History of Medicine meetings & conferences

Psychoanalysis in the Age of Totalitarianism

21-22 Sept 2012 Wellcome Collection Conference Centre, 183 Euston Road, London, United Kingdom

Half day Friday, all day Saturday

Discounted advance ticket prices (until 1 May) £80 / £55 students and unwaged; full cost ticket prices (after 1 May) £95 /£65 students and unwaged

This two-day conference, supported by the Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism (Birkbeck, University of London), Birkbeck College, University of London and the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies of the University of Essex, will bring together historians, social theorists and psychoanalysts to explore the impact of the Second World War and totalitarianism on psychoanalysis, and of psychoanalysis on the understanding of the war and totalitarian systems.

Topics include:

the role of psychoanalysis in the war effort, military intelligence and in postwar reconstruction
the crisis of psychoanalysis in Central Europe
the work of Hannah Arendt and other theorists of totalitarianism
cultural anthropology, fascism and the Cold War
visions of the child and the creation of the War Nurseries
the psychoanalytic sociology of the Frankfurt School
war and the origins of group therapy
neo-Freudianism
the psychoanalytic theorization of anti-Semitism
mourning, memory and trans-generational trauma
Winnicott and the social democratic vision.

Presentations will be 20-minutes arranged in panels, followed by discussion, all in a plenary format.
Ticket prices: £95 / £65 (students and unwaged)

For all enquiries please contact Marjory Goodall (marjory.goodall@iopa.org.uk).

German Science in Southern Europe, 1933-45

October 11-13, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal

The European fascist period is certainly a time of exclusions, disruptions, and confrontations, but it is also a time of network building and scientific and cultural exchange: the exhibitions, public lectures, academic or even touristic exchange that Germany organizes between 1933 and 1945 in the southern European countries (from Portugal to Romania, not forgetting Spain, Italy or Greece) reflect a hybrid (i.e. political and scientific) concern to be "recognized and imitated" (to put it in the words of the Hamburger romanist and NSDAP member Wilhelm Giese).

The Conference is hosted by the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, New University of Lisbon, and organized by the Research project The Power of Science; German Science in Portugal, 1933-45.

Further Information:

Please address all inquiries to pos.conference@gmail.com

Tonics, Elixirs and Poisons: Psychoactive Substances in European History and Culture

Conference 8-9 September 2012 Wellington, New Zealand

Psychoactive substances, whether narcotics, stimulants or hallucinogens, affect their users as individuals, yet their social context informs their cultural significance. At different times and in different places, different substances have become a locus of fascination or anxiety, praise or opprobrium, patriotism or prohibition. We seek papers examining psychoactive substances in a specific cultural context. How, when, and why did substances such as alcohol, caffeine, cannabis, cocaine, opium, tea, and tobacco acquire the cultural meanings that they did? How have consumers of psychoactive substances crossed the border between medical and recreational use, and how has society responded to any perceived transgressions? How have these substances been represented in literary, journalistic, legal, or scientific texts?

The conference will take place at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. The conference will have no registration fee, and will be open to the public. For further information, contact Alexander Maxwell or Richard Millington.

Alexander Maxwell alexander.maxwell(at)vuw.ac.nz
Richard Millington richard.millington(at)vuw.ac.nz

Victoria University of Wellington
PO Box 600
Wellington 6140
New Zealand

Visit the website at http://www.victoria.ac.nz/antipodean/upcoming-events.aspx

Retelling Familiar Tales of Pregnancy and Birth in European Cultures

Tues 3rd-Weds 4th July 2012, Oxford, United Kingdom

Purpose of conference

This conference aims to bring together leading specialists from a range of the medical humanities with healthcare professionals to explore the trope of the retelling of stories about pregnancy and birth. While recent work has considered the way in which stories of exceptional pregnancies and unusual births have been told again and again over western history, from Greek mythology and the Old Testament until the present day, the methodological and intellectual questions raised by these retellings have not been discussed in detail. Taking a very broad geographic and chronological focus (Europe from antiquity to the present day), our objective is to encourage innovative interdisciplinary exchanges by addressing the following questions.

How did the growth of print culture in Europe encourage the retelling of familiar birthing tales, and how were new ones added?
Why did some stories of pregnancy and birth circulate more widely than others?
When stories are retold, which details of the original are always retained, which are lost in the retelling, and how and why do new accretions creep into the story?

Sessions

The gathering particularly looks to provide the opportunity for discussion and exchange on both substance and methodology between, on the one hand, a wide range of academic disciplines contributing to the medical humanities (e.g. cultural history, art history, history of the book, literary scholars) and, on the other hand, health care practitioners who have been increasingly focused on the oral transmission of case histories (midwives, obstetricians and gynaecologists, psychiatrists). The four sessions proposed are thus wide-ranging and deliberately aim to juxtapose contributions from academics and practitioners in the various sessions.

