Konferenz

„Ethnog­ra­phy for Health­care Improve­ment Sum­mer School”
23rd-25th July, 2025
Leices­ter Tigers Rug­by Club Events Cen­tre in Leices­ter, UK. 

This course is deliv­ered by expert ethno­graph­ic researchers and prac­ti­tion­ers from the Social Sci­ence, Applied Health­care & Improve­ment Research (SAPPHIRE) Group at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Leicester.

This short course is designed for expe­ri­enced researchers, method­ol­o­gy edu­ca­tors, and doc­tor­al stu­dents to crit­i­cal­ly engage with the the­o­ry and prac­tice of ethnog­ra­phy in health­care set­tings. Over 3 days, you will learn more about the use of ethnog­ra­phy for health­care improve­ment, from design­ing research to man­ag­ing improve­ment and eval­u­a­tion ten­sions, nav­i­gat­ing dif­fer­ent con­texts, reach­ing audi­ences and influ­enc­ing pol­i­cy and prac­tice. Addi­tion­al­ly, you will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to devel­op a net­work of fel­low prac­ti­tion­ers and researchers with shared method­olog­i­cal inter­ests, work with expe­ri­enced ethno­g­ra­phers as men­tors, and join an inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty of prac­tice around ethnog­ra­phy for health­care improve­ment. The cost of the 3 day course, includ­ing all edu­ca­tion mate­ri­als and activ­i­ties, plus lunch and refresh­ments both days, is £1000. Trans­port to and from the venue and accom­mo­da­tion at is not included.
Reg­is­tra­tions are strict­ly lim­it­ed, and are now open at https://shop.le.ac.uk/product-catalogue/events-at-leicester/health-sciences/ethnography-for-health-care-improvement-summer-school-2025; book­ings will close 20 June 2025. A wait­ing list will be main­tained in the event of the course being over-sub­scribed. Please for­ward any ques­tions to Jen­nifer Creese, course lead: jennifer.creese@leicester.ac.uk.

Best wish­es, Dr Jen­nifer Creese (BA, MIM, PhD, AFHEA)
Lec­tur­er, Depart­ment of Health Sci­ences (SAPPHIRE Group)
Col­lege of Life Sciences
Uni­ver­si­ty of Leicester

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Trans­dis­ci­pli­nary Event on Ances­tral Knowl­edge and Heal­ing (in Spanish)

You are invit­ed to take part in an upcom­ing online event held in Span­ish, focused on rit­u­al knowl­edge, tra­di­tion­al plant med­i­cine and Mediter­ranean spir­i­tu­al lega­cies. It brings togeth­er per­spec­tives from clin­i­cal prac­tice, eth­nob­otany, med­ical anthro­pol­o­gy and the cul­tur­al his­to­ry of health.

Title: Encuen­tro trans­dis­ci­pli­nar sobre saberes rit­uales, botáni­ca cura­ti­va y espir­i­tu­al­i­dad mediterránea

Date and time will be deter­mined through con­sul­ta­tion with par­tic­i­pants and atten­dees. Late July, at least two hours long. The ses­sion includes open space for dis­cus­sion and questions.

Speak­ers include
– Dr. Jacques Mabit, Taki­wasi Cen­ter, Peru
– Lau­ra Mon­teagu­do and Fabio, Neu­ro­sci­en­tist and folk med­i­cine expert
– Alfre­do Panivi­no, Expert on Eleusin­ian mys­ter­ies and ancient Mediter­ranean traditions

The event explores the clin­i­cal mod­el and rit­u­al prac­tices of the Ama­zon­ian Taki­wasi Cen­ter, Iber­ian folk med­i­cine and plant knowl­edge, and the lega­cy of the Eleusin­ian Mys­ter­ies in the con­text of Mediter­ranean his­to­ry and present-day recov­ery of lost ped­a­go­gies. Fuller details at: https://research.henning.md/p/encuentro-transdisciplinar-sobre

You are invit­ed to pro­pose your avail­abil­i­ty as new speak­er, cir­cu­late the invi­ta­tion, and join the dis­cus­sion. Please, sub­scribe to the pub­li­ca­tion in case you wish not to miss fur­ther news.

2. EU BEACON One Health Edu­ca­tion and Tech­nol­o­gy – Now an Award­ed COST Action

I am pleased to for­mal­ly announce that EU BEACON One Health Edu­ca­tion and Tech­nol­o­gy, a net­work I found­ed years ago dur­ing what accounts to tor­ture, the most severe abus­es dur­ing field­work in the EU, has been offi­cial­ly award­ed as a COST Action under the Euro­pean Coop­er­a­tion in Sci­ence and Tech­nol­o­gy frame­work. The action is now oper­a­tional and open to new mem­bers, includ­ing researchers, clin­i­cians, edu­ca­tors, tech­nol­o­gists and pol­i­cy actors. EU BEACON focus­es on advanc­ing trans­dis­ci­pli­nary, rights-based and open sci­ence solu­tions for human, ani­mal and plan­e­tary health. It address­es struc­tur­al vio­lence, epis­te­mo­log­i­cal gaps, eco­log­i­cal degra­da­tion and insti­tu­tion­al iner­tia through coor­di­nat­ed edu­ca­tion, field research and pol­i­cy engage­ment. This is a work­ing action, not an aspi­ra­tional ini­tia­tive. Its reach is glob­al, as we need to bridge and con­nect cul­tures with the now lack­ing respect, tools and fair, most need­ed means. It is designed for struc­tured imple­men­ta­tion, sup­port­ed by a grow­ing net­work of schol­ars and prac­ti­tion­ers across Europe and inter­na­tion­al­ly. If you wish to join EU BEACON and con­tribute to its work­ing groups, you are invit­ed to express your inter­est through the por­tal: https://health.int.eu.org

I encour­age and wel­come active engage­ment from those com­mit­ted to eth­i­cal, evi­dence-based trans­for­ma­tion in health, edu­ca­tion and tech­no­log­i­cal governance.

All the best,

Hen­ning (né Enric) Gar­cia Torrents

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DDD17: „POLITICS OF DEATH”
27–30 August 2025
Uni­ver­si­ty of Utrecht (Nether­lands)

CALL FOR PAPERS AND PANELS

The Death, Dying and Dis­pos­al (DDD) Con­fer­ence is the bi-annu­al con­fer­ence of the Asso­ci­a­tion for the Study of Death and Soci­ety (ASDS). The next edi­tion will be host­ed at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Utrecht (Nether­lands) and online from Wednes­day 27 to Sat­ur­day 30 August 2025. For the upcom­ing DDD17 con­fer­ence, we invite ses­sions that explore the broad top­ic of the Pol­i­tics of Death. 

Despite appear­ing as a uni­ver­sal bio­log­i­cal event, death is and has nev­er been neu­tral. Instead, it is deeply entwined with issues of (in)equality, access, and pow­er dynam­ics. In today’s world, death is per­haps more politi­cized as it ever was before. Wars, envi­ron­men­tal crises, glob­al migra­tion pat­terns, and fail­ing states bring death close to our homes. At the same time, tech­no­log­i­cal, dig­i­tal, and med­ical advance­ments alter our approach­es to deal­ing with, think­ing about, research­ing, and work­ing with death. Such devel­op­ments are equal­ly inher­ent­ly polit­i­cal, both in their ori­gins and their applications.

As prac­ti­tion­ers and schol­ars, how do we nav­i­gate the polit­i­cal dimen­sions of death? How does the polit­i­cal shape our engage­ment with death? And how can we reflect on and poten­tial­ly change our own posi­tions with­in this polit­i­cal landscape?

For more infor­ma­tion on the con­fer­ence theme, please refer to our web­site: https://ddd17.sites.uu.nl/conference-theme/

We invite schol­ars and prac­ti­tion­ers to sub­mit a pro­pos­al for papers, orga­nized pan­els, round­ta­bles, work­shops, or oth­er for­mats by Sat­ur­day 30 Novem­ber 2024. No excep­tions to this dead­line are possible. 

We encour­age pro­pos­als in four types of ses­sion formats:

Organ­ised pan­els and indi­vid­ual papers

Pan­els will be struc­tured in the tra­di­tion­al man­ner of indi­vid­ual paper pre­sen­ta­tions. This will be four (4) pre­sen­ta­tions of 15 min­utes back-to-back, fol­lowed by a 30-minute dis­cus­sion on the pre­sen­ta­tions. All organ­ised pan­els are thus 90 min­utes. The pan­els will be orga­nized in a hybrid (i.e., includ­ing online par­tic­i­pants) for­mat, mean­ing paper pre­sen­ters can present from home. Dis­cus­sions will be orga­nized using chat-moderators.

Round­ta­bles

Round­ta­bles of 90 min­utes in which no more than five peo­ple dis­cuss a par­tic­u­lar theme or issue in front of (and sub­se­quent­ly with) an audi­ence. While a round­table may include short (approx. 5 min) contributions/presentations, the main idea is to cre­ate a live­ly debate, and not to focus on any one or mul­ti­ple presenter(s). To be able to cre­ate such debate, round­ta­bles will not be orga­nized in a hybrid (i.e., includ­ing online par­tic­i­pants) format.

