Histoires d'alimentation et de sentiment

Cooking Cultures. Convergent Histories of Food and Feeling

Ishita Banerjee-Dube (ed.)


Cambridge Univesrity Press
Hardcover: 300 pages
June 30, 2016
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-1107140363

This volume offers a study of food, cooking and cuisine in different societies and cultures over different periods of time. It highlights the intimate connections of food, identity, gender, power, personhood and ‘national culture’, and also the intricate combination of ingredients, ideas, ideologies and imagination that go into the elaboration of food and cuisine.
Tracking such blends in different societies and continents churned out of trans-cultural flows of goods and peoples, colonial encounters, adventure and adaptation, and change in attitude and taste, Cooking Cultures makes a novel argument about convergent histories of the globe kneaded by food and cooking.

Les premières impressions

“First Impressions”: Faces, clothes, and bodies, 1600-1800

Call for Papers

Thursday 10thNovember 2016, 9.30am to 5.30pm at York Medical Society, York, UK

Submission guidelines: Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words in length and an accompanying 100 word biography to firstimpressionsconference@gmail.com by Monday 29th August.

In the early modern world, ‘first impressions’ played a central role in the establishment and maintenance of individual and group identities; faces, clothes, and bodies provided a number of sensory clues as to a person’s gender, social status, age, and even health. Appearances were described, depicted, and consumed. However, anxiety over the potential for outward appearances to confuse, disguise, or deceive also gained increasing momentum in this period – ‘first impressions’ were not always as they seemed. Emulation and the erosion of the social hierarchy caused particular alarm, and even the most respectable members of society were now understood to be vulnerable to deception. Clothing, cosmetics, and deportment could all alter appearance and render ‘first impressions’ as shifting and uncertain. In addition, the dissemination of images and descriptions of appearances across the social hierarchy markedly increased throughout the period; the explosion of print culture meant that descriptions of felons were now widely circulated in newspapers, for example, whilst satirical prints prompted a familiarity with images of public figures.

This one-day interdisciplinary symposium takes ‘first impressions’ as a starting point in order to explore these issues, focusing on the many different ways in which appearances were understood, described, or depicted in early modern Europe, 1600-1800. The conference welcomes submissions from postgraduates and early career researchers working within any discipline. Proposals are for 20 minute individual papers.

Proposed topics may include, but are certainly not limited to:

• Appearance and the social hierarchy – establishment or confusion of social hierarchy, regulation
• Disseminating appearances – royalty, celebrity, print, portraiture, caricature
• Crafting appearances – altered appearances, clothing, fashion, cosmetics, appearance as a political or social tool
• Disguise and deception
• Criminal appearances – criminals, prostitutes, the ‘lower sort’, the criminal body, trials
• Health and medicine – appearance of health, physical marks of illness, complexion, posture, the body
• Appearing different – social, racial, national, gender
• Public and private appearances – domestic sphere, public sphere, gender
• Beauty – ideal beauty, ugliness, representations
• ‘First impressions’ – first meetings, friendship, love, attraction

L'eugénisme en Roumanie

The Eugenic Fortress: The Transylvanian Saxon Experiment in Interwar Romania 

Tudor Georgescu


Series: CEU Press Studies in the History of Medicine
Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Central European University Press (June 30, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-9633861394

The ever-growing library on the history of eugenics and fascism focuses largely on nation-states, while Georgescu asks why an ethnic minority, the German-speaking Transylvanian Saxons, turned to eugenics as a means of self-empowerment in inter-war Romania. The Eugenic Fortress examines the eugenic movement that emerged in the early twentieth century, and focuses on its conceptual and methodological evolution during this turbulent period. Further on, the book analyzes the gradual process of radicalising and politicization by a second generation of Saxon eugenicists in conjunction with the rise of an equally indigenous fascist movement. The Saxon case-study offers valuable insights into why an ethnic minority would seek to re-entrench itself behind the race-hygienic walls of a 'eugenic fortress', as well as the influence that home nations had upon its design. Georgescu's work is ground-breaking in the sense that the history of this uprooted community is usually handled with extreme sensitivity and serious (and critical) research into Transylvanian Saxon involvement with Nazism has been scant, until now.

La médecine antique en question

Where does it hurt? Ancient medicine in questions and answers

International Conference

Leuven, 30-31 August 2016

The Leuven Institute for Ireland in Europe, Janseniusstraat 1, 3000 Leuven

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. 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. 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. 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.

The conference, which brings together scholars of medical history and from related fields, such as classics, literary studies, linguistics, digital humanities, philosophy and psychology, wants to offer a better understanding of this multi-faceted and widely attested phenomenon of questions and answers in ancient medical literature, from the Hippocratic writers to Late Antiquity and its reception in early Byzantine times. ‘Medical literature’ is understood in a broad sense, encompassing not only the highly specialized medical treatises of authors like Galen, but also, i.a., literary sources (esp. drama), collections ofproblèmata, and (anonymous) papyri, which all somehow relate to the world of ancient medicine.

