CHIMED-3

CHIMED-3. The third International Conference on Historical Medical Discourse


Call for Papers


The conference series was initiated in Milan in 2017 and focuses on multidisciplinary research into European historical medical discourse. We welcome studies drawing from linguistics, literary studies and history – among others – to present a comprehensive and well-rounded view of medical discourse in Europe. The third conference focuses on medical discourse in English in the period 1500–1900. Studies may be either synchronic or diachronic, and a long view may stretch even beyond the main frame of time. In accordance with the multidisciplinary aims of the conference series, we encourage papers that approach medical discourse from different methodological and disciplinary perspectives. The language of the conference is English.


We invite submissions for presentations of 30 minutes (20 min. + 10 min. discussion). Abstracts of no more than 500 words (excluding references) should be submitted via email to a.mcenery@lancaster.ac.uk with the subject line ‘Chimed-3’. Abstract submissions are due by Monday 16th January 2023. All abstracts will be reviewed by an international scientific committee.

Possible topics of papers include the following:

• medical discourses in their sociohistorical contexts
• discourses on specific illnesses or treatments
• representations of illnesses in literary fiction
• changes in the medical marketplace
• communication on medical issues for different audiences
• styles and metaphors in medical discourse
• narratives in medical discourse
• appropriation of earlier medical ideas and topics
• developments in genres and text types (both literary and non-literary)
• vernacularization of medical and scientific texts: English, Latin and other languages
• gender and medicine

Outcomes will be communicated by Monday 30th January 2023.