The aim of this conference is to bring together academics working specifically on medicine, and its relationship with race and/or slavery, in the broadest remit of the Atlantic World.

Since the seminal contributions of Richard Sheridan, Todd Savitt, and Sharla Fett scholarship on the relationship between medicine and plantation slavery has been an established subject of historical inquiry. Recent years have seen this work pick up pace, with critical contributions from Rana Hogarth, Suman Seth, Andrew Curran, and a recent collection of essays edited by Sean Morey Smith & Christopher Willoughby.  Such work has situated medicine more specifically in the realm of ‘race-making’ with attention to the role of disease in racialisation, to anatomy and theories of “Blackness”, and to biopower and the politics of medicine as an Enlightenment project. The purview of medicine, slavery, and race-making now covers both its contribution to emerging theories of race, but also its racializing practices, which established enduring patterns of inequality and injustice in the provision of treatment and care. 

We invite proposals for 20-minute research-based conference papers, or 10 minute ‘lightening talks’.  Our hope is that this will allow for scholars at different career stages, but also at different stages of research, to participate in this conference in a way that best suits their need.

Some possible subjects may include

• Disease and “race-medicine”

• Childbirth, reproductive (in)justice, and maternal treatment

• Black, diasporic, and indigenous healing practices

• Medical professionals and practices of enslavement

• Botany, pharmacy, and the politics of drug culture

• Anatomy and the epidermalization of race

• Race-making, climate, and environment

Confirmed speakers include: Simon Buck, Zachary Dorner, Teresa Göltl, Vicki Heath, Mary Hicks, Katherine Paugh, Melissa Reynolds, Megan Roberts, Sarah Maria Schober, Suman Seth, Kevin Siena, Sasha Turner, & Claire Weeda.

This conference is organised by “Medicine and the Making of Race”, a four-year UