STAND, Early Career Research Seminars 2025-2026, Call for Participants

 STAND (Historical Commission on Science, Technology and Diplomacy), Early Career Research Seminars 2025-2026, Call for Participants – Deadline 20 September 2025

This is an open call for participants for the STAND (Commission on Science,

Technology and Diplomacy) Early Career Researchers Seminar series for

2025-2026. The commission and its members examine the broad history of

science, technology and diplomacy and are looking for post-grads and early

career researchers to present during next year's online seminar series.

We are looking for researchers who address the history of science,

technology and medicine in their broad international contexts. Topics

include but are not limited to: science diplomacy, international

cooperation in fields related to science, technology and medicine, and the

transnational circulation of technoscientific and medical knowledge,

materials and expertise. Please see our website for more information on

previous presenters, and the work we do:

https://sciencediplomacyhistory.org/postgraduate-early-career-initiatives/

The seminars will run from October 2025 to ca. May 2026 usually on the

first Thursday of the month - dates tbc with organisers - and will be held

on Microsoft Teams.

Seminars last one hour and usually consist of a brief presentation followed

by Q&A. Possible formats include:

   -

   A pre-circulated work-in-progress paper (journal article draft, thesis

   chapter, book chapter etc) of 10-20 pages, using the seminar as an

   opportunity to gain feedback or suggestions for improvement.

   -

   A 20-30 minute presentation on your current research, followed by Q&A,

   discussion and feedback.

   -

   An ‘in conversation with’ session where you are paired with someone with

   similar research interests, to have a discussion on a particular topic. You

   can also use this time to raise questions to experts or individuals working

   on similar topics to you.

   -

   We welcome inquiries regarding alternative seminar formats, and

   encourage you to get in touch if you are interested!

Please send any expressions of interest to STAND.ECR@gmail.com, in an email

which includes your name, short bio and a brief summary of your research as

it pertains to the seminar. We don’t need anything further at this stage,

but please indicate what format of session you would prefer. We also

encourage you to email us if you have any questions, queries or would like

to be included in the mailing list for the seminars if you are not already.

We’re particularly looking for someone to fill our October (Thurs Oct 9th)

session - so if you have some work you want feedback on soon, please let us

know!

Deadline: 20 September 2025

Kind regards,

Alice Naisbitt and Kat Zouboulakis

*STAND Commission - Early Career Researchers*

*The STAND Commission is a Historical Commission of the DHST which examines

the broad history of science, technology and diplomacy.*

CFA: Hormonal Bodies in Body Politics (Zeitschrift für Körpergeschichte)

 CFA: Hormonal Bodies in Body Politics (Zeitschrift für Körpergeschichte)

Guest editors: Sophia Wagemann (Charité Berlin), Xenia Steinbach (Hannover Medical School)

Deadline for proposals: September 19, 2025

Deadline for first drafts: February 27, 2026

Hormones regulate the body: they control vital physiological functions, drive growth, shape sexual development, enable or inhibit reproduction, influence psychological processes, and are often considered to be out of balance. These varied roles are fundamental to Western biomedical discourse, as well as to how many people in transatlantic societies perceive themselves and others. Concepts such as the female hormonal cycle, puberty, menopause, and andropause demonstrate how the paradigm of hormonal regulation also imposes a temporal structure on the body. As the extraction and synthesis of hormones became possible, they came to appear both immanent to and external from the body – circulating not only within it but also around it, in the form of medications such as hormone replacement therapies, psychopharmaceuticals, contraceptives, abortifacients, as well as in cosmetics and as endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the environment and everyday products. The ‘hormonal body’ thus becomes a medium of transformation and optimization, positioned between the poles of stabilization and threat – both of which may arise from internal and external sources. In this multifaceted role, the relationship between hormones and bodies has been the subject of investigation within the History of Science and Science and Technology Studies (STS) for several decades. Research in these fields has critically examined the problematic incorporation of culturally entrenched notions of masculinity and femininity, particularly in relation to so-called ‘sex hormones’, and has challenged scientific attempts to biologically fix binary gender categories with genes, hormones, and chromosomes (Fausto-Sterling 2000; Oudshoorn 1994; Richardson 2013; Satzinger 2009; Sengoopta 2006). Furthermore, scholars have explored how hormone research and the pharmaceutical industry became intertwined, showing how narratives of deficiency – most often projected onto female bodies – shaped a lucrative market for hormonal products (Stoff 2004, 2012; Ratmoko 2010; Gaudillière 2005; Nordlund 2011; Watkins 2007). Studies focusing on hormonal medications have also emphasized the precarious and risk-laden nature of hormone use (Gaudillière 2006; Nemec and Olszynko-Gryn 2022; Balz et al. 2008; Schwerin et al. 2016). Lastly, hormone-based therapies have been analyzed as essential components of gender-affirming treatments, with attention drawn to the significant barriers nonbinary and trans individuals face in accessing such medications (Preciado 2013; Nass 2023).