Tuesday 30 August 2016 | Conference day 1 

13.30 Registration

14.00 Introduction

14.10 Session 1 – Chair Gerd Van Riel

14.10-14.30: Melinda Letts (Oxford), “Right Question or Good Question? Rufus of Ephesus and the Patient’s Perspective in Medicine”

14.30-14.50: Alessia Guardasole (CNRS Paris), “Hippocratisme et aristotélisme dans un exemple original de la tradition érotapocritique médicale et religieuse byzantine: les Problèmes hippocratiques”

14.50-15.00: Discussion

15.00 Coffee

15.30 Session 2 – Chair Jan Opsomer

15.30-15.50: Salvatore Di Piazza (Palermo & ULB), “Diagnosis in Corpus Hippocraticum: Trust, Words, Signs”

15.50-16.10: Luca Gili (KU Leuven), “Erotetic Logic and Syllogistic. Galenian and Alexandrian Approaches to Medicine”

16.10-16.30: Michiel Meeusen (KU Leuven), “Ps.-Alexander of Aphrodisias on Unsayable Properties inMedical Puzzles”

16.30-16.45: Discussion

17.30 Keynote lecture in collaboration with LECTIO by

Robert Mayhew (Seton Hall), “Peripatetic and Hippocratic Seeds in Problemata 4: Raising Questions about Aristotle’s Rejection of the Pangenesis Theory of Generation”

19.00 Conference dinner

Wednesday 31 August 2016 | Conference day 2

10.00 Session 3 – Chair Michiel Meeusen

10.00-10.20: Elizabeth Cooper (Newcastle), “Phaedra’s Physician: Medical Questions and Answers in Euripides’ Hippolytus”

10.20-10.40: Andrés Pelavski (Cambridge), “Questioning the Obvious”

10.40-11.00: Ido Israelowich (Tel Aviv), “Diagnosing Madness during the High Roman Empire: Questions and Answers as a Diagnostic Method”

11.00-11.15: Discussion

11.15 Coffee

11.45 Session 4 – Chair Marie-Hélène Marganne

11.45-12.05: Antonio Ricciardetto (Liège & Paris), “La réponse du médecin : les rapports d’inspection médicale écrits en grec sur papyrus (Ier-IVe s. apr. J.-C.)”

12.05-12.25: Isabella Bonati (Parma), “Definitions and Technical Terminology in the Erôtapokriseis on papyrus”

12.25-12.45: Nicola Reggiani (Parma), “Digitizing Medical Papyri in Question-and-Answer Format”

12.45-13.00: Discussion

13.00 Lunch

14.00 Session 5 – Chair Erika Gielen

14.00-14.20: Ioannis Papadogiannakis (London), “Ps. Justin’s Quaestiones et responsiones ad orthodoxos and the Literature of Medical-Philosophical προβλήματα”

14.20-14.40: Serena Buzzi & Fosca Pescia (Turin), “The Questions in Oribasius’s Medical Texts”

14.40-15.00: Laura Mareri (Macerata), “The Use of Q&A Formula in Alexander of Tralles”

15.00-15.15: Discussion

15.15 Concluding Remarks

Scientific and organizing committees
Pieter De Leemans (Leuven), Kristoffel Demoen (Gent), Erika Gielen (Leuven), Jan Godderis (Leuven), Christian Laes(Antwerpen), Marie-Hélène Marganne (Luik), Robert Mayhew (Seton Hall), Michiel Meeusen (Leuven), Jan Opsomer(Leuven), Luc Van der Stockt (Leuven), Gerd Van Riel (Leuven)

Participation is free, but registration is required via Erika.Gielen@kuleuven.be or Michiel.Meeusen@kuleuven.be before 22 August 2016.

Histoire critique de la schizophrénie

A Critical History of Schizophrenia

Kieran McNally


Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 

Series: Palgrave Studies in the Theory and History of Psychology
Hardcover: 272 pages
1st ed. 2016 edition (July 19, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-1137456809

• 
  

Schizophrenia was 20th century psychiatry’s arch concept of madness. Yet for most of this period, schizophrenia was both problematic and contentious. This new history explores changes in the concept of schizophrenia across the 20th century. It provides a broad map of the concept’s mutating symptoms, fluctuating subtypes, social uses, and changing definitions.

This research reveals and cites a long tradition of critical unease towards schizophrenia – by numerous mainstream psychiatrists, psychologists, and schizophrenia authorities. This critical stance is shown to have existed in addition to complaints by so-called anti-psychiatrists (also documented). The book therefore explains how and why North American Psychiatry eventually sought to stabilize its disease concept at an institutional level – through the use of operational definitions in its DSM series.

Among its many remarkable offerings, the research unearths accounts of children being experimentally kept on LSD for over one year, and demonstrates that the stigmatising idea of schizophrenia as a split personality actually stems from Swiss Psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler – the concept’s creator. But its principle aim is to serve as a useful introduction to schizophrenia that guides the reader through a complex history of rejection, negotiation, and transformation, in this most contested of 20th century concepts.

