panel "Medical Socialist Entanglements: Health Connections between Eastern Europe and Africa in the Global Cold War"

We welcome submissions for the panel "Medical Socialist Entanglements: Health Connections between Eastern Europe and Africa in the Global Cold War" (History Stream), at the European Conference on African Studies (ECAS), in Prague, June 25-28 2025.

Short description of the Panel: The panel explores medical socialist internationalism and exchanges between Eastern Europe and Africa during the Cold War, focusing on the circulation of public health models and people, ideas, knowledge and materials and the agency of both state- and non-state actors.

Abstract:

A myriad of political, economic and cultural connections and exchanges developed between state-socialist Eastern Europe and the decolonising world from the 1950s. An always growing body of literature has explored various aspects of the East-South interconnections, but health and medicine demand more attention. On the other hand, global health history predominantly focuses on North American and Western European perspectives and there is still a need to recentre the field to peripheries and semi-peripheries. This panel explores socialist medicine and health connections between Eastern Europe and Africa and medical socialist internationalism in the global Cold War. The panel investigates medical socialist entanglements that intertwined geopolitical motivations, anti-colonial solidarity, development aid and business, and involved not only states, but also a multitude of diverse non-state actors. We welcome papers on the flow and exchange of people, ideas, knowledge and materials and on the circulations of public health models and medical technologies. We also invite researchers to present on imaginations and development of socialist medicine and postcolonial public health frameworks in Africa in connection to Eastern Europe and other socialist actors. The papers exploring medical socialist internationalism from the African perspectives are particularly welcome.

Organisers: Alila Brossard Antonielli (Humboldt Universität Berlin) & Jelena Đureinović (University of Vienna)

You can find the guidelines for the submission on this page: https://www.ecasconference.org/2025/call-for-papers/

The deadline for submission is the 15th of december 2024.

Contact Information

Alila Brossard Antonielli, PhD

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Dr. Jelena Đureinović, PhD

University of Vienna