Building on this body of research, this Special Issue seeks to explore new modes of describing historical hormone–body relations, addressing themes such as:

- Pharmaceuticals and hormonally mediated bodies

- Historical perspectives on hormonal embodiment beyond sex hormones

- Hormones as objects that traverse bodily boundaries

- Processes of embodiment and body politics in relation to hormones

- New perspectives on hormonal temporalities

- Postcolonial and non-Western perspectives on hormone–body

intertwinings

- Histories of DSD (Differences of Sex Development) or TIN∗ (trans, inter and nonbinary) medicine and hormonal interventions

- Body–environment relations

- Praxeological approaches to hormonal bodies and their regulation

We intend to propose a Special Issue on the topic of ‘hormonal bodies,’ comprising approximately 5-7 contributions in both German and English. Contributions are welcome not only from the field of history but also from historically-oriented research in the cultural, social, media, and literary sciences.

To be considered for inclusion in our proposal for a special issue please send your abstract (about 400 words) and a short bio to Sophia Wagemann (sophia.wagemann@charite.de) or Xenia Steinbach (steinbach.xenia@mh-hannover.de) by September 19, 2025.

All submissions to Body Politics will undergo a double-blind peer review process.

Further information on the Open Access journal Body Politics can be found here: http://bodypolitics.de/en/about-the-journal/

Referenzen/References

Balz, Viola; Schwerin, Alexander; Stoff, Heiko; Wahrig, Bettina (Hg.) (2008): Precarious Matters/Prekäre Stoffe. The History of Dangerous and Endangered Substances in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Berlin: Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte.

Fausto-Sterling, Anne (2000): Sexing the Body. Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality. New York: Basic Books.

Gaudillière, Jean-Paul (2005): Better Prepared than Synthesized. Adolf Butenandt, Schering AG and the Transformation of Sex Steroids Into Drugs (1930-1946). In: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 36 (4), S. 612–644.

Gaudillière, Jean-Paul (2006): Hormones at Risk. Cancer and the Medical Uses of Industrially produced Sex Steroids in Germany, 1930–1960. In: Thomas Schlich und Ulrich Tröhler (Hg.): The Risks of Medical Innovation. Risk Perception and Assessment in Historical Context. London, New York: Routledge (Routledge Studies in the Social History of Medicine, 21), S. 136–154.

Nass, Biba O. (2023): Microdosing Testosteron. Ein alternativer Beipackzettel. Berlin: Querverlag.

Nemec, Birgit; Olszynko-Gryn, Jesse (2022): The Duogynon Controversy and Ignorance Production in Post-thalidomide West Germany. In: Reproductive Biomedicine and Society Online (14), S. 75–86. DOI: 10.1016/j.rbms.2021.09.003.

Nordlund, Christer (2011): Hormones of Life. Endocrinology, the Pharmaceutical Industry, and the Dream of a Remedy for Sterility, 1930-1970. Sagamore Beach: Science History Publications.

Oudshoorn, Nelly (1994): Beyond the Natural Body. An Archaeology of Sex Hormones. New York, London: Routledge.

Preciado, Beatriz (2013): Testo Junkie. Sex, Drugs, and Biopolitics in the Pharmacopornographic Era. New York: The Feminist Press at CUNY.

Ratmoko, Christina (2010): Damit die Chemie stimmt. Die Anfänge der industriellen Herstellung von weiblichen und männlichen Sexualhormonen 1914-1938. Zürich: Chronos Verlag.

Richardson, Sarah S. (2013): Sex Itself. The Search for Male & Female in the Human Genome. Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press.

Satzinger, Helga (2009): Differenz und Vererbung. Geschlechterordnungen in der Genetik und Hormonforschung 1890-1950. Köln: Böhlau Verlag.

Schwerin, Alexander; Stoff, Heiko; Wahrig, Bettina (Hg.) (2016): Biologics. A History of Agents Made From Living Organisms in the Twentieth Century. 3. Aufl. London, New York: Routledge (Studies for the Society for the Social History of Medicine).

Sengoopta, Chandak (2006): The Most Secret Quintessence of Life. Sex, Glands, and Hormones, 1850-1950. Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press.

Stoff, Heiko (2004): Ewige Jugend. Konzepte der Verjüngung vom späten neunzehnten Jahrhundert bis ins Dritte Reich. Köln: Böhlau Verlag.

Stoff, Heiko (2012): Wirkstoffe. Eine Wissenschaftsgeschichte der Hormone, Vitamine und Enzyme, 1920-1970. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.

Watkins, Elizabeth Siegel (2007): The Estrogen Elixir. A History of Hormone Replacement Therapy in America. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.

CFP: Transnational approaches to the long 19th century history in East-Central Europe

 CFP: Transnational approaches to the long 19th century history in East-Central Europe

Vilnius 16.04.2026 - 17.04.2026

Application deadline: 30.11.2025

Organizers: 

Kirsten Bönker / David Feest, Nordost-Institut, Lüneburg; Povilas Dikavičius, Vilnius branch of the German Historical Institute Warsaw; Jan Musekamp, German Historical Institute Warsaw; Darius Staliūnas, Lithuanian Institute of History

The long 19th century in East-Central Europe was marked by the rise and fall of empires, the struggle for national self-determination, as well as by constitutional movements, the development of civil societies, and the emergence of modern capitalist systems. They also made their impact during the First Word War that also falls within the scope of the conference. These developments had a significant regional impact, yet at the same time, they were transnational phenomena, transcending the borders of one national group, states and empires.

