CfP: International Health Organisations (IHOs) and the History of Health and Medicine c. 1870-2012
Call for Papers: International Health Organisations
(IHOs) and the
History of Health and Medicine c. 1870-2012
October 18-20, 2013 Shanghai, China
A jointly organised conference between the Shanghai
Social Sciences
Association, the David Musto Centre at Shanghai
University, and the
CSHHH Glasgow at the University of Strathclyde
Proposals for panels and papers of no more than 300 words
per paper are
welcomed by April 30th 2013. Please submit by email to
Those accepted will be notified by May 16 2013.
IHOs and the history of health and medicine
Recent studies of institutions as varied as the League of
Nations Health
Committee, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Medical
Missionary Society
have drawn attention to the multiple roles played by
international
organisations since the nineteenth-century in the fields
of healthcare
and medicine. Most obviously they have played important
parts in
addressing particular health crises and emergencies, by
providing
medical expertise, drugs and medicines, and more general
aid. Longer
term impacts, however, have included the establishment of
lasting
healthcare infrastructures, the dissemination of new
ideas about health
and medicine, and the emergence of major bodies that
transcend national
political, economic and professional interests. However,
from the
refusal of the East India Company to sanction medical
missionary
activity in the eighteenth-century, to the recent ban on
the WHO by
al-Shabaab in Somalia, such international organisations
have often faced
opposition and hostility.
While there are a number of studies of particular
institutions and
movements, the IHO has rarely been viewed as a distinct
phenomenon in
the history of health and medicine in the modern period.
This conference
seeks to address this by bringing together historians and
those from
related disciplines with relevant research interests. It
aims to examine
fresh insights into particular periods, organisations and
case studies,
but also to explore the potential of comparative
perspectives, and of
teasing IHOs out of the wider history of health and
medicine in modernity.
Key questions would include:
What agendas and ideologies shaped the emergence of IHOs
in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries?
How far have IHOs met their objectives and what shaped or
prevented success?
What impacts have IHOs had in the locales where they have
been embedded?
To what extent have locals worked with or against IHOs
and what shaped
their approaches?
In what ways has the emergence of the IHO had wider
impacts on
international relations, and on domestic relations in
contributing
countries and cultures?
What does the emergence of the IHO over the last two
centuries tell
historians about the history of medicine, and of
modernity?
Organisation and Arrangements
The organisers are keen to consider all relevant
institutions, contexts
and perspectives in order to stimulate an inclusive
event. Proposals for
panels and papers of no more than 300 words per paper are
welcomed by
April 30th 2013. Please submit by email to zhangyongan@shu.edu.cn and
Those accepted will be notified by May 16 2013.
Participation will
require the submission of papers of no more than 5000
words by September
30 2013. The intention is to publish a collected edition
of papers from
the event. The conference will take place in Baoshan
Campus at Shanghai
University, Shanghai and accommodation will be provided
for all
participants. Some funding for travel may be available to
post-graduate
students and early career scholars.
Contacts
Dr Yong-an Zhang
History Department
Shanghai University
99 Shangda Road
Shanghai, 200444, China
Professor James Mills
CSHHH Glasgow
University of Strathclyde
Glasgow G11XQ, UK
Dr. Qi Zhou
Academic Monthly Editorial Office
Shanghai Social Sciences Association