Deadline: October 31, 2023
ERC Synergy Grant Project Leviathan, Horizon 2020; GA 854503
CALL FOR PAPERS
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
“TRANSFORMATIONS OF POSTWAR EUROPE: MEDICINE, BODIES AND
TECHNOLOGIES”
Dates: 28 – 30 May 2024
Location: Sofia, Bulgaria
Download PDF document: HERE
The postwar era was marked by the rapid growth of technologies that developed in different social, economic, and political contexts on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Was this development dependent on the specific contexts and how? Or, was it a universal tendency establishing itself regardless of the ideological settings? Did technology playback on ideology? Could it reshape political utopias and institutional practices? The conference aims to explore the transformation of post-war Europe through the lens of medicine, care and related technologies, thus contributing to a deeper understanding of the changing concept of care and hence the changes in relationships between the individual, the society, and the state. Based on the assumptions of the ERC-funded LEVIATHAN project, the emphasis is on the interconnectedness of Europe, on the entangled history that involves different forms of interaction – intersections, exchanges, competition, conflicts – between “the blocs”, between different societies and states.
Technologies are seen in a broad sociological-anthropological perspective as part of biopolitics, i.e., the social and political power governing over bodies and minds, intertwined with technologies of governing the Self. Special emphasis is placed on medical technologies and the variety of ethical issues associated with them and their essential role in defining and changing medical staff–patient relationships.
We invite papers dealing with the topics of technologies, views on body-mind divisions/interconnectedness, and concepts of care from different disciplines in several subthemes:
Technologies of (self)governmentality: (self)care and (self)control
– The normalizing gaze: regulations and legislation; measuring bodies and minds;
classifications, statistics and theories
– The body as archive: documentation, its secretes, gaps and deficits
– Discourses of care: medical innovation and technological advancement; the power of the experts
– Infrastructures of care: devices, institutions, practices
– Care for the disabled and the elderly between social isolation and integration: concepts, methods, ideas, and practices
Technologies of the collective body
– The dream of the healthy nation: eugenics, birth control, combating infant mortality, marriage restrictions
– Public health and hygiene: vaccines, immunizations and controlling epidemics. Health promotion, sport, etc.
– Pharmaceutical industry during the Cold War. Research, exchange, borrowing, patents and generics
– Nutrition and diets; an emerging discipline and its practical implications
– Nature as technology: from vernacular sociocultural practices of care and healing to the regulated utilization of natural resources for medical purposes
Utopias, delusions, risks
– Mind as an object of science in the 20th century: interdisciplinary fields, scientific networks, cultural contacts
– Languages and technologies of mind: suffering, treatments, and nosography in the “psy field”
– Dreams and projects of revitalization, prolonged and eternal life
– The birth of the gifted child. Engineering the ”harmoniously developed personality”
– Technologies of beauty and strength. Modulated bodies
Visualizations and representations
– Visual technologies and imaginations in medical discourses
– Images and visualizations of body and mind
– Media and health
– Audiovisual technologies and their use in narrating bodies
Comparative and/or case studies research in a broader international context is welcome.
The working language of the conference is English. We invite interested authors to send a 250-word abstract, five keywords, and a 50-word biography by 31 October 2023, to the following email: medicalanthropology@iefem.bas.bg
Feedback from the Organising Committee will be circulated by 1 December 2023.
A peer-reviewed publication is planned.
Please note that, while there is no conference fee, participants are expected to cover their expenses. We are exploring the possibility to organise the conference in a limited hybrid form (with the prospect to arrange some of the panels both online and offline). Please include your possible choice in the email containing your conference abstract. We are looking forward to receiving your proposals!
ORGANISING COMMITTEE:
Assoc. Prof. PhD Anelia Kassabova, Prof. PhD Daniela Koleva, Assoc. Prof. PhD Kristina Popova, Assoc. Prof. PhD Mila Maeva, Denitsa Nencheva, PhD, Tiago Pires, PhD, PhD candidate Georgi Todorov, PhD candidate Inxhi Brisku, PhD candidate Slava Savova, PhD candidate Stamen Kanev and Zhanin Todorova
If you wish to find out more about the activities of the Leviathan project team, visit the following websites:
https://leviathan-europe.eu/
MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY DEPARTMENT