Toward Biomedical and Health Testing Studies: Reassembling Testing Practices and Health Futures

Datum
09. März 2026 

Call for papers EASST2026 Con­fer­ence Krakow

CfA for a pan­el at EASST2026 Con­fer­ence Krakow: „Toward Bio­med­ical and Health Test­ing Stud­ies. Reassem­bling Test­ing Prac­tices and Health Futures”
Sep 8–11 2026
Dead­line Mar 9 

Cfp for an open pan­el “Toward Bio­med­ical and Health Test­ing Stud­ies: Reassem­bling Test­ing Prac­tices and Health Futures” (P050) at the EASST2026 Con­fer­ence in Krakow (Sep 8–11). The call for abstracts is open until March 9, 2026. Sub­mit your abstracts, and feel free to cir­cu­late the call!

Short Abstract: P050 Toward Bio­med­ical and Health Test­ing Studies
Reassem­bling Test­ing Prac­tices and Health Futures

This pan­el invites con­tri­bu­tions exam­in­ing the epis­te­molo­gies, ontolo­gies, moral­i­ties and pol­i­tics of test­ing in bio­med­i­cine and (pub­lic) health. We par­tic­u­lar­ly seek papers that explore how test­ing is done in prac­tice and how it might be done or con­fig­ured otherwise.

For more infor­ma­tion and to apply, see the attach­ment or visit:
Con­fer­ence Page: https://easst.net/conference/easst2026/easst2026-home/
Abstract Sub­mis­sion: https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/easst2026/p/18029#

Please cir­cu­late the call and con­tact us if you have any questions.

Con­venors:

Ingrid Met­zler (Karl Land­stein­er Uni­ver­si­ty of Health Sciences)
Kate­ri­na Vlan­toni (Nation­al and Kapodis­tri­an Uni­ver­si­ty of Athens)
Vic­to­ria Mek­lin (Alpen Adria Uni­ver­sität Klagenfurt)
Mara Köh­ler (Karl Land­stein­er Uni­ver­si­ty of Health Sci­ences, Uni­ver­si­ty of Vienna)

Long Abstract:

Over the past three decades, schol­ars in STS and relat­ed fields have engaged with the phe­nom­e­non of test­ing in bio­med­i­cine and health. Since the late 1980s, research has explored genet­ic test­ing as it has been envi­sioned and prac­ticed in clin­i­cal, pub­lic health, and recre­ation­al con­texts, as well as the moral­i­ties embed­ded in the reg­u­la­to­ry frame­works shap­ing its uses. Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, schol­ars con­tribut­ing to the soci­ol­o­gy of diag­no­sis have inves­ti­gat­ed how test­ing con­tributes to mak­ing up peo­ple. More recent­ly, stud­ies have turned to test­ing in emerg­ing fields such as pre­ci­sion med­i­cine, pay­ing par­tic­u­lar atten­tion to the polit­i­cal economies and gov­er­nance of test­ing, or the rise of self-test­ing prac­tices. Schol­ars have also ana­lyzed the visions, uses, and infra­struc­tures of test­ing in glob­al health ini­tia­tives and in the man­age­ment of dis­ease out­breaks, most notably dur­ing the COVID-19 pandemic.
In this pan­el, we pro­pose to use test­ing as a bound­ary object to open a dia­logue between these diverse strands of research. Build­ing on work devel­oped under the labels of the “anthro­pol­o­gy of med­ical test­ing” (Street and Kel­ly, 2021) and the “soci­ol­o­gy of diag­no­sis and screen­ing” (Petersen and Pien­aar, 2021), we sug­gest the label “bio­med­ical and health test­ing stud­ies” to fos­ter such engagement.

We invite empir­i­cal and con­cep­tu­al con­tri­bu­tions that address the epis­te­molo­gies, ontolo­gies, moral­i­ties, and pol­i­tics of test­ing across bio­med­ical and health domains. Pos­si­ble top­ics include test­ing in bio­med­ical, pub­lic health, and glob­al health con­texts; self-test­ing and tin­ker­ing; and the absences, con­tes­ta­tions, or refusals of test­ing. We par­tic­u­lar­ly wel­come con­tri­bu­tions that explore how bio­med­ical test­ing might be con­fig­ured oth­er­wise and how STS schol­ars can con­tribute to shap­ing the futures of health testing.

Petersen A and Pien­aar K (2021) Test­ing for Life? Regimes of Gov­er­nance in Diag­no­sis and Screen­ing. Sci­ence, Tech­nol­o­gy and Soci­ety 26(1): 7–23.

Street A and Kel­ly AH (2021) Intro­duc­tion: Diag­nos­tics, Med­ical Test­ing, and Val­ue in Med­ical Anthro­pol­o­gy. Med­i­cine Anthro­pol­o­gy The­o­ry 8(2). 2: 1–16.