1) The trope of repetition, or why some tales of pregnancy and birth are retold

2) Exploring accretion and loss: how tales are retold across time (antiquity to the present) and across different geographic and cultural European contexts

3) Who sees or experiences, who tells and who reads repeated tales: patients, practitioners, witnesses and readers:

4) The significance of the material circulation of repeated tales in word and image

Keynote plenary session: Professor Monica Green (Arizona State University)

Practical details

The conference sessions, including lunches and dinners, will be held in Lady Margaret Hall, a college of the University of Oxford, located in attractive grounds in the north of the city. We are looking to provide bed and breakfast accommodation in another Oxford college for the nights of 2-3-4 July 2012 for delegates who wish to take advantage of this. Alternatively, Oxford has a range of good guesthouses and hotels for those wishing to organise their own accommodation. We hope to have some bursary support available for students.

8th International Symposium for the History of Anaesthesia

International Symposium on the History of Anaesthesia 2013, Sydney

The 8th International Symposium for the History of Anaesthesia will be held from January 22-25, 2013 in Sydney, Australia.

The Australian Society of Anaesthetists, the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists and the New Zealand Society of Anaesthetists are pleased to announce that they are hosting the 8th International Symposium on the History of Anaesthesia (ISHA) in Sydney, Australia in January 2013.

The theme of the meeting: HISTORY MATTERS!

ISHA 2013 is administered by the Australian Society of Anaesthetists.

Historical themes will include the relationship of the profession with industry, military anaesthesia, equipment, pioneers and notable names, regional anaesthesia, pain management, simulation, society and education, organisations, antiquity, subspecialty anaesthesia, veterinary anaesthesia, anaesthesia and the arts, anaesthesia mortality and others.

Contact

Please contact the ASA for more information.

email: isha2013@asa.org.au
tel +61 2 9327 4022

WCN 2013 XXI World Congress of Neurology

September 21-26, 2013 Vienna, Austria

Join leading neurologists at WCN 2013, the world’s biggest neurology event. The XXI World Congress of Neurology will feature a rich scientific programme, including the latest developments in clinical practice and research, distinguished plenary speakers, teaching courses, workshops, and lectures, all on the increasingly global aspect of our work.

List of Proposed Topics

Epilepsy (Joint WFN & ILAE)
Movement Disorders
Stroke (Joint WSO & WFN)
Neuro-critical care
Dementia
MS & Demyelinating Diseases
Neuromuscular disorders
Headache
Pain
Neurorehabilitation
Neurooncology
CNS infection
Vertigo and balance disorders
Sleep
Leukoencephalopathies & Child neurology
Autoimmune encephalitis
Neurology, Health economics & outcomes
Metabolic and mitochondrial diseases
Neuroepidemiology
Environment, Climate Change
Autonomic nervous system
Neuroophthalmology
Brain & Behavior
Motor neuron disease
Channelopathies
Palliative care
Nutritional disorders & Neurotoxins
Stem cells in Neurology, hopes, uses and abuses
Neurological surgery for the neurologist
Psychiatry for the neurologist
Neuroethics
Interventional Neuroradiology
Advances in Neuroimaging
Advances in Neurophysiology
Therapeutic Neurotoxins
Biomarkers
World History of Neurology
You Tube neurology
Movies and neurology
Sports neurology
Training in neurology around the world
WHO Neurology Initiatives (Noncommunicable disease Initiative, MhGAP Program, ICD-11 revision of neurology codes)
Cases from around the world
Making the Case for Neurology

Contact Us
Please email us at wcn@kenes.com for more information or any queries.
 

Grievings 2012

Grievings 2012, the next edition of the Annual International Conference of the Institute of English Cultures and Literatures of the University of Silesia in Katowice, will be held in Ustroń, Poland, 20-23 September 2012.

Although generally resented and deemed unfavourable for individuals, societies and nations, grief, grievance, and grieving, along with a complex list of epithets that could in various situations, under varying circumstances, accompany them – racial grief, political grievance, protracted grieving, chronic grief, traumatic, unresolved grievance – nevertheless occupy a notorious place in culture and its manifestations in literature, art, history, science, or politics.

Confused experiences of melancholia, grief, nostalgia, shame, anguish, hate, longing, and jealousy continue to permeate cultural productions across historical moments, literary epochs, and political sympathies.

It is these veneers that we intend to uncover and dismantle, thus – dissolve, or, assuming yet a different approach, assemble into larger entities exhibiting common patterns of formulaic imagining.

The name Grievings comes with several emphases in mind – we place great impact on attempts to explore questions of how globalization has affected modes of grieving, how it has altered the subjects/objects over which we grieve, and finally, how grievances have come to adopt the shape of ultimatums, sometimes escalating into forms of sabotage, schizophrenia, or even outright military conflict.

Should any questions arise, please do not hesitate to contact us!

Organizers' snailmail address

Department of Postcolonial Studies and Travel Writing
Institute of English Cultures and Literatures
University of Silesia in Katowice
ul. Gen. Stefana Grota-Roweckiego 5
41-205 Sosnowiec
Poland

Jung in the Academy and Beyond: The Fordham Lectures – 100 Years Later

October 26 -27, 2012 Fordham University, Bronx, New York

In the autumn of 1912, the psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung delivered a series of nine lectures at Fordham University. In his Fordham presentations, Jung outlined the difference in his perspective from the theories of Sigmund Freud. A revised edition of these lectures, first published in the inaugural Psychoanalytic Review, has just been released by Princeton University Press: Jung Contra Freud: The 1912 New York Lectures on the Theory of Psychoanalysis, with an introduction by Sonu Shamdasani.

