We had a wonderful two days last week at our “Health and the Environment in the Preindustrial World: Multidisciplinary Approaches” conference. This international and interdisciplinary conference brought to a close the activities of the grant team “Pursuing Public Health in the Preindustrial World, 1100-1800.”
Across in-person and online, we had over 100 registrations, with people Zooming in world-wide including from across Europe, the United States, New Zealand, Thailand, Armenia, India, and Malaysia (to name a few!).
A true highlight was the variety of papers presented, across both field and context. We heard from experts in environmental history,
the history of science and technology, bioarchaeology, landscape archaeology, mobility studies, religious studies, gender studies, and neurology. These talks covered research that spanned from Bronze Age South Asia, the medieval Islamic world, medieval India and Europe, sixteenth century East Asia, colonial Brazil, and eighteenth century London.
Hearing research across disciplines was truly fascinating, but especially highlighted the importance of building academic communities and discussions that bridge disciplines and fields of research.
Our keynote speaker, Professor Pamela Smith, discussed how through everyday extraction and working of materials, practitioners and materials simultaneously shaped each other and their environments.
As part of the conference, we had an Australian launch of the book that came out of our previous research project. Public Health in the Premodern World: Dynamic Balances, ed. by our G. Geltner alongside Janna Coomans and Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim. The volume illustrates the rich history of public health and showcases how communities across the globe defined and pursued health in different ways, using the social, intellectual, legal, and physical tools at their disposal.
You can find the book by clicking here, including three Open Access Articles.
While the project that this research built from is wrapping up, we are certain that these fruitful discussions and research will continue building from here – we’re excited to see how this field continues to grow.
