CfP: Travel Texts, Travelogues and Medicine under the Empire
While several European naturalists, doctors travelled to tropical colonies to discover indigenous flora and fauna of medicinal value, their movement also enabled the formation of medical nexuses through various trade routes; the latter provided a cogent medium through which the collected knowledge could be re-located within the European metropoles. Placed in the context of medical humanities, these movements have opened an array of possibilities to study, analyse and recover the medical pasts of indigenous and colonial societies. The genre of travel writing preceded by the production and proliferation of travel texts by literate individuals saw the accumulation of data gathered by travellers during the 18th and 19th centuries. These writings shed light on imperial prowess which could vindicate territorial acquisitions.
The proposed volume will examine modalities of disease causation, explanation and their trajectory as a result of interaction with colonial communities in colonized settings around the world. As trained doctors, these male individuals, of European descent often engaged indigenous communities via interpreters or as observers, in order to obtain information about indigenous medical practices, treatment of disease, the relationship between disease and death, sin and sicknesses. We, therefore, seek to produce a collection that traces the “hidden” medical histories of colonized communities derived and gleaned from travel texts, which will enable an understanding of the trajectory and shaping of indigenous medical pasts.
Chapter contributions will focus on the following themes, but not limited to these:
- Historiography, travel writing, medicine and disease studies
- Travelogues and the social (re)construction of medical pasts
- Travel scientists, doctors and biographies
- Indigenous medicine in Travelogues
- Women writers and medicine
- Slave narratives and black travel writing
Interested scholars may please send an abstract of 250 words with relevant keywords, institutional affiliation and brief biography to Prof. Poonam Bala and Prof. Russel Viljoen latest by 15 March 2026.
We expect completed draft chapter submissions of 8000 words (incl.End Notes) by 1 July 2026.
We have the book Contract offer from a reputed publisher.
Prof.Poonam Bala, Cleveland State University/UNISA (SA)
Prof.Russel Viljoen, Sol Plaatje University, SA