Work­shops

Work­shops of 90 min­utes are char­ac­terised by exper­i­men­ta­tion, col­lab­o­ra­tion, inter­ac­tion and/or impro­vi­sa­tion. The aim of work­shops is to organ­ise col­lec­tive activ­i­ties that are open-end­ed and cul­ti­vate pos­si­bil­i­ties for sur­prise, nov­el­ty, and learn­ing. Work­shops will be designed as inter­ac­tive, reflex­ive ses­sions that pri­ori­tise explo­ration, rather than the dis­cus­sion of already estab­lished research results. To make true col­lab­o­ra­tion pos­si­ble and cre­ate safe space, the max­i­mum num­ber of per­sons per work­shop is 16 (includ­ing work­shop con­venors). The work­shops will not be orga­nized in a hybrid (i.e., includ­ing online par­tic­i­pants) format.

Oth­er

We wel­come you to share your ideas of oth­er pos­si­ble for­mats with us. If you would like to sug­gest a dif­fer­ent for­mat and/or are will­ing to run a ses­sion or activ­i­ty with a dif­fer­ent for­mat, please let us know by send­ing an email to DDD17@uu.nl. The DDD17 selec­tion com­mit­tee will then decide if and how to accom­mo­date your idea(s).

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17th bian­nu­al DDD con­fer­ence „The Pol­i­tics of Death”
The Asso­ci­a­tion for the Study of Death and Soci­ety (ASDS)
Uni­ver­si­ty of Utrecht
27–30 August 2025

Details:

Despite appear­ing as a uni­ver­sal bio­log­i­cal event, death is and has nev­er been neu­tral. Instead, it is deeply entwined with issues of (in)equality, access, and pow­er dynam­ics. In today’s world, death is per­haps more politi­cized as it ever was before. Wars, envi­ron­men­tal crises, glob­al migra­tion pat­terns, and fail­ing states bring death close to our homes. At the same time, tech­no­log­i­cal, dig­i­tal, and med­ical advance­ments alter our approach­es to deal­ing with, think­ing about, research­ing, and work­ing with death. Such devel­op­ments are equal­ly inher­ent­ly polit­i­cal, both in their ori­gins and their applications.

As prac­ti­tion­ers and schol­ars, how do we nav­i­gate the polit­i­cal dimen­sions of death? How does the polit­i­cal shape our engage­ment with death? And how can we reflect on and poten­tial­ly change our own posi­tions with­in this polit­i­cal landscape?

Pol­i­tics is every­where; every­thing is polit­i­cal. It’s woven into every facet of life, shap­ing how we live, die, and make sense of the worlds in between and beyond. It is the lens through which we address our biggest chal­lenges and seize new oppor­tu­ni­ties. It shapes our sense of right and wrong, fram­ing what we see as moral or immoral. It guides deci­sions, both con­scious­ly and uncon­scious­ly, in every set­ting – from the halls of gov­ern­ment to the inti­mate spaces of home. It spans for­mal author­i­ty and hid­den social pow­er, thread­ing through the spaces we inhab­it, the rules we fol­low, and the sym­bols we embrace. It exists between peo­ple, envi­ron­ments and species, influ­enc­ing every­thing from small exchanges to glob­al reg­u­la­tions. In every inter­ac­tion and insti­tu­tion, there’s an ele­ment of pol­i­tics. Because of this, pol­i­tics is every­where, and every­thing down to the small­est detail is inher­ent­ly political.

For more infor­ma­tion on the con­fer­ence theme, please refer to our web­site: https://ddd17.sites.uu.nl/conference-theme/

We invite schol­ars and prac­ti­tion­ers to sub­mit a pro­pos­al for papers, orga­nized pan­els, round­ta­bles, work­shops, or oth­er for­mats by Sat­ur­day 30 Novem­ber 2024. No excep­tions to this dead­line are possible.

We encour­age pro­pos­als in four types of ses­sion formats:

Organ­ised pan­els and indi­vid­ual papers

Pan­els will be struc­tured in the tra­di­tion­al man­ner of indi­vid­ual paper pre­sen­ta­tions. This will be four (4) pre­sen­ta­tions of 15 min­utes back-to-back, fol­lowed by a 30-minute dis­cus­sion on the pre­sen­ta­tions. All organ­ised pan­els are thus 90 min­utes. The pan­els will be orga­nized in a hybrid (i.e., includ­ing online par­tic­i­pants) for­mat, mean­ing paper pre­sen­ters can present from home. Dis­cus­sions will be orga­nized using chat-moderators.

