CfP: International Conference: Medical Practice in Early Modern Britain in Comparative Perspective
Papers are invited for an international
conference to be held at the University
of Exeter (UK) on 4-6 September 2017,
funded by the Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award for the project ‘The
Medical World of Early Modern England, Wales and Ireland 1500-1715’ led by
Professor Jonathan Barry and Dr Peter Elmer at Exeter (see the project website
at http://practitioners.exeter.ac.uk/). This conference will consider the outputs
from this project, in particular the database which has been created of more
than 30,000 medical practitioners operating in the period, and the
opportunities this offers for new research in the field. It will also consider
comparative perspectives on early modern Britain, both spatially and
temporally, and so welcomes papers from colleagues working on medical practice
in other parts of Europe or its colonies, on other cultures (Islamic, Indian,
Chinese etc) and also on the periods either side of our 1500-1715 focus, so
that we can place the findings of the project in the widest possible context.
Proposals for panels will be welcomed, but so will individual paper proposals,
including from research students (for whom bursaries covering the cost of attendance
will be available). Those attending will be given exclusive access in advance
of the conference to research findings from the project database, which they
will be encouraged to consider in their contributions, which we expect to be
pre-circulated to encourage the highest level of focused debate during the
conference. Senior scholars willing to
act as commentators on papers are also encouraged to express an interest in
this role, as well as in offering their own papers.
Major themes for consideration include the
following:
Continuity and change in the character and
scope of medical practice, including the impact of war and imperial expansion
on pre-existing medical culture, the influence of new ideas and/or persistence
of established approaches across the period, as well as the significance of
attempts at regulation.
Trends in education, training and career
patterns, encompassing hereditary succession, patronage, apprenticeship and
university study, and levels of provision in different regions and types o
settlement.
The roles played by women, in popular and
domestic medicine and beyond, and by other alternatives to orthodox male
practitioners, and by the growth of new methods fro the production and sale of
medicines.
The place of medicine within processes of
social and cultural change in the British Isles more generally, and the wider
parts played by medical practitioners in scientific, intellectual, political,
military, confessional and other spheres.
The opportunities for comparative research
across national boundaries, both in tracing the movement of medical
practitioners and in comparing levels and types of medical provision in
different cultures.
If you are interested in participating
please send an email to Professor Jonathan Barry at J.Barry@exeter.ac.uk, with an abstract
of c. 200 words indicating the proposed
topic of any paper or panel, preferably by 15 September 2016.