This conference invites scholars to engage with the region’s history from a transnational perspective, emphasizing the interconnectedness, transfer and exchange but also the boundaries between different societies, cultures, and political systems. We seek papers that explore the various dimensions of transnationalism in the long 19th century in East-Central Europe. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

1. Imperial expansion, imperial deflation: The expansion of the Austrian, Prussian, and Russian Empires led to the incorporation of various ethnic and linguistic groups, sparking nationalist movements and resistance. The different types of politics, including administrative centralization and cultural homogenization, within empires are a transnational topic in itself. The imperial practices of governance may also be highlighted in a comparative perspective.

2. Economic integration and trade: Scholars of economic history have maintained that the degree of economic globalization reached its peak in late 19th century. The explosion of the volume of international capital caused new relations between regional and global trade networks. Therefore, the emergence of industrial capitalism and the impact of economic policies on local communities is a crucial topic when examining East-Central Europe as a transnational space.

3. Nationalism as a transnational phenomenon: recent research has shown that the transnational approach is much better able than methodological nationalism to explain the speed of dissemination of national ideas, their appeal to the masses, the successes and failures of national movements, and the phenomenon of national indifference.

4. Cultural exchange and transfer: The transmission of ideas, artistic expression, and technological innovations across national borders is a central topic of a transnational approach to history. Intensifying research on global subjects is a way of accessing the shared history of nations and cultures, which is the primary focus of cultural transfer studies. It stresses eclecticism rather than a master script of globalization or nationalization and features a pastiche of global, local, and hybrid cultures; modernist narratives intersect with local history to create new configurations.

5. Migration and diaspora: The long nineteenth century was a time when the movement of people, ideas, and cultures across national borders advanced significantly.

Scholars have spoken of a pastiche between global, local, and hybrid cultures, where modernist narratives and local history created a new mode. Immigration was also a topic where the regulating state attempted to exercise control and surveillance and enforce its concepts of citizenship. 

6. Gender, race, and class: In the same vein, categories of self- and external description developed in a local as well as a global space. The conference aims to explore how transnational processes have affected the lives of various social groups, including women, minorities, and workers, and how they have responded to these changes.

7. Environmental history: Environmental history, as a research topic on the long 19th century in East-Central Europe, can reveal the interconnectedness of human and natural systems across national borders. The expansion of empires and the rise of industrial capitalism had profound impacts on the region’s ecosystems, climate, and natural resources, leading to deforestation, pollution, and resource exploitation.

8. Political cultures and the rise of civil societies: The long 19th century was the era of increasing civic engagement, the rise of liberal movements, of women's rights movements, of societal claims to strengthen the rule of law, etc. On the one hand, we have states that increasingly try to control their citizens, and on the other, we have an emerging civil society that often counters these very efforts. The conference aims to explore political cultures and civic engagement from a comparative perspective.

9. Border Studies: The fluidity and contested nature of borders can also offer critical insights into transnational processes.  East Central Europe is often seen as the periphery of Europe. Still, to take a perspective from this region can help us to understand the continent as a whole.

10. Technological and Infrastructure Networks: The development of railways, telegraph lines, ports and other technological innovations interconnected different regions and facilitated economic, cultural, and social exchanges.

The conference welcomes contributions from a diverse range of disciplines, including history, sociology, cultural studies, economics, and political science. We encourage papers that engage with theoretical debates and methodological innovations, such as network analysis, transnational historiography, and discourse analysis.

Accommodation and travel costs will be borne by the organizer.

To submit your paper proposal, please provide a title, an abstract of 250-300 words, and a brief biographical statement. The deadline for submissions is 30 November 2025. We are planning to publish selected papers. We look forward to receiving your proposals and engaging in a stimulating discussion about the long 19th-century history in East-Central Europe from a transnational perspective.

For more information, and to hand in your proposal, please contact Povilas Dikavičius (povilas.dikavicius@dhi.lt) as representative of the organizing committee.

Simon Parkin: The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad A True Story of Science and Sacrifice in a City under Siege. Sceptre, 2024 (now in paperback!)

 Simon Parkin: The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad A True Story of Science and Sacrifice in a City under Siege. Sceptre, 2024 (now in paperback!)

About this book

From the winner of the 2023 Wingate Literary Prize comes a fascinating and moving untold story of the Leningrad scientists who risked everything for the future of humanity.

In the summer of 1941, German troops surrounded the Russian city of Leningrad – now St Petersburg – and began the longest blockade in recorded history. By the most conservative estimates, the siege would claim the lives of three-quarters of a million people. Most died of starvation.

