Concepts of Infection, 29-31 March, 2007, University of Bristol (UK)

'Concepts of Infection' is an interdisciplinary conference, bringing together specialists in the history of medicine and the humanities in order to explore the ways in which infections are imagined, represented and theorized. Papers may engage with any aspect of infection, from historical examples of single diseases and epidemics (such as plague, cholera, leprosy, syphilis, AIDS, bird flu) to more abstract concepts of pollution and contamination. Topics can include: the ways in which ideas of infection relate to race, gender, sexual orientation, miscegenation, and conceptions of the body and of the self; the language of infection and its use as metaphor; how real and imagined diseases are represented in literature, film, painting, and book illustration; and the ways in which discourses of infection are employed for political, psychological, and polemical purposes.

Speakers include:

Sander L. Gilman
Helen King
Anne Hardy
Johannes Tuerk
Stephan Porombka
Yahya Elsaghe
Yvonne Wuebben
Michael Worboys
Clark Lawlor
Thomas Ruetten
Cornelia Zumbusch
Roger Cooter
Claudia Stein
Sean de Loekkoek
Uwe Shutte

Proposals, abstracts (maximum 250 words), and single page CVs should be submitted by 21 February 2007 to:

Michael Bresalier
Visiting Fellow
Department of Philosophy
University of Bristol
9 Woodland Road
Bristol BS8 1T
mcb37@hermes.cam.ac.uk