Round­ta­bles

Round­ta­bles of 90 min­utes in which no more than five peo­ple dis­cuss a par­tic­u­lar theme or issue in front of (and sub­se­quent­ly with) an audi­ence. While a round­table may include short (approx. 5 min) contributions/presentations, the main idea is to cre­ate a live­ly debate, and not to focus on any one or mul­ti­ple presenter(s). To be able to cre­ate such debate, round­ta­bles will not be orga­nized in a hybrid (i.e., includ­ing online par­tic­i­pants) format.

Work­shops

Work­shops of 90 min­utes are char­ac­terised by exper­i­men­ta­tion, col­lab­o­ra­tion, inter­ac­tion and/or impro­vi­sa­tion. The aim of work­shops is to organ­ise col­lec­tive activ­i­ties that are open-end­ed and cul­ti­vate pos­si­bil­i­ties for sur­prise, nov­el­ty, and learn­ing. Work­shops will be designed as inter­ac­tive, reflex­ive ses­sions that pri­ori­tise explo­ration, rather than the dis­cus­sion of already estab­lished research results. To make true col­lab­o­ra­tion pos­si­ble and cre­ate safe space, the max­i­mum num­ber of per­sons per work­shop is 16 (includ­ing work­shop con­venors). The work­shops will not be orga­nized in a hybrid (i.e., includ­ing online par­tic­i­pants) format.

Oth­er

We wel­come you to share your ideas of oth­er pos­si­ble for­mats with us. If you would like to sug­gest a dif­fer­ent for­mat and/or are will­ing to run a ses­sion or activ­i­ty with a dif­fer­ent for­mat, please let us know by send­ing an email to DDD17@uu.nl. The DDD17 selec­tion com­mit­tee will then decide if and how to accom­mo­date your idea(s).

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This is your last chance to reg­is­ter to attend our upcom­ing DDD17 Con­fer­ence: The Pol­i­tics of Death, tak­ing place 27–30 August 2025 at Utrecht Uni­ver­si­ty, the Netherlands!

🔗 Click here to register

Here’s a glimpse of what’s in store: 

🧠 Inspir­ing sessions

A wide range of pan­el ses­sions, includ­ing paper pre­sen­ta­tions, round­ta­bles, and workshops.
👉 Get a sneak peek at the cur­rent programme

🎤 Thought-pro­vok­ing plenaries

Keynote by Dr. Kami Fletcher
Expe­ri­en­tial keynote by Prof. Enny Das
A ple­nary round­table on euthana­sia in the Dutch context
👉 Read more about the ple­nar­ies here

🎉 Excit­ing extras!

A Death Book Club 📚
Guid­ed Dark Tourism tours in beau­ti­ful Utrecht 🏛️
A unique Death Muse­um excur­sion to Amsterdam 🚋
A three-course veg­e­tar­i­an Con­fer­ence dinner

👉 Read more about the addi­tion­al events here

We warm­ly invite you to join us in Utrecht this sum­mer to explore, reflect on, and dis­cuss all things death. Look­ing for­ward to see­ing you there!

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Pan­el: „Repro­duc­tive Uncer­tain­ties and Imag­ined Futures in the Anthropocene”
STS-CH Con­fer­ence this com­ing Sep­tem­ber in Zurich

Pan­el Description:
Uncer­tain­ty per­me­ates every aspect of human repro­duc­tion. Humans have tried to con­trol this bio­log­i­cal uncer­tain­ty through var­i­ous techno­sci­en­tif­ic, and sociopo­lit­i­cal mea­sures as illus­trat­ed through the vast land­scape of assist­ed repro­duc­tive tech­nolo­gies, birth con­trol tech­nolo­gies and relat­ed dynam­ic reg­u­la­tions sur­round­ing their use in the Glob­al South and North. In light of this, fol­low­ing Jasanoff and Kim’s (2015) for­mu­la­tion of ‘sociotech­ni­cal imag­i­nar­ies’ and Gins­burg and Rapp’s (2020) refram­ing using the „cul­tur­al work of repro­duc­tion” as „repro­duc­tive imag­i­nar­ies”, we ask what role repro­duc­tion-relat­ed tech­nolo­gies such as but not lim­it­ed to IVF, birth con­trol and ster­il­iza­tion tech­niques, play in the con­sti­tu­tion of par­tic­u­lar­ized con­tex­tu­al ‘repro­duc­tive imaginaries’? 