At the centre of the embattled city stood a converted palace that housed the greatest living plant library ever amassed – the world's first seed bank. After attempts to evacuate the collection failed, and as supplies dwindled, the scientists responsible faced a terrible decision: should they distribute the specimens to the starving population, or preserve them in the hope that they held the key to ending global famine?

Drawing on previously unseen sources, The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad tells the remarkable and moving story of the botanists who remained at the Plant Institute during the darkest days of the siege, risking their lives in the name of science.

Biography

Simon Parkin is an award-winning British writer and journalist. He is a contributing writer for the New Yorker and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society (RHS), and is the author of A Game of Birds and Wolves and The Island of Extraordinary Captives, which was a New Yorker Book of the Year and won the Wingate Literary Prize. He lives in West Sussex.

CFP: The Greyzone of the Green Transition

CFP: The Greyzone of the Green Transition

"The Greyzone of the Green Transition" is a conference dedicated to advancing conversations on environmental justice in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It brings together senior, doctoral, and postdoctoral researchers, and activists committed to shedding light on the often-overlooked injustices and forms of resistance emerging in the region. Observing the overlap between post-communist legacies and green transition trajectories, the conference investigates how structural, gradual, and hidden forms of violence emerge in the context of resource struggles and environmental decline. We aim to deepen the theoretical framing of environmental injustice in the region and foster a space for collective reflection and action.

Proposals should include a title, abstract (up to 300 words), and a brief biography of the author(s) (up to 200 words). Please specify in your proposal which thematic cluster you opted for.

Location: Câmpu Cetății, Mureș County, Romania

Dates: 18 - 19 May 2026

Please submit your abstracts to grant.ecojust@ulbsibiu.ro by September 30th, 2025.

Find more details on our conference page: https://grants.ulbsibiu.ro/ecojust/greyzone-of-the-green-transition/

 

Milena Bartlová: Dějiny českých dějin umění II. 1970–1990. Nemožnost myslet celek [History of Czech Art II. 1970–1990. The Impossibility of Thinking the Whole].

Milena Bartlová: Dějiny českých dějin umění II. 1970–1990. Nemožnost myslet celek [History of Czech Art II. 1970–1990. The Impossibility of Thinking the Whole]. Praha: UMPRUM 2025,  ISBN 978-80-88622-30-7

Publikace je druhým dílem historického vylíčení proměn akademického oboru dějiny a teorie umění v dnešní České republice a zabývá se dvaceti lety tzv. normalizace. Navazuje na první díl Dějiny českých dějin umění 1945–1969 / Dějiny umění slouží vědě o člověku (UMPRUM 2020). Na základě rozsáhlého archivního studia, čtení dobových uměleckohistorických publikací, pamětnických rozhovorů a v neposlední řadě i svých vlastních vzpomínek a zkušeností vykresluje autorka období, kdy čeští historici a historičky umění dosáhli dlouho připravovaných cílů svého oboru, avšak museli se potýkat s omezováním svobody vědeckého bádání i vysokoškolského studia a s nemožností volného cestování. Kniha poprvé představuje blízký pohled na navigování jednotlivců i celé oborové komunity v situaci napětí mezi každodenností, podvolením a vzdorem v intelektuální společnosti 70.–80. let. Tuto dobu autorka chápe jako „naši domácí postmodernu“, jež vedla k rozštěpení reality, které však neprobíhá podle konvenčního rozlišení dobra a zla. V neposlední řadě představuje kniha teoreticky podložený pokus, jak včlenit badatelský subjekt do studia soudobých dějin. Systematický i chronologický výklad nabízejí vhled do fungování infrastruktur humanitního vědeckého oboru a odhalují strategie vyrovnávání s cenzurou i dalšími omezeními. Kniha předkládá dramatické lidské příběhy rámované konfrontací s tajnou politickou policií a požadavkem na politickou konformitu prostřednictvím členství v komunistické straně. Na druhé straně zkoumá také zkušenosti autonomie a svobody na okrajích povoleného, zejména v samizdatové produkci, přičemž klade větší důraz na vnitřně svobodné jednání než na status oběti. Práce ukazuje tři roky přestavby, zvrat listopadové revoluce a překvapení následujícího roku 1990, přičemž nabízí podněty k tomu, abychom jej přestali zjednodušeně považovat za „rok nula“. Grafika Jan Čumlivski. Vychází za finanční podpory Grantové agentury ČR. Vydání české.

Milena Bartlová je profesorkou dějin umění UMPRUM, kde se po předchozí medievistické práci začala více orientovat na moderní umění a jeho teorii. Je autorkou mnoha významných knih (Co bylo Československo?, UMPRUM 2017, Retrospektiva, UMPRUM 2018). K vydání připravila výbor Baxandallových textů Inteligence obrazu a jazyk dějin umění (UMPRUM 2019). Píše také popularizační a kulturně-politickou publicistiku.

Sophie Schwarzmaier: Transnationale Expertenkulturen und Geschlechterordnungen. Józefa Joteyko zwischen Belgien und Polen 1908–1928

 Sophie Schwarzmaier: Transnationale Expertenkulturen und Geschlechterordnungen. Józefa Joteyko zwischen Belgien und Polen 1908–1928. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag 2025. ISBN 978-3-8353-5937-6

Eine Pionierin der modernen Wissenschaft zwischen West und Ost, zwischen Labor und Öffentlichkeit.

