CFP: "Food and hospitals: An Historical Perspective" - 26-27 April 2013, Brussels (Belgium) - Deadline: April 30, 2012

http://www.vub.ac.be/HIST/attachments/Brussells_Poster.pdf

Call for Papers: Food and Hospitals: An Historical Perspective

Brussels, Belgium, 26-27 April 2013
Hosted by the University of Birmingham (Brussels campus) and the Free
University of Brussels (VUB)
Sponsored by the Society For Social History of Medicine
Food and drink were crucial to hospital and asylum expenditure from
medieval to modern times, not unusually comprising one half of medical
institutions' annual budgets. Drink and diet naturally varied with
country, region and locality. The organisers of this conference are
interested in exploring broad geographical perspectives and associated
fads, prejudices and phobias. The acquisition, preparation and use of
foodstuffs were also managed by diverse groups, sometimes lay or clerical,
as well as medical, including doctors, nurses and dieticians. Dietary
needs and preferences of patients also varied with age, gender, race and
religion, while meals were often augmented or restricted in line with
diagnosis and discipline. Views concerning the role of food and drink in
recovery also shifted significantly, both in earlier centuries, and more
recently with the rise of the nutritional sciences.
The Advisory Board of the INHH, as organisers of this conference, wish to
invite proposals for 25-30 minute papers on any aspect and era relating to
the history of food, drink and institutional medicine. Abstracts should be
between 200-300 words in length and will be received until 30 April 2012.
A programme, featuring an address by Professor Peter Scholliers (VUB,
Belgium), will be advertised in June 2012.
While contemporary grumblings about hospital food have become the
quintessential hospital complaint, it is undeniable that a clean, warm
bed, rest and the provision of food and drink, rather than medicines and
therapies have always greatly increased hospital patients' chances of
recovery. Indeed diet has from the time of Galen been a central part of
medical therapy. However, even if central to the day-to-day routine of
hospitals, workhouses and asylums, food and drink continue to be
overlooked in historical accounts of hospitalisation. This conference aims
to foreground the role of food and drink in health care institutions in
the past.
We welcome abstracts on any of the following themes:

1.TREATMENT: DIET & MEDICINE
*Theory The role of diet and medical theory The psychology of food and
food choice Food as medicine; medicine as food Food and religion: daily
bread and the sin of gluttony
*Practice Dietary restrictions and punishments Artificial and forced
feeding Alcohol and medical therapies Water, wine and other dietary
liquids Nutrition and malnutrition High diets, low diets and milk diets
Infant feeding and nutrition Meat eaters versus vegetarians Food for
convalescence, weight gain and obesity
2.SUPPLY The procurement and purchase of food Waste, resistance and food
smuggling Hospital gardens, farms and work therapy Food production and
local economies Theft of provisions and food crime Food and philanthropy
Rationing, shortages and inequalities
3. PREPARATION
In-house preparation and distribution
Food for patients versus food for staff
Wells, vineyards and hospital breweries
Hospital kitchens and their technologies
Spaces of food preparation and consumption
Investigating quality and improving food
4. FOOD AND DISEASE
Food-related disorders and diseases
Hospital nutritionists and the science of food
Hospital medicine and food metaphors
Toxins, poisoning and contamination
Allergies, additives and adulteration
Hunger, starvation and famine
For more information, please contact: Dr Jonathan Reinarz,
History of Medicine Unit, University of Birmingham, UK -
j.reinarz@bham.ac.uk