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