Als eine der ersten Frauen machte sich die 1866 bei Kyjiw geborene Józefa Joteyko einen Namen in der Physiologie, der Psychologie und der Pädologie. Sie forschte, lehrte, schrieb und publizierte innerhalb wie außerhalb der Universität - stieß an Grenzen und überschritt diese. Ihr Wirken in Brüssel vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg setzte sie ab 1919 in Warschau fort, der Hauptstadt des neuen polnischen Nationalstaates.

Als ambitionierte Frau in einer Männerdomäne stellte Joteyko Vorstellungen und Praktiken darüber infrage, wer Wissenschaft als Beruf ausüben darf und wie Geschlechterunterschiede wissenschaftlich zu bestimmen sind. Als Herausgeberin und Wissenschaftsorganisatorin nutzte sie internationale Zeitschriften und Institutionen sowie ein transnationales Netzwerk zwischen West- und Ostmitteleuropa. Als beratende Expertin setzte sie sich zugleich für gesellschaftliche Nationalisierungsprozesse ein, etwa mit ihren Plänen zum Aufbau einer »polnischen Schule«.

Sophie Schwarzmaier stellt Józefa Joteyko erstmals einem breiteren Publikum vor und beleuchtet dabei die Verflechtungen europäischer Wissenschaftskulturen im ersten Viertel des 20. Jahrhunderts.

Sophie Schwarzmaier, geb. 1987, studierte Kulturwissenschaften und Europäische Kulturgeschichte in Frankfurt (Oder), Paris und Łódź und promovierte an der Kulturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder). Sie arbeitet als Koordinatorin einer internationalen Graduiertenschule am Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte in Berlin.

OA: Amelia Bonea and Irina Nastasă-Matei (eds.): Negotiating in/visibility Women, science, engineering and medicine in the twentieth century. Manchester: Manchester University Press 2025.

 Amelia Bonea  and Irina Nastasă-Matei (eds.): Negotiating in/visibility Women, science, engineering and medicine in the twentieth century. Manchester: Manchester University Press 2025. 

Open access: https://www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781526178398/9781526178398.xml

This volume explores, from global, multilingual and intersectional perspectives, the experiences of women in science, engineering and medicine in the twentieth century. Some, like the American evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis, were fairly visible actors in the academic and public arenas of professional science. Others, like the doctors working in secondary schools in interwar Romania or those who struggled to alleviate ‘women’s illnesses’ in famine-stricken rural areas during China’s Great Leap Forward, have been largely invisible – as medical practitioners, creators of knowledge, educators and subjects of historical inquiry. The volume investigates the nature and extent of women’s in/visibility in science, engineering and medicine in the twentieth century, seeking to document the factors that underpinned it and understand how women navigated their circumstances. When and why did women become invisible? When and how did they seek visibility? Was invisibility always a form of discrimination, exclusion and misrecognition or could it also become a strategy of resistance and survival? Drawing on hitherto-little-explored archives in Asia, Europe and North America, the contributors examine the in/visibility of women across multiple sites of medical practice, science-making, pedagogy and communication, such as the laboratory, the university, the clinic, the hospital, the home, the school and the media. They show that invisibility was the outcome of power asymmetries based on intersecting factors like gender, race, ethnicity, class, caste and age, and that women were not only present in science, engineering and medicine, but also exercised considerable agency in trying to negotiate institutional and intellectual hierarchies..

Call for Papers: Questionnaires in the History of Health and Medicine

 Call for Papers

Questionnaires in the History of Health and Medicine

International Workshop

19-20 February 2026, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Deadline for abstract submission: 15 September 2025

We are delighted to announce a call for papers for a workshop focused on the historical use of questionnaires in the empirical fieldwork of health practitioners. Today, public health agencies routinely employ questionnaires in large population surveys to assess health trends at local, national, and global levels (e.g., the World Health Survey Plus). This workshop aims to historicize how various actors-public health officials, physicians, patients, and local residents-contributed to the development of health and medical questionnaires. This call invites scholars to examine the paper-based technologies and field methods historically used to collect and analyze data, such as house visits, field observations, and correspondence with patients. Central to the discussion will be the epistemic traditions that informed the development of questionnaires.

Today's population  surveys typically involve personalized interviews with a randomly selected sample from a target population. In this narrow sense, health surveys gained prominence in the 1930s (Johnson 2014, 5). However, if we adopt a broader definition of surveys (or enquêtes) as "one-time or regular observations on site using various instruments" (Herrnstadt and Renard 2025), we can trace historical precedents well into the early modern period.

While historians have addressed questionnaires in a general way (Midena and Yeo 2022), and highlighted their use as tools for standardizing clinical case histories (Mendelsohn and Hess 2010), questionnaires are by and large not considered key tools in the construction of  health knowledge. This perception may stem from the dominant view that medical research has primarily developed in the context of  laboratories and clinics.