Fordham University, in collaboration with the Jungian Psychoanalytic Association of New York, will observe the centenary of these lectures with a conference that will locate Jung in the academy, and beyond, in the culture. It will explore Jung’s position in the years of the original lecture, in the present, and in the future.

Locating Jung in academia and beyond involves contributions from many disciplines, including psychoanalysis, psychology, psychiatry, literature, religious studies, history, the sciences and arts, and interdisciplinary fields.

The conference will be held October 26 and 27, 2012 at Fordham University’s Rose Hill campus, the site of the original lectures. On Friday evening, October 26th, Sonu Shamdasani (Philemon Professor, University College London) will present a public keynote lecture. Other invited speakers include Joseph Cambray (Harvard Medical School), Eugene Taylor (Saybrook Graduate School and Harvard Medical School), and Ann Ulanov (Union Theological Seminary).

Biological Future of Man. Continuities and Break in the History of Human Genetics Before and After 1945

5th International Workshop on the History of Human Genetics

June 21-23, 2012, Nürnberg, Germany

Human Genetics is a science with two sides: on one side concepts of human genetics have often influenced social and political events, on the other side the development of human genetics has been influenced by various political forces.

At the end of the 19th century, heredity was dominated by Mendel’s gene concept and Galton’s biometrical approach (according to A. Motulsky). These were followed by early achievements in hu-man genetics like the identification of chromosomes as the carriers of genetic information (1888), the discovery of the ABO blood group system (Landsteiner 1900) and the inheritance of blood types (von Dungern and Hirschfeld 1911), and the fundamental theorem of population genetics (Hardy-Weinberg-Law 1908).

At the beginning of the 20th century, the eugenics movements in many countries (e.g. Germany, Great Britain and the USA) became stronger. Many scientists believed that genes strongly influenced biology. They were convinced that the human species should either encourage the breeding of those with desirable traits (positive eugenics) or discourage the breeding of the sick and ‘mentally defec-tive’ (negative eugenics). These eugenic concepts led to the sterilization of ‘unfit’ persons in many countries. During the Third Reich, these efforts at ‘Rassenhygiene’ became part of Nazi philosophy. In Germany, the Second World War formed a break in the history of heredity and human genetics. This was not the case in Anglo-American countries.
Important landmarks in Human Genetics after 1945 include the discovery of DNA (1953 Watson and Crick) and biochemical methods for detecting molecular diseases (1949 Pauling, sickle cell anemia). This period saw great progress in DNA technology, genetic epidemiology, cytogenetics, somatic cell genetics, and prenatal diagnosis.

Goals
The Second World War and its consequences greatly influenced the development of human genetics. However, continuities and discontinuities, breaks and changes varied with national settings. This workshop aims to evaluate the state of research and discuss the history of human genetics from a comparative perspective.

Themes
The workshop will be organized around the following three themes:

• Eugenic ideas and human genetics before 1945: Concepts of heredity and research on genetic diseases
• Changing approaches after 1945: From molecular biology to molecular genetics.
• The shadow of eugenics on today’s human genetics: Scientific, social, ethical, legal and political aspects

Heike Petermann
Institute for Ethics, History and Theory of Medicine
WW University Muenster
Von-Esmarch-Strasse 62
48149 Münster
Germany
Phone ++49-251-8355291 (Secretary)
Fax ++49-251-8355339

Email: heike.petermann@uni-muenster.de
Visit the website at http://www.eshg.org/satmeetings2012.0.html

15th International Congress on Circumpolar Health (ICCH15)

August 5-10, 2012 Fairbanks, Alaska

Through the ICCH, the International Union for Circumpolar Health (IUCH) promotes exchange of the health-related knowledge and discussion of recent research results between scientists, health care professionals, policy analysts, government agency representatives, and community leaders for the benefit of all humankind.

Preliminary Scientifc Program Themes:

The North: Unique Land and Social Environment
Anthropology, demography, genetics, housing, infrastructure, health service, delivery, climate change, health impacts, etc.
History of Circumpolar Health
The International Polar Year legacy, evolution of public health organizations in the North, etc.
Research in the Circumpolar North
Indigenous research and ethics, community participatory research methods, building research capacity, etc.
Social Determinants of Health
Social justice, education, health promotion, social marketing, health and social well-being, etc.
Healthy Families
Family health and well-being, women’s health, men’s health, child health, etc.
Nutrition and Food Security
Traditional diets, factors affecting food security, the politics of food, climate change for food
Behavioral Health
Suicide, addictions, holistic and other healing community programs, etc.
Environmental and Occupational Safety and Health
Water and sanitation issues, successful occupational health programs, etc.
Injury Epidemiology and Prevention in the North
Chronic Diseases
Cancer, diabetes, obesity, pulmonary disease, cardiovascular disease, etc.
Infectious Diseases
Tuberculosis, hepatitis, H. pylori, HPV, etc.