Inter­na­tion­al sym­po­sium Repro­duc­tive Health in Frag­ile Democ­ra­cies: Bod­ies, Tech­nolo­gies and Futures
June 8–9, 2026
Pauls Stradiņš Med­i­cine His­to­ry Muse­um in Riga, Latvia

The sym­po­sium brings togeth­er schol­ars and prac­ti­tion­ers from the social sci­ences, human­i­ties, and health­care fields to explore repro­duc­tion as a key site for think­ing about democ­ra­cy, inequal­i­ty, and the pol­i­tics of care, par­tic­u­lar­ly in con­texts of frag­ile or shift­ing demo­c­ra­t­ic institutions.

Sub­mis­sion dead­line: March 1, 2026 (11:55 PM CET)
Sub­mis­sion link: https://forms.gle/3KGXDLuTnSmXDfnT8

For­mat: title, affil­i­a­tion, and 200-word abstract
Par­tic­i­pa­tion: free of charge

Keynote speak­ers include Agniesz­ka Koś­ci­ańs­ka (Uni­ver­si­ty of War­saw) and Ani­ka König (Freie Uni­ver­sität Berlin).

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Repro­duc­tive Health in Frag­ile Democ­ra­cies: Bod­ies, Tech­nolo­gies and Futures
8–9 June 2026
Pauls Stradiņš Med­i­cine His­to­ry Muse­um in Riga, Latvia 

More infor­ma­tion about the sym­po­sium is avail­able here:
https://www.mvm.lv/en/what-s-on/events/reproductive-health-in-fragile-democracies/166

The keynote speak­ers are:
Agniesz­ka Koś­ci­ańs­ka (Uni­ver­si­ty of War­saw), June 8
“I’m Not Leav­ing the Church, It’s the Church That Is Leav­ing Me”: Pol­ish Pri­vate and Pub­lic Delib­er­a­tions on Repro­duc­tive Rights, Catholi­cism and the State

Ani­ka König (Freie Uni­ver­sität Berlin), June 9
“Repro­duc­tive Entan­gle­ments: Local Worlds and Glob­al Mar­kets in Times of Crisis”

Both days of the sym­po­sium will be livestreamed via the Pauls Stradiņš Med­i­cine His­to­ry Museum’s YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@psmvmlv

The livestream links will be pub­lished on the chan­nel on the day of the event. The broad­cast will begin at 09:00 Riga time (EEST, UTC+3) on both days.

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Jen­nifer McFar­land (U. Cam­bridge) and Laeti­tia Pil­grim (U. Cam­bridge): Con­cep­tu­al­iz­ing Aging and Old Age: Per­spec­tives from Ear­ly Mod­ern Europe 

Thurs­day, June 11 2026
14 to 15.30 pm.
Online and in Room S1, Ali­son Richard Building

About this event

Age­ing occurs in all human soci­eties, yet how it has been expe­ri­enced and under­stood varies pro­found­ly across time as well as space. This pan­el asks how our crit­i­cal con­cep­tu­al vocab­u­lary for study­ing age­ing might be deep­ened and enriched by con­sid­er­ing his­to­ries of the ear­ly mod­ern world, with a focus on Eng­land and Venice in the sev­en­teenth and eigh­teenth cen­turies. In con­ver­sa­tion with con­tem­po­rary his­to­ri­an Helen McCarthy, our two speak­ers, Laeti­tia Pil­grim and Jen­nifer McFar­land, will explore how ear­ly mod­ern soci­eties con­cep­tu­alised old age through legal, spir­i­tu­al and bod­i­ly cat­e­gories, how they cared for age­ing bod­ies, and how old­er peo­ple exer­cised agency as social, polit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic actors. By his­tori­ciz­ing key terms such as ‘expe­ri­ence’ ‘self­hood’ and ‘(in)dependence’, the pan­el aims to demon­strate the val­ue of think­ing about age­ing across peri­ods and dis­ci­pli­nary boundaries.

Rec­om­mend­ed option­al readings:

-‘Round­table on Chrono­log­i­cal Age’ Amer­i­can His­tor­i­cal Review (2020), edi­tors’ introduction
‑Karen Har­vey and Sarah Fox, ‘Feel­ing old in Eigh­teenth-Cen­tu­ry Britain’ Jour­nal of British Stud­ies (2025)

About the Speakers

Laeti­tia (Let­ty) Pil­grim is a sec­ond-year PhD stu­dent in His­to­ry at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cam­bridge. Her research inves­ti­gates expe­ri­ences of old age in sev­en­teenth- and eigh­teenth-cen­tu­ry Eng­land. She has a par­tic­u­lar inter­est in recov­er­ing the emo­tion­al dimen­sions of mem­o­ry in old age, and the social and cul­tur­al sig­nif­i­cance of old­er people’s mem­o­ries, mem­o­ry loss, and “feel­ings”. Let­ty is super­vised by Pro­fes­sor Alexan­dra Wal­sham. She com­plet­ed her MPhil in Ear­ly Mod­ern His­to­ry at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cam­bridge, and her BA in His­to­ry at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oxford.

Jen­nifer (Jen) McFar­land com­plet­ed her PhD in His­to­ry at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cam­bridge in 2025, and holds a BA with Hon­ours and an MA in His­to­ry from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mel­bourne. Her doc­tor­al research focused on ideas about and expe­ri­ences of old age in sev­en­teenth-cen­tu­ry Venice and the Vene­to, explor­ing how arti­sans and work­ers nego­ti­at­ed this life cycle stage and how old age affect­ed prac­tices includ­ing work, mobil­i­ty, and care. Her research inter­ests lie in health and char­i­ty, every­day mobil­i­ty, and the mate­r­i­al cul­tures of domes­tic and urban space. Her new project focus­es on disability.

Helen McCarthy is Pro­fes­sor of Mod­ern and Con­tem­po­rary His­to­ry at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cam­bridge and a co-con­venor of the Pre­car­i­ous Aging Net­work. She is cur­rent­ly writ­ing a social his­to­ry of retire­ment in Britain since the Sec­ond World War.

CRASSH events are free and open to all unless oth­er­wise stated.

To access the event, please click here:
https://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/50556/

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