Extending the existing scholarship (for example: Delmaire et al. 2021), this workshop invites contributions that examine the materials, methods, and techniques used by health practitioners to conduct survey research through questionnaires. We are particularly interested in how practitioners entered social settings-visiting homes, factories or schools, reaching out to potential participants by mail, engaging with communities, or speaking with experts-to gather empirical data.  Submissions should reflect on how questionnaire categories and conventions were constructed and/or challenged, as well as to what extent they supported or resisted quantification and standardization. We also welcome papers that explore the use of questionnaires alongside other observational tools, such as field notes, interviews, photographs, and sketches, in the production of medical knowledge.

The workshop will also critically examine how hierarchies and prejudices along racial, class-based, and gendered lines influenced the development of questionnaires. We invite reflection on how political assumptions shaped the selection of populations, the framing of questions, and the interpretation of data. Further, we seek to explore whether these methodologies aimed to address the complex, intersectional dimensions of health, including social, racial, and gendered factors.

Key questions we seek to address include but are not limited to:

  *   How did health and medical practitioners design, distribute, and evaluate their questionnaires?

  *   How did they identify, recruit, and persuade suitable interviewees?

  *   What strategies did they use to conduct interviews?

  *   What tools of field observation did they employ?

  *   How was data aggregation, and compilation facilitated?

  *   How did health actors process and analyze the data?

  *   How did ideological views and cultural hierarchies inform the collecting and processing of data?

  *   How did health actors access and utilize administrative records to supplement their findings?

  *   What role did diagrammatic, graphic or, more generally visual representation play in the processing of medical questionnaires?

The workshop will be organized by Jolien Gijbels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and Stephan Strunz (Technische Universität Dresden) and will be held at Vrije Universiteit Brussel on 19-20 February  2026.

The workshop will be facilitated by discussing pre-circulated papers. The workshop language will be English. Accommodation costs for all selected participants will be covered. We might have to ask participants to arrange and fund their own travel to Brussels, but we hope to be able to cover the travel costs of the participants. To this end, we will be applying for additional funding in the coming months.

Please send your abstract (max. 300 words) and a short biographical note (max. 100 words) by 15 September to Jolien Gijbels (jolien.gijbels@vub.be<mailto:jolien.gijbels@vub.be>) and Stephan Strunz (stephan.strunz@tu-dresden.de<mailto:stephan.strunz@tu-dresden.de>).

Applicants will be notified by October 1st . The deadline for the submission of the pre-circulated papers is 5 February 2025.

References

Delmaire, Léa, Pierre Nobi, and Paul-Arthur Tortosa. 2021. "Enquêtes médicales (xixe-xxie siècle)."  Histoire, médecine et santé 19: 9-21.

Herrnstadt, Martin, and Léa Renard. 2025. "Cultures globales de l'enquête." À propos, no. 1. https://doi.org/10.57086/apropos.81.

Hess, Volker, and J. Andrew Mendelsohn. 2010. "Case and Series. Medical Knowledge and Paper Technologies, 1600-1900." History of Science 48 (3-4), 287-314.

Johnson, Timothy. 2014. Handbook of Health Survey Methods. New Jersey: Wiley.

Midena, Daniel and Richard Yeo. 2022. "Towards a History of the Questionnaire." Intellectual History Review 22 (3), 503-529.

CALL FOR DOCTORAL CONTRACT APPLICATIONS: Knowledge Production and Environmental Transformations in the 19th and 20th Centuries

 CALL FOR DOCTORAL CONTRACT APPLICATIONS

Université Lumière Lyon 2 - DRED Update : 16/06/2025 1/3

Doctoral student (M/F) in Contemporary History

Knowledge Production and Environmental Transformations in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Name of the scientific manager : Katja Doose 

Type of contract : PhD contract Duration of contract: 36 months Start date of thesis: 01/12/2025 Working hours: Full time Salary: €2,200 gross per month Place of work: Université Lumière Lyon 2 - Campus Berges du Rhône 14 avenue Berthelot, 69363 Lyon cedex 07, France Laboratory : Rhône-Alpes Historical Research Laboratory (UMR 5190) Affiliated doctoral school: École doctorale Sciences Sociales Languages spoken : English or French (the thesis may be written in French or English.) Frequency of travel: occasional international area Driving licence required: NO

MORE: https://larhra.fr/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/new-call-for-doctoral-candidates-english-version.pdf

Crossing Boundaries: Human-Animal Relationships in Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union

 The January 2025 special issue of SEER on "Crossing Boundaries: Human-Animal Relationships in Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union" is now online: https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/55301. 

Guest edited by Helena Holzberger and Timm Schönfelder, it features 8 articles on human-animal relations in tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union by Andreas Renner, Anton Kotenko, Matthew Adams, Vera Smirnova, Kristýna Kaucká, Anke Hilbrenner and Tatyana Bakhmetyeva. Its coverage ranges from polar bears to dogs, insects, zoo animals and wild boar.