This historical contribution to our understanding of schizophrenia draws extensively on primary sources from the schizophrenia literature, and builds on the research of recent historians of psychiatry and related disciplines.

Dr Kieran McNally is Adjunct Lecturer in Psychology at University College Dublin, and previously of the Institute of Psychiatry, London. He specialises in the history of Psychiatry, and is also the author of the ecological and social history, The Island Imagined by the Sea.

Cerveaux, maladies et troubles mentaux au Moyen-âge

Grey Matter: Brains, Diseases, and Disorders

Call for papers : ICMS Kalamazoo 2017

Special session organised by Deborah Thorpe, Centre for Chronic Diseases and Disorders at the University of York, UK.

This session invites papers that examine any aspect of medieval cognition, neurology, and/or psychiatry through medieval source material. This topic can be approached through any one or combination of disciplines, and novel combinations of disciplines are encoraged. Especially welcome are papers that consider the relationships between modern medicine and medieval source material, such as the benefits and/or inherent problems of retrospective diagnosis and the value of the study of medieval history for our medical understanding today.

The session also encourages papers that explore terminology for diseases and disorders both modern and premodern, the diagnosis of conditions involving the brain, and the impact of neurological/psychiatric diseases and disorders on medieval lives.

Send abstracts of no more than 250 words, or any questions about this session, to Deborah.thorpe@york.ac.uk

Anatomophysiologie du cerveau et du cervelet chez Vincenzo Malacarne

Anatomophysiologie du cerveau et du cervelet chez Vincenzo Malacarne (1744-1816). Édition critique Encefalotomie nuova universale (1780) et de la Nuova esposizione struttura cerveletto umano (1776)

Céline Cherici (éd.)

• Broché: 480 pages
• Editeur : Hermann (14 juillet 2016)
• Collection : HR.HIST.SCIENCE
• Langue : Français
• ISBN-13: 978-2705692407

Vincenzo Malacarne (1744-1816), neuroanatomiste italien, fondateur de l'anatomie topographique et concepteur d'un des premiers modèles localisationnistes de l'histoire des neurosciences n'a fait, jusqu'à présent, l'objet d'aucune étude, y compris en langue italienne. Ce livre est la traduction inédite en français et l'étude accompagnée d'annotations critiques de deux de ses traités sur le cerveau et le cervelet humains. Une introduction générale replace l'auteur dans son contexte scientifique et intellectuel et ouvre sur les traductions de l'Encefalotomie nuova universale (1780) et de la Nuova esposizione della vera struttura del cerveletto umano (1776). Ces derniers ont été réunis au sein d'un volume unique qui a servi de fondement au travail et qui a été annoté par Malacarne lui-même. Ses annotations manuscrites originales sont également intégrées et analysées.

Prélude et conséquences de la Grande Peste

Before and After 1348: Prelude and Consequences of the Black Death,

Call for papers

Panel organized by Monica Green, email: monica.green@asu.edu.

The 14th-Century Society has very graciously permitted me to host a session on the Black Death at Kalamazoo next year. The ICMS/Kalamazoo meeting will be held, as it always is, at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Dates are 11-14 May 2017. Here’s the general information on the Congress: http://www.wmich.edu/medievalcongress.

Abstract: The “new paradigm” of Black Death studies has adopted the findings of recent paleogenetics and evolutionary understandings of Yersinia pestis's late medieval genetic diversification to see the Black Death as a much broader epidemiological phenomenon than previously realized. Although Black Death narratives are usually told from the perspective of western Europe, it is in fact likely that much of Eurasia and North Africa was affected by the newly proliferating organism. And in many of those areas, we know now, plague “focalized,” becoming embedded in the local fauna and thus persisting for years, or even centuries, thereafter. This session invites work that looks both at the late medieval pandemic’s origins before 1348 (whether in China or other places in central Eurasia) and its after-effects, including the 1360-63 pestis secunda. Cultural as well as scientific approaches are welcome.

The official Call for Papers will be available from the conference organizers by mid to late July. It lists Debra Salata, of the 14th-Century Society, as the official contact person, but I would appreciate it if you could send proposals directly to me: monica.green@asu.edu. 

Paper proposals (a one-page abstract and a Participant Information Form) are due to session organizers by September 15. The links to information on this process and the Participation Information Form may be found at http://www.wmich.edu/medievalcongress/submissions.

Needless to say, submissions (and eventual presentations, if accepted) must abide by normal Congress rules: http://www.wmich.edu/medievalcongress/policies. You may wish to know that the newly created Contagions: Society for Historic Infectious Disease Studies will also be sponsoring two sessions, tentatively entitled "Historic Landscapes of Disease,” and "The Great Transition: Climate, Disease, and Society in the Late Medieval World: A Roundtable on Bruce Campbell’s New Book.” For info on those sessions, please contact Michelle Ziegler, zieglerm@slu.edu.