SSHM-Conference Programme 1999
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Since 1970 The Society for the Social History of Medicine has
been actively involved in the organization of specialised
conferences and has facilitated research and debate within the
discipline of the social history of medicine, with a particular
emphasis on inter-disciplinary approaches.
The Society's conferences are open to non-members. However,
membership of the Society entitles conference delegates to reduced
registration fees and includes also subscription to a leading
academic journal of international standing (_Social History of
Medicine_) as well as 30% reduction on books published in the
Society's Routledge series ('Studies in the Social History of
Medicine'). SSHM membership stlg 29, student stlg 17. For membership
details contact: Dr David Cantor, Department of History and Economic
History, Manchester Metropolitan University, Geoffrey Manton
Building, Manchester M15 6LL. e-mail: [log in to unmask]
In 1999 the following conferences will be organized by the
Society (contact the conference organizers for further details):
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SCIENCE, MEDICINE AND FOOD POLICY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
9-11 April 1999, Aberdeen
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With food issues such as BSE, E.coli, diet and degenerative disease,
and the role and duties of governments in connection with such issues
constantly under discussion in the media, the topics explored during
this conference are of considerable contemporary as well as
historical interest.
The conference will attract not only historians and social scientists
who are interested in food, science, medicine and policy, but also
scientists, doctors and other health professionals.
Conference organizer: Dr David F Smith, Department of
History, University of Aberdeen, Meston Walk, Old Aberdeen, Aberdeen
AB24 3FX. e-mail: [log in to unmask]
For conference programme see:
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/~his049/dddsshm.htm
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AN INTRODUCTION TO MEDICAL RECORDS IN THE PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
24 April 1999, Public Record Office, Kew.
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The aim of the workshop is to introduce researchers in the history of
medicine and medical acare to the riches of the national
archives.The workshop will be run by Dr Edward Higgs, a former
archivist at the PRO and currently a Wellcome University Award
Lecturer in History at the University of Exeter.
Organized in collaboration with the Public Record Office. Contact:
Public Events Manager, Public Record Office, Ruskin Avenue, Kew,
Richmond, Surrey, TW9 4DU.
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INEQUALITIES AND HEALTH: THE HISTORICAL DIMENSION
19 April 1999. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
(LSHTM),London.
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The LSHTM's Annual Public Health Forum for 1999 focuses on the theme
of "Poverty, Inequality and Health". A one-day conference organized
in collaboration with the Society for the Social History of Medicine
will examine these issues in historical perspective.
Speakers in the morning session will be: Prof Roderick Floud
(Guildhall University), Dr Bernard Harris (Southampton), Dr Simon
Szreter (Cambridge), and Dr Charles Webster (Oxford).
The afternoon session will be a "Witness seminar on the origins,
focus and impact of the 1979 Black Report on Inequalities and
Health". Participants will inclue Sir Douglas Black, Prof Peter
Townsend, Prof JN Morris, Dr David Player and Margaret Whitehead. The
seminar will be chaired by Prof Stuart Blume (Amsterdam), the
scientific secretary to the Black Committee.
Conference organizer: Prof Virginia Berridge, LSHTM, Keppel Street,
London WC1E 7HT. e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS: IDENTITIES, INTERESTS AND IDEOLOGY
16 - 18 July 1999, Glasgow
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'We have made Italy, now we have to make Italians' (Massimo d'Azeglio
on the Risorgimento). Could it be said of the medical profession in
the nineteenth century:- 'We have made the profession, now we have to
make professionals'?
This SSHM Conference will explore the issue of identity and the
part it played in making medical professionals and the profession.
D'Azeglio's oft-quoted comment upon the role of national identity in
nation-building has become a cornerstone of theories of nationalism
which see the nation as 'invented', 'imagined' or 'constructed'. How
far can similar processes be said to be operating in the making of the
medical profession?
Papers on a wide range of subjects will be presented, including: the
links between the processes of professionalisation and specialisation
and the construction of medical identities; the ways in which medical
practitioners have presented themselves; and how those outside the
profession have represented the medical professionals; as well as
paper that explore medical biography and autobiography, and visual
representations / images of medical professionals.
Conference organizer: Dr James Bradley, Wellcome Unit for the
History of Medicine, 5 University Gardens, University of Glasgow,
Glasgow G12 8QQ. email: [log in to unmask]
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THE MEANING OF MEDICINE
10-12 September 1999, Amsterdam
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In contrast to the social history of medicine, the cultural history
of medicine is yet underdeveloped. Although culture has been
explained in many ways, it can generally be taken as forms of
behaviour (including speaking), forms of material products and
meanings attached to both. Moreover, the study of culture is
especially concerned with symbols and rituals, with consensus and
conflict and, on a more abstract level, with patterns, rules and
exceptions.
Historical anthropology, the discipline most focused on
all aspects of culture, has shown that the best way to study culture
is to 'situate' it, and to concentrate on concrete, actual instances,
in which the interrelation between forms and meaning and human actors
becomes manifest. If this micro-history is applied to the history of
medicine it will transform the object of study. Since there is no
compelling reason to limit the area of investigation to specific
groups of actors (such as physicians or female patients), to specific
forms of medicine or even to specific definitions of illness, a more
narrowly defined medical culture is transformed into cultures of
healing.
To study the cultural history of medicine implies a
recognition of synchronical divergence as well as diachronical
paradoxes. Within these parameters, or by questioning these
altogether, the conference will explore different sources, methods,
theories, interpretations and presentations of diverse and specific
healing cultures in Europe over the last five hundred years.
Organized in collaboration with the Huizinga Institute,
Amsterdam.
Conference organizers: Dr. Willem de Blecourt,c/o
Huizinga Instituut, Spuistraat 134, 1012 VB Amsterdam, The
Netherlands. - Dr. Cornelie Usborne, Department of History,
Roehampton Institute, Roehampton Lane, London SW15 5PH, email:
[log in to unmask]
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Dr Waltraud Ernst
Department of History
University of Southampton
Southampton
SO17 1BJ
[log in to unmask]
Tel: 01703-596648
Fax: 01703-593458
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