributions, complémentaires les unes des autres, qui portent sur le sud de la France, mais ont valeur d’exemple beaucoup plus large. La question fondamentale est en effet : comment une société fait-elle face aux questions de santé ? On pourra voir que les préoccupations contemporaines étaient formulées de manière beaucoup plus claire et pertinente qu’on ne le pense avant la période industrielle.

Le médecin bohémien Georg Handsch

Humanist self-fashioning and ordinary medical practice. The Bohemian physician Georg Handsch (1529–c. 1578) and his notebooks

Prof Michael Stolberg (University of Würzburg) 

24th November

Wellcome Library, 183 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BE.
Doors open at 6pm prompt, the seminar will start at 6.15pm.

The professional identity of learned physicians underwent some major changes in the 16th century. The rise of humanism reshaped the world of the ‘res publica literaria’ in which learned physicians prominently participated. At the same time, growing numbers of physicians settled in large and small towns all over Central and Western Europe and sought to make a living as medical practitioners. Drawing on the voluminous notebooks of a little known and rather unsuccessful Bohemian physician by the name of Georg Handsch, and some other physicians’ letters and practice journals, this paper will take a look at the ways in which fairly ‘ordinary’ physicians coped with this tension: how they self-fashioned themselves as humanist intellectuals, but also engaged with the medical lay-world and interacted with (and learnt from) the townsfolk in an effort to secure a place in urban society and to hold their own in the medical marketplace.

More info here: http://blog.wellcomelibrary.org/2015/11/humanist-self-fashioning-and-ordinary-medical-practice/