Using repro­duc­tive uncer­tain­ty as our start­ing point, in this pan­el, we ask how these repro­duc­tive things and peo­ple „hold togeth­er” to cre­ate or resist change. Giv­en that, repro­duc­tive goals change con­sid­er­ably, both at indi­vid­ual and state lev­el, how are ‘repro­duc­tive imag­i­nar­ies’ informed and in turn inform indi­vid­ual and col­lec­tive orga­niz­ing around lived and future lives- for e.g., in the child free and pro-life move­ments with respect to the cli­mate crises? How do peo­ple involve ‘repro­duc­tive imag­i­nar­ies’ to make sense of their worlds when impact­ed by the diag­no­sis of infer­til­i­ty? What sal­va­tion­ary or harm­ful aspects of these repro­duc­tive tech­nolo­gies are high­light­ed to bring cer­tain ‘repro­duc­tive imag­i­nar­ies’ to fruition while oth­ers are down­played? And what are the effects of such envi­sioned futures, both at state and indi­vid­ual lev­els? We invite papers across dis­ci­plines that con­tribute to this dis­cus­sion on the entan­gle­ments of state, indi­vid­ual and repro­duc­tive tech­nolo­gies in pro­duc­ing „repro­duc­tive imagineries”.

Pan­el Details:

🔹Abstract Dead­line: May 9, 2025
🔹Max Abstract Length: 300 words
🔹Sub­mit here: Sub­mis­sion Portal
🔹Full Pan­el Abstract: https://express.converia.de/frontend/index.php?page_id=47357#panel-125457

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CfP for the pan­el at the next con­fer­ence of the Soci­ety for Social Stud­ies of Sci­ence 2025
Seattle
3–7 September

‘Tem­po­ral­i­ties of bod­ies, tech­nolo­gies and their entan­gle­ments in the expe­ri­ence of dis­abil­i­ty and/or chron­ic illness’.

Chron­ic ill­ness and dis­abil­i­ty have become a priv­i­leged place for tech­no­log­i­cal inter­ven­tion. Both are char­ac­ter­ized by the deploy­ment of tech­no­log­i­cal devices that aim to mit­i­gate, com­pen­sate for, or even pre­vent and slow down the loss of capac­i­ties, as well as alle­vi­ate or lim­it symp­toms. In this con­text, a var­ied array of tech­nolo­gies that dif­fer­ent­ly act on or inter­vene in bod­ies and places are intro­duced in people’s lives: tech­no­log­i­cal devices that are implant­ed in the body (e.g. insulin pumps and deep brain stim­u­la­tion), tech­no­log­i­cal devices that are attached to the body (pros­the­ses and orthoses) and/or tech­no­log­i­cal devices that are con­nect­ed both to the body and to a par­tic­u­lar place (tele­care and dial­y­sis equip­ment; exoskeletons). 

Regard­ing this ‘tech­no­log­i­cal care’ (Lancelot & Guchet, 2023), research in STS and empir­i­cal phi­los­o­phy of tech­nol­o­gy has main­ly focused on tech­no­log­i­cal use and appro­pri­a­tion, includ­ing the dif­fi­cul­ties there­of. How­ev­er vital and essen­tial these tech­nolo­gies may be in sus­tain­ing peo­ple in dai­ly life, atten­tion has scarce­ly been paid to their fragili­ty and people’s result­ing vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty when they mal­func­tion, wear and tear, break and/or thus can no longer be used or have to be adjust­ed and/or used dif­fer­ent­ly (Oud­shoorn, 2020). 

These mate­r­i­al and exis­ten­tial dis­rup­tions and con­straints call for inquir­ing about the entan­gle­ments of dif­fer­ent tem­po­ral­i­ties of chron­ic liv­ing and dis­abil­i­ty: of bod­ies adjust­ing to chron­ic ill­ness, dis­abil­i­ty and/or to tech­no­log­i­cal care; of the tech­nolo­gies them­selves (from their devel­op­ment to their every­day use, adap­ta­tion, mal­func­tions and main­te­nance) and the socio-mate­r­i­al infra­struc­tures that sup­port them; and of the rela­tions between them. We invite con­tri­bu­tions that address, empir­i­cal­ly and/or con­cep­tu­al­ly, tech­no­log­i­cal care and its temporalities.

Dead­line of the call for abstracts:

- Jan­u­ary 31, 2025
– Noti­fi­ca­tion of acceptance:
– March 15, 2025
– 4S 2025 in-per­son conference:
– Sep­tem­ber 3–7, 2025

Abstracts (250 words max) should be sub­mit­ted on the 4S web­site: https://bit.ly/3BtgXPh

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Med­ical Anthro­pol­o­gy Europe Con­fer­ence 2025 Vien­na: „Rede­f­i­n­i­tions of Health and Well-being
Call for Pan­els and Round­ta­bles is now OPEN

RZ_­MAEC-2025_­Call-for-Papers

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Call for abstracts: Cen­tre for Dis­abil­i­ty Stud­ies Post­grad­u­ate Con­fer­ence 2025 

“Dis­abil­i­ty with­in Envi­ron­ments: dis­abil­i­ty stud­ies perspectives” 

17th Sep­tem­ber 2025 

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Leeds Cen­tre for Dis­abil­i­ty Stud­ies (CDS) Post­grad­u­ate Researchers invite you to sub­mit an abstract for our inter­na­tion­al hybrid con­fer­ence on the 17th Sep­tem­ber 2025. 