CFP: The Mobility of People, Ideas and Objects between the German-speaking Lands and the World beyond Europe

 CFP: The Mobility of People, Ideas and Objects  between the German-speaking Lands and the World beyond Europe - Wolfenbuettel 20.05.2026 - 22.05.2026, Deadline 15.10.2025

The 10th International Conference of FNI takes as its theme "The Mobility of People, Ideas, and Objects between the German-speaking Lands and the World Beyond Europe." By doing so, it contributes to re-evaluating the German-speaking lands’ share in the early modern entanglement of Europe with African, American, and Asian regions, polities, and cultures. Despite not building formal or informal overseas empires of relevance themselves, German countries participated in military campaigns and colonial projects, and people and social groups from this region, including women and Jews, were to be found among the missionaries, merchants, mercenaries, settlers and scholars travelling and claiming the oceans and landmasses of the world.

The conference will be an on-site event held at the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel. There will be no conference fee. Graduate students can apply for travel support from the American Friends of the HAB via meplummer@arizona.edu.

We invite proposals that shed light on practices, materials, and methods from an interdisciplinary perspective, examining how the German-speaking lands contributed to the worldwide processes, notions, and networks that amount to early modern globalization. Possible topics might include, but are not restricted to

– the presence of German actors in the conquest, government, administration, and exploitation of overseas colonies of the European powers and chartered companies; colonial projects of German scholars and territories;

– the trade with goods from outside Europe to Germany and vice versa, from bulk commodities to luxury goods and collectors’ items; Germany as a market for colonial produce; the role of German merchants and companies in the trans-continental networks; German involvement in the plantation economy and slave labour;

– migration of Germans beyond Europe; the presence and the social and legal status of non-European individuals and groups in the German-speaking area;

– the intellectual and cultural impact of encountering extra-European natural environments and human cultures; the perception and evaluation of cultural, political, social, and religious differences; practices of comparing; the gathering, ordering, publication, dissemination, and reception of relevant knowledge;

– making sense of the global: developing a universal perspective (anthropology, religion, world history, etc.).

Panel proposals (three papers and a chair) and individual submissions are equally welcome. The deadline for submission is 15th October 2025. Please send your contact information, a brief bio, title, and abstract of no more than 250 words per paper to forschung@hab.de.

CfP: Water Management and Environmental Change in Central Asia and the MENA Region: Politics, society, and transnational connections since 1945

 Call for Papers - International Conference

Water Management and Environmental Change in Central Asia and the MENA Region: Politics, society, and transnational connections since 1945

University of Padua, Italy | 5-6 February 2026

The Department of Historical and Geographic Sciences and the Ancient World at the University of Padua invites proposals for papers and panels for an international conference to be held in Padua on 5–6 February 2026.

The conference will explore the history of water management and agricultural policies in the semi-arid macro-region encompassing Central Asia and the Middle East/North Africa (MENA), with a particular focus on transnational connections across this vast area.

In the wake of the Second World War, both Central Asia and the MENA region witnessed major development projects and policies related to water and land management. These initiatives led to significant economic and environmental transformations, reshaping local societies and influencing international relations.

Organized as part of the PRIN project “Water Management and Environmental Change in Central Asia: Politics, Society and Transnational Connections (1948–2020s)”, a collaboration between the University of Padua and the University of Naples “L’Orientale”, the conference seeks to bring together scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds to examine the history, legacies, and current challenges of water management and land use in Central Asia and the MENA region.

A particular focus will be given to the multifaceted relationships between the socialist bloc and the Middle East. The Soviet Union pursued extensive development programs in Soviet Central Asia while also providing socialist “development aid” to Middle Eastern countries in the fields of agriculture and water policy. These efforts not only fostered new diplomatic ties but also enhanced economic cooperation between the USSR, Central and Eastern Europe, and parts of the Global South.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Historical and contemporary practices of water management and land use in Central Asia and the MENA region

Environmental history of water systems in these regions

Transnational dimensions of Soviet and post-Soviet agricultural and environmental policies, from the late Stalin era to the present

Export of infrastructural and development models (e.g., dams, irrigation systems) from Soviet Central Asia to the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and Afghanistan, and their domestic and international implications

Water management during post-Soviet decollectivization and economic crises of the 1990s–2000s

Irrigation and water-related projects financed by international institutions such as the World Bank after 1991

Production, circulation, and contestation of scientific knowledge on irrigation, environmental degradation, and soil salinization

Interactions between local communities, state policies, and international institutions in the post-Soviet period

Environmental deterioration in the Aral Sea basin and other aquatic and agro-ecosystems

Shifting power dynamics among local administrators, scientists, and farmers across generations and gender lines

Transcalar governance of water and its role in shaping territorial transformations, especially in the context of the ongoing climate crisis

The historical, archaeological, and heritage aspects of canal systems

Political and social dimensions of current water governance, including mitigation and adaptation strategies at the community level

Archaeological investigations of historical water management systems in Central Asia and the MENA region, and their relevance for understanding present-day practices

Organizers:

Dr. Niccolò Pianciola (niccolo.pianciola@unipd.it)

Dr. Mauro Primavera (mauro.primavera@unipd.it)

Submission Guidelines:

We welcome submissions from scholars in History, Geography, Anthropology, Sociology, Political Science, Environmental Studies, Archaeology, and related fields.

