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The Department of Social Studies of Medicine hosts workshops organized around specific themes and concerns. 听The departmental workshops are open to all members of the university community and the public.
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Writing on Medicine in Climates of Controversy听
April 22, 2026, 1:00 pm - 4:00pm
Thomson House Ballroom, 3rd听floor
3650听Rue McTavish听
What happens when scholars of medicine study topics that are controversial, legally incendiary, or politically polarizing?听 How does one strive to write an accurate and even-handed analysis knowing that one鈥檚 words and findings听will be scrutinized and used by groups outside of academia with their own agendas?
The 2026 workshop by The Department of Social Studies of Medicine, 鈥淲riting on Medicine in Climates of Controversy鈥�, explores these questions. 听The workshop听combines a plenary lecture on Medical Assistance in Dying听by Daniel Weinstock with a session, moderated by Vanessa Rampton,听 featuring three SSOM scholars 鈥� Phoebe Friesen, Sahar Sadjadi, and Andrea Tone 鈥� who recount their experiences navigating the controversies their work has evoked.
Schedule:
Plenary Address 听1:00 pm-2:00pm
Medical Assistance in Dying, Ethics, and Democracy
Daniel Weinstock,听Katharine A. Pearson Chair in Civil Society and Public Policy in the Faculties of Law and of Arts
Break.听2:00pm-2:15pm
Session 听2:15 pm-4:00pm
Complaining about Consent: Using Anesthetized Bodies as Teaching Tools
Phoebe Friesen,听Associate Professor, Departments of Equity, Ethics and Policy and听Social Studies of Medicine
Children, Gender Transition and听What the Debate Cannot Hold
Sahar听Sadjadi,听Assistant Professor, Department of Social Studies of Medicine
Ewen Cameron: Litigated Legacies, Archival Discoveries
Andrea Tone,听Professor,听Departments of Social Studies of Medicine and History and Classical Studies听听
Reception听4:00pm-5:00pm
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Histories of Medicine: A Workshop in Honour of George Weisz
May 13, 2026
SSoM, 3647 Peel, Don Bates Seminar Room, 101
1:30pm - 5:30pm
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13:30-13:45 Introduction
13:45-14:30听(Chapel Hill) 听"A Nearly Disavowed Oral History Adventure with Medical Students"
A couple of sentences about it:听The Black Alumni Experience Project began in 2021, inspired by medical students鈥� interest in a fuller account of their place of learning, the School of Medicine at the 听 听University of North Carolina. This chronicle addresses BAEP鈥檚 origin and rationale, the听tricky political听waters听it navigated听and almost sank in, and how it pulls forward some lessons learned from teaching at 海角社区 as a graduate听student听mentored by George Weisz.
14:30-15:15听 (King鈥檚 College London) "The slack in the system: The American healthcare crisis, manpower planning and physician productivity 1950-1980"
This paper examines historical efforts to calculate听the听health manpower needs of听the听United States from 1950 to 1980, highlighting how perceived physician shortages justified efforts to maximize听the听effective utilization of existing medical labor. While federal and philanthropic听investment was largely directed to听increasing physician supply, research on how physicians might improve听their productivity through delegating tasks to allied health personnel has received less attention. Drawing on health economics and manpower studies,听the听paper explores how physician utilization became a concern amid an American 鈥渉ealthcare crisis鈥� characterized by rising demand for health services, technological change,听increasing costs and shifting public expectations. Ultimately,听the听paper contends that efforts to听increase physician productivity, despite remaining a pervasive structural problem facing virtually all healthcare听systems worldwide, have neither solved听the听mystery of how to deliver health services most effectively nor听the听question of how many physicians are required to do so.
15:15-15:30 Coffee
15:30-16:15听(Western University) "The Material Culture of Surgery: 鈥楥utting鈥� Instruments as Expressions of Surgical Values and Competencies"
What might Physick鈥檚 tonsillotome (1827) and Heine鈥檚 osteotome (1830), which are deemed historically significant but now obsolete surgical instruments, tell us about the practice of surgery during the 19th century? This presentation takes an object-centred approach, with its focus on the use-context and use-value of surgical instruments within broader theories of materiality and meaning, to explore limited-adoption innovation in surgical practice.
16:15-17:00听Elsbeth Heaman (海角社区) "The 鈥楧emographic Transition鈥� Between Medicine and Economics in 1940s America"
Following George Weisz鈥� work on the 鈥渆pidemiological transition,鈥� I will interrogate the earliest arguments for 鈥渄emographic transition,鈥� as a matter of disciplinary specialization. The paper will contextualize Frank Notestein鈥檚 classic paper in the conference on 鈥淔ood for the World鈥� held at in Chicago in January 1945 as economists, statisticians, and nutritionists jockeyed over the starving body as an object of knowledge. It will then carry the analysis more deeply into economics, first tracing connections between Notestein and Chicago economists Theodore Schultz and Jacob Viner (who soon moved to Princeton and joined Notestein in an internationalist research centre), then comparing discourses of medical specialization with those of economic specialization that were then subject to bitter dispute at Chicago, notably between Jacob Viner and Frank Knight (the 鈥渁lternative cost doctrine鈥� debate).
17:00-17:15 George Weisz (海角社区)
17:15 and beyond听听Reception
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