Posted on 13 November 2013
University of York, 18-20 July 2014
Diffusionist models of understanding the histories of medicine and health practices in non-European countries have increasingly been discredited. Instead, scholars now highlight the multi-directional movement of ideas and practices between Europe and other parts of the world, as well as the mutually-constitutive character of imperialism, post-colonial ideologies and development projects. Yet, several gaps remain in the historiography. Relatively scant attention has been paid to the production of medical and scientific practices in Caribbean and Latin American contexts, and how the underpinning knowledge was used to reshape the design and implementation of medical, scientific and public health work; this dynamism in Latin America and the Caribbean also had a far-reaching impact on imperial powers such as Portugal, the US, France and, not least, Britain.
This two-day workshop, centred around pre-circulated papers, tries to fill the gap in the scholarship by examining some of the unique public health policies that emerged in the Caribbean and Latin America and which were deeply wedded to local conditions and influenced by negotiations between indigenous elites and the groups they sought to control. The workshop also seeks to better understand the ways in which models of public health organisation and practices were exported wider afield, either through trans-imperial networks or post-Second World War developmental strategies.
Proposals welcomed for papers on any part of the Caribbean and Latin America – or, indeed, the connections between these regions and political formations within other national, regional and international contexts – on one of the following themes:
And which engage with one or more of the following questions:
A limited number of Postgraduate Bursaries to assist postgraduate presenters with registration and UK-travel costs may be offered. Those seeking a bursary should state so on their submission.
Proposals for papers must include the following:
All proposals must be sent to Dr. Henrice Altink (henrice.altink@york.ac.uk) no later than Friday 25 January 2014. Notifications will be sent by 25 February 2014.