English will be the working language of the conference.

Please submit a titled abstract of no more than 300 words, along with your name and institutional affiliation, to both organizers at the email addresses listed above by 15 October 2025.

Panel proposals should include three individual paper abstracts (each no more than 300 words); the presenters’ names, institutional affiliations and email addresses; and a 200-word statement outlining the panel’s overall rationale.

Funding for travel and accommodation will be available for some or all participants, depending on overall costs. Priority will be given to scholars based in Central Asia and the Middle East/North Africa, as well as to early career researchers.

For any inquiries regarding the conference or your submission, feel free to contact the organizers.

We look forward to receiving your proposals and welcoming you to Padua.

Contact Information

Dr. Niccolò Pianciola (niccolo.pianciola@unipd.it)

Dr. Mauro Primavera (mauro.primavera@unipd.it)

Дневники участников Гидрографической экспедиции Северного Ледовитого океана. 1910–1915 гг.

 Р.Г. Гагкуев, В.Г. Смирнов, Н.А. Кузнецов (сост.) Дневники участников Гидрографической экспедиции Северного Ледовитого океана. 1910–1915 гг. Издательство «Кучково поле Музеон», 2025. [R.G. Gagkuev, V.G. Smirnov, N.A. Kuznetsov (compiled) Diaries of the participants of the Hydrographic Expedition of the Arctic Ocean. 1910–1915. Kuchkovo Pole Muzeon Publishing House, 2025.]

В настоящем сборнике документов впервые опубликованы дневники участников Гидрографической экспедиции Северного Ледовитого океана — Бориса Владимировича Давыдова (1883– 1925), Алексея Модестовича Лаврова (1887–1942) и Николая Ивановича Евгенова (1888–1964). В ходе этой многолетней экспедиции на судах «Таймыр» и «Вайгач» был не только открыт ряд островов и обширный архипелаг к северу от полуострова Таймыр (ныне — Северная Земля), но и впервые в истории России пройден путь с востока на запад из Владивостока в Архангельск вдоль берегов Сибири, открыта эпоха мореплавания по трассе Северного морского пути. Публикуемые документы хранятся в Архиве Русского географического общества, Российском государственном архиве экономики, а также в архиве семьи Давыдовых.

Издание предназначено для историков России и Арктики, широкого круга читателей, интересующихся историей Отечества.

Website devoted to Ukrainian archaeologist, scholar of the East, and art historian Maria Viazmitina (1896–1994),

Dear friends,

I’m happy to present the fourth project of the Scientific Archive of the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine within the “Digital Memory Storage” initiative: 💽 https://viazmitina-archive.iananu.digital/en

This time, the website is dedicated to a woman — 👠⛏️ the Ukrainian archaeologist, scholar of the East, and art historian Maria Viazmitina (1896–1994), specifically her work with the YuTAKE expedition at Nisa - one of the oldest and most important cities of the Parthian Empire, which existed from the mid-3rd century BCE to the 3rd century CE in what is now Turkmenistan. 🇹🇲

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the two groups of students who, as part of their internship at the Archive, helped organize field diaries, photographs, drawings, plans, notes, and some sets of letters - numbering pages and digitizing materials.

These were the third-year students of the History Faculty at Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University: Tetiana Vaskevych, Sviatoslav Hamalia, Yeva Hrabovets, Sofiia Klymenko, Vladyslav Kuzmenko, Kateryna Pylyponchyk, and Mykhailo Khomenko.

Also, cultural studies students from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy: Vladyslav Voznyi, Myroslava Hromova, Anastasiia Latypova, Denys Popov, and Diana Reskalenko.

Additional scanning of specific files was supported by archive staff Daryna Romanenko, Halyna Stanytsina, and Olha Kovalchuk.

Special thanks go to Daryna Romanenko for helping fill the site with content in incredibly short time! 🤝

I'm grateful to Valentyna Korpusova for her moral support and for her contributions dedicated to Maria Viazmitina. 🫶

This time, we created the website without a programmer, using our own skills and resources.

However, I remain deeply grateful to Volodymyr Mysak, who built the very first website-template for our projects and taught us how to work with it - and we send our deep respect and gratitude to him for his service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. 🙏

As always, the photo session was thanks to Nika Havrysh.

We also thank Diego Thon and Iryna Glik for the website-landing page. ❤️‍🔥

All four projects are available at this link: https://archive.iananu.digital

On the site, you’ll also find my bilingual book:

“Maria Viazmitina: Archaeological Expedition to Parthia (With Selected Letters and the Scholar's article)” Kyiv: Institute of Archaeology, NAS of Ukraine, 2025. ✍️

https://viazmitina-archive.iananu.digital/mariya-vyazmitina-arheologichna-ekspedycziya-u-parfiyu/

This research was made possible through the generous support of fellowships from the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (Austria) and Freie Universität Berlin (Germany). 🚀

 (from Oleksandra Buzko)