International Symposium | The testimony of History: to live and overcome the epidemic in the present

June 18-19, 5:30-7:00 p.m. (Lisbon time)

The event will be broadcast on CHAM's YouTube channel.


The new coronavirus (SARS-CoV 2) and COVID-19 brought unexpected challenges to Humanity. The answer to these challenges is more than a quest for biomedical science and transcends health issues. In this context and seeking complementarity between health sciences and the emerging field of health humanities, this Symposium is promoted, which aims to recourse to historical knowledge to understand and help to live the difficult present time.

This role attributed to the humanities and historical studies has been highlighted in recent months in various initiatives (webinars, online conferences, special magazine numbers, interviews, opinion articles) carried out by various institutions and civil society, and in several countries.

This seminar aims to be a space for knowledge sharing on the theme of epidemics, in different geographical contexts, national and foreign, limited to the Middle and Early Modern Ages, seeking to establish a bridge between the past and the present. It will be held in two days and consists of brief presentations (10 min.) carried out by invited researchers, followed by debate, and open to all those interested in participating.

This proposal is a joint initiative of two ongoing hospital and health history research projects: Hospitalis: Hospital architecture in Portugal (PTDC/ART-HIS/30808/2017)  (IR: Joana Balsa de Pinho; European Institute for Culture Sciences Padre Manuel Antunes; ARTIS - Institute of History of Art, Faculty of Letters, University of Lisbon) and Royal Hospital of All Saints: the city and health (IR's: André Teixeira, Edite Martins Alberto, Rodrigo Banha da Silva; DPC-Lisbon City Council, CHAM – Center for Humanities, NOVA FCSH).

Organizers: Edite Martins Alberto (CHAM, NOVA FCSH; DPC, CML) and Joana Balsa de Pinho (IECCPMAL; ARTIS, FLUL)

Institutional partnerships: Artis – Art History Institute, School of Arts and Humanities, Universidade of Lisbon; CHAM – Centre for the Humanities, NOVA FCSH; CIDH – Chair Infante Dom Henrique for Atlantic Island Studies and Globalization, Aberta University; European Institute for Cultural Sciences Father Manuel Antunes; Lisbon City Council.