CfP: Medicine, Museums, and Science Communication in the Nineteenth Century

The International Nineteenth-Century Studies Association (INCSA) invites proposals for a satellite conference to be held on 20 July 2026 at the Medical Museion, University of Copenhagen. This one-day event takes place in conjunction with the INCSA 2026 bi-annual conference in Washington, D.C. The satellite conference will be held in a partially hybrid format, with participation possible both in person at the Medical Museion and online. The day will conclude with an keynote by Katherine Ott and Lilla Vekerdy of the Smithsonian Institution. 

The INCSA 2026 conference is organized around the themes of Revolution, Revelation, and Reconciliation, with a focus on the nineteenth century. This satellite event engages these broader themes through a focused exploration of medicine, medical museums, and science communication. Situated within a medical museum, the conference foregrounds questions of how medical knowledge was communicated to the public through objects, images, exhibitions, and other interpretive practices, including how difficult, contested, or ethically challenging histories are presented and interpreted for contemporary audiences.

The nineteenth century was marked by significant transformations in medicine and the life sciences. New clinical practices, experimental cultures, institutional forms, and visual traditions reshaped understandings of the body, disease, health, and healing. These developments were communicated beyond professional communities through museums, exhibitions, lectures, popular publications, and material collections. Medical museums in particular functioned as spaces where scientific knowledge, public education, cultural values, and experiences of pain, harm, and vulnerability intersected.

We invite papers that explore the communication of medicine and the life sciences in the nineteenth century, with particular attention to museums and other public facing institutions. Contributions may consider how medical knowledge was translated into objects, images, narratives, and displays, how audiences engaged with these forms, and how museums functioned as sites for negotiating authority, education, cultural meaning, and the legacies of medical practices in the present.

URL: https://in-csa.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Call-for-Papers_INCSA_Copenhagen…