ANIMAL-BASED. Historical perspectives on animals in medicine, science and technology

The Board of the Society for the History of Science, Medicine and Technology e.V. (GWMT), in cooperation with TU Dresden, invites you to register for presentations and sections at the Society's seventh annual conference. The conference will take place from September 24-26, 2025 in Dresden and has the general topic:

ANIMAL-BASED.
Historical perspectives on animals in medicine, science and technology

The breeding, keeping and use of animals for the production of food, textiles and medical products or to gain scientific knowledge are as widespread today as they are controversial. Currently, opposing trends can be observed: On the one hand, the increasingly frequent mention of "plant-based" on products of all kinds proves and undermines the self-evident nature of "animal-based" in the global North and West. On the other hand, economic growth and prosperity in countries of the Global South and East are favoring an expansion of livestock farming and consumption. In addition, wild animals and their habitats, their role in zoonoses, their penetration into new areas or their "hybridization" through techno-scientific modifications of the gene pool are receiving increased attention.

The interdisciplinary fields of animal studies and multispecies studies have become a place of exchange on historical research relevant to humans and animals, not least due to impulses from the humanities. Drawing on concepts of science studies from the 1980s and 1990s, the contours of a historiography moved and animated by animals are also increasingly emerging in the history of science, medicine and technology. The organizers of the GWMT Conference 2025 invite researchers from the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences as well as from the natural and life sciences to present their projects and findings on the historical role of domesticated, bred or even "wild" animals in the fields of science, medicine and technology.

Proposals for sections or individual presentations can be submitted until 28.02.2025 via the online submission form at: https://www.gwmt.de/veranstaltungen/aktuelle-jahrestagung/.