This con­fer­ence will focus on how dis­abil­i­ty oper­ates with­in dif­fer­ent envi­ron­ments, for exam­ple envi­ron­ments of acad­e­mia, edu­ca­tion, pol­i­tics, music and arts, green spaces, dis­as­ter and/or war zones. Con­sid­er­ing recent nation­al and inter­na­tion­al back­lash against equal­i­ty, diver­si­ty, and inclu­sion (EDI), mil­i­tary con­flicts, human­i­tar­i­an cri­sis and the glob­al cli­mate cri­sis, it is time­ly to address how dis­abled peo­ple are affect­ed in these dif­fer­ent envi­ron­ments and how envi­ron­ments might be reshaped and reimag­ined to cre­ate more sus­tain­able, just, and inclu­sive futures. The cho­sen breath of the top­ic encom­pass­es all types of envi­ron­ments that exist in our con­tem­po­rary world with the aim to high­light inter­sec­tion­al, inter‑, and trans­dis­ci­pli­nary pos­si­bil­i­ties and challenges.
This inter­na­tion­al hybrid con­fer­ence will offer an oppor­tu­ni­ty for PGRs to share their work, receive con­struc­tive feed­back, and engage in inter­dis­ci­pli­nary dis­cus­sions. Par­tic­i­pants will ben­e­fit from net­work­ing, skill devel­op­ment, and aca­d­e­m­ic exchange. We intend to pro­vide a sup­port­ive space to devel­op com­mu­ni­ty con­nec­tions and learn about the excit­ing work fel­low PGRs are pro­duc­ing. This event is open to all PGRs at any stage of their researchers and post-doc researchers from across the world. 

We wel­come a vari­ety of sub­mis­sion for­mats, includ­ing tra­di­tion­al research papers, cre­ative pre­sen­ta­tions, and prac­tice-based con­tri­bu­tions, embrac­ing diverse method­olog­i­cal approach­es. We encour­age con­tri­bu­tions that engage with empir­i­cal, the­o­ret­i­cal, method­olog­i­cal, or prac­tice-based per­spec­tives not only with­in dis­abil­i­ty stud­ies but from an inter- and trans­dis­ci­pli­nary perspective. 

Some pos­si­ble themes are: 

Inter- and trans­dis­ci­pli­nary approach­es to disability
Dis­abil­i­ty and dis­as­ter management
Dis­abil­i­ty in high­er education
Dis­abil­i­ty and green spaces
Dis­abil­i­ty and cre­ative spaces
Inclu­sive research practices 

We also wel­come any of your own top­ics linked to the broad­er over­all subject! 

Please fill out this form which requires a 300-word abstract, a 150-word bio­graph­i­cal state­ment, your insti­tu­tion­al affil­i­a­tion (if applic­a­ble), your pre­sen­ta­tion pref­er­ence (poster, paper, work­shop etc), pro­vi­sion­al online or in per­son atten­dance, and access needs. Alter­na­tive­ly, if this form is not acces­si­ble, please email this infor­ma­tion to CDSpostgraduates@leeds.ac.uk.

The clos­ing date for sub­mis­sions is 18:00 (GMT) 12th June 2025. 

Pro­vi­sion­al key dates (may be sub­ject to change)
Abstract sub­mis­sion deadline 

12th June 2025
Accep­tances com­mu­ni­cat­ed and reg­is­tra­tion opens 

27th June 2025
Reg­is­tra­tion closes 

15th August 2025
PGR conference 

17th Sep­tem­ber 2025 

More infor­ma­tion on the sub­mis­sion guide­lines and fur­ther details of the con­fer­ence will be updat­ed reg­u­lar­ly on https://disability-studies.leeds.ac.uk/events/pgrconference/

Please send any inquiries to CDSpostgraduates@leeds.ac.uk

We look for­ward to hear­ing from you! 

Ruby Good­ley (she/her); Johan­na Knebel (she/her)
CDS post­grad­u­ate representatives

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Jahresta­gung der GWMT 2025 in Dres­den: „ANIMAL-BASED. His­torische Per­spek­tiv­en auf Tiere in Medi­zin, Wissenschaft
und Technik”

Der Vor­stand der Gesellschaft für die Geschichte der Wis­senschaften, der
Medi­zin und der Tech­nik e.V. (GWMT) lädt in Koop­er­a­tion mit der TU Dresden
zu Vor­trags- und Sek­tion­san­mel­dun­gen für die siebte Jahresta­gung der
Gesellschaft ein. Die Tagung find­et vom 24.–26. Sep­tem­ber 2025 in Dresden
statt und hat das Rahmenthema:

„ANIMAL-BASED. His­torische Per­spek­tiv­en auf Tiere in Medi­zin, Wissenschaft
und Technik”

Die Zucht, Hal­tung und Nutzung von Tieren zur Her­stel­lung von Lebensmitteln,
Tex­tilien und Medi­z­in­pro­duk­ten oder zur Gewin­nung wissenschaftlicher
Erken­nt­nisse sind heute eben­so ver­bre­it­et wie umstrit­ten. Aktuell lassen
sich gegen­läu­fige Trends beobacht­en: Ein­er­seits belegt und unter­läuft der
immer häu­figere Ver­merk „plant-based” auf Pro­duk­ten aller Art die
Selb­stver­ständlichkeit von „ani­mal-based” im glob­alen Nor­den und Westen.
Ander­er­seits begün­sti­gen Wirtschafts- und Wohl­standswach­s­tum in Län­dern des
glob­alen Südens und Ostens eine Ausweitung von Nutztier­hal­tung und ‑kon­sum.
Zudem erfahren Wildtiere und ihre Habi­tate, ihre Rolle bei Zoonosen, ihr
Vor­drin­gen in neue Räume oder ihre „Hybri­disierung” durch
tech­no-wis­senschaftliche Mod­i­fika­tio­nen des Gen­pools verstärkte
Aufmerksamkeit. 

Die inter­diszi­plinären Felder der Ani­mal Stud­ies und Mul­ti­species Studies
sind nicht zulet­zt durch geis­teswis­senschaftliche Impulse zum Ort des
Aus­tauschs über men­sch-tier-rel­e­vante Geschichts­forschung gewor­den. Im
Rück­griff auf Konzepte der Sci­ence Stud­ies der 1980er- und 1990er-Jahre
zeich­nen sich auch in der Wissenschafts‑, Medi­zin- und Technikgeschichte
zunehmend die Kon­turen ein­er von Tieren bewegten und belebten
Geschichtss­chrei­bung ab. Die Organisator:innen der GWMT-Tagung 2025 haken
hier ein und laden Forschende aus den Geistes‑, Kul­tur- und
Sozial­wis­senschaften sowie aus den Natur- bzw. Lebenswis­senschaften dazu
ein, ihre Pro­jek­te und Erken­nt­nisse zur his­torischen Rolle von
domes­tizierten, gezüchteten oder auch „wilden” Tieren in den Bereichen
Wis­senschaft, Medi­zin und Tech­nik vorzustellen. Uns inter­essieren Beiträge
aus allen Epochen und Weltregionen. 

Wieder­holte Pan­demien – die Influen­za von 1918, neuere Vogel- und
Schweine­grip­pen, Covid-19 – erin­nern neb­st endemis­chen Zoonosen wie Malaria
an die geschichtsmächtige Koevo­lu­tion von Tierkrankheit­en, Tiergesundheit,
Human­medi­zin und Hygiene. Vor diesem Hin­ter­grund sind Forschun­gen, die dem
One-Health-Ansatz fol­gen und etwa die Umwelt­be­zo­gen­heit von Tierseuchen in
den Blick nehmen, hochwillkommen. 

In der Tech­nik- und Mobil­itäts­geschichte seit der Indus­tri­al­isierung werden
Tiere in ihrem Ver­hält­nis zu Men­schen und Maschi­nen in den Blick genommen.
Dabei inter­essiert die Co-Agency von Tieren und Men­schen bei Arbeitsleistung
und Trans­port – in Land­wirtschaft, Gewerbe, Berg­bau, Per­so­n­en- und
Güter­verkehr – bis weit ins 20. Jahrhun­dert. Aber auch in Antike,
Mit­te­lal­ter und Früher Neuzeit wurde Wis­sen über Tiere erzeugt, das für die
Wissenschafts‑, Medi­zin- und Tech­nikgeschichte rel­e­vant ist, man denke etwa
an die Arbeit­sleis­tung der Nutztiere, tierische Mate­ria med­ica oder
Tier­meta­phern in den Wissenschaften.

Von Inter­esse ist auch, wie Men­sch-Tier-Inter­ak­tio­nen die Entwicklung
wis­senschaftlich-tech­nol­o­gis­ch­er Mess­größen sowie von Gerätschaften jenseits
von Fahrzeu­gen und Las­ten­trans­port geformt haben und wie tierliche
Eigen­schaften und Fähigkeit­en im Sinne ein­er frühen Bionik nutzbar gemacht
wurden.

Ein Desider­at stellt zudem die Auseinan­der­set­zung mit Tieren als
indus­triell-gewerbliche Rohstoff­ba­sis in der Mod­erne dar. Ob es um Waltran
als Lam­p­enöl ging, um Rinder­häute für die Led­er­pro­duk­tion oder um Gelatine
für die Lebens­mit­tel- und Fotoin­dus­trie: Solche Ver­fahren wur­den von
inge­nieur- oder biowis­senschaftlichen, vet­er­inärmedi­zinis­chen oder
hygien­isch-infek­ti­ol­o­gis­chen Forschun­gen begleit­et. Welche Verbindun­gen oder
Diskon­ti­nu­itäten ergeben sich hier etwa zu vor­mod­er­nen „Tier­stoff-Gewer­ben”
sowie zur Jagd nach und Hal­tung von Pelztieren?

Die Frage nach der ethis­chen Zuläs­sigkeit ein­er Aus­beu­tung tierlicher
Ressourcen sowie die Diskus­sion über das Konzept des Speziesis­mus verweisen
auf aktuelle Kon­flik­t­felder, deren his­torische Dimen­sion auszuleucht­en wäre.
Dabei gilt es gle­ichzeit­ig zu beacht­en, dass Tiere nicht nur als Tech­nik und
wis­senschaftliche Objek­te funk­tion­al­isiert wur­den. Vielmehr haben sie mit
ihren spez­i­fis­chen Eige­narten, Kom­pe­ten­zen und Widerständigkeiten
men­schliche Hand­lungsspiel­räume erweit­ert oder eingeschränkt.

Mit solchen Per­spek­tivierun­gen möchte die GWMT-Tagung 2025 anre­gen, in allen
Bere­ichen der Geschichtswis­senschaft nach tierischen Leer­stellen zu forschen
und diese mit empirisch oder konzep­tionell angelegten Stu­di­en zu
unter­suchen. Lei­t­end kön­nten fol­gende Fra­gen sein:

- Welche Begriffe und Konzepte sind in beson­derem Maße dazu geeignet,
his­torische Men­sch-Tier-Ver­hält­nisse in Wis­senschaft, Tech­nik und Medi­zin zu
erforschen?
– Welche Verbindun­gen und neue Ein­sicht­en zwis­chen Wis­senschaft, Medizin &
Tech­nik wer­den sicht­bar, wenn Tiere im Zen­trum der Analyse stehen?
– Ver­mag eine solche Men­sch-Tier-Geschichte die Auseinan­der­set­zung mit
über­ge­ord­neten Forschungs­diskus­sio­nen „Kolo­nial­is­mus, Postkolo­nial­is­mus und
Anthro­pozän” zu erweit­ern und zu bereichern?

Erwün­scht sind Einzel­beiträge und Bewer­bun­gen für ganze Sek­tio­nen. Auch
Beiträge, die sich mit der Vor­mod­erne und mit Ver­hält­nis­sen außerhalb
Europas und Nor­damerikas befassen, sind sehr willkom­men. Darüber hinaus
kön­nen auch Vorschläge für Vorträge und Sek­tio­nen, die sich nicht auf das
Rah­men­the­ma beziehen, ein­gere­icht werden.

Einzelvorträge sollen nicht länger als 20 Minuten dauern. Sek­tio­nen bestehen
entwed­er aus vier Vorträ­gen oder drei Vorträ­gen mit Kom­men­tar und umfassen
inkl. Diskus­sion 120 Minuten. Die Abstracts sollen pro Einzelvor­trag etwa
eine halbe Seite Länge umfassen; bei Sek­tio­nen ist neben den Abstracts der
Einzelvorträge eine kurze Ein­führung in die Sek­tion einzure­ichen. Bei
gle­ich­er Qual­ität wer­den Sek­tio­nen, die akademis­che Generationen
überspan­nen, bevorzugt. 

Reichen Sie Vorschläge für Sek­tio­nen oder Einzelvorträge bis zum 28.02.2025
über das Online-Ein­sende­for­mu­lar auf:
https://www.gwmt.de/veranstaltungen/aktuelle-jahrestagung/ ein.

Bitte beacht­en Sie: Dies ist eine Präsen­z­ta­gung; Aus­nah­men sind
auss­chließlich zum Zwecke der Bar­ri­ere­frei­heit möglich.

Kon­takt: Gisela Hür­li­mann, Flo­ri­an Bruns und Dorit Brix­ius, TU Dresden,
gwmt25@tu-dresden.de

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