Call for Papers: Society for the Social History of Medicine 2014 Conference



Call for Papers: Society for the Social History of Medicine 2014 Conference


  

Disease, Health and the State

10-12 July 2014 Oxford, United Kingdom

The Centre for Health, Medicine and Society: Past and Present, Oxford Brookes University and the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, University of Oxford

The Society for the Social History of Medicine hosts a major, biennial, international, and interdisciplinary conference. In 2014 it will explore the relationships between health, disease, and the state. Responses to disease and concerns about health contributed to the development of the state, yet disease and medicine have also challenged and disrupted state authority. The biennial conference is not exclusive in terms of its theme, and reflects the broad diversity of the discipline of the social history of medicine.

Proposals that consider all topics relevant to the history of medicine broadly conceived are invited, but the 2014 committee encourages proposals for papers, sessions, and round-tables that examine, challenge, and refine the history of disease, health and the state. Suggested themes include local and global understandings of health, medicine, and governance; the consolidation, breakdown, or absence of state power in the midst of health and medical crises; and the experience of health and medical bureaucracies in the past.

From discussions on the health of the body politic, the role of public health in imperial governance, the nature of military medicine, environmental regulations, to socialized medicine, we welcome approaches from a variety of disciplines and time periods. However, submissions are not restricted to any area of study, and the committee welcomes proposals on a range of subjects relevant to the history of medicine, from the history of health and disease to the history of medical care.

Paper submissions should include a 250-word abstract and a short CV. Panel submissions should include three papers (each with a 250-word abstract and short CV), a chair, and a 100-word panel abstract. Round-table submissions should include the names of four participants (each with a short CV), a chair, and a 500-word abstract.

Submissions should be sent to: sshm2014(at)wuhmo.ox.ac.uk.

Call closes: 1 January 2014

Conference Organizers: Dr Katherine Watson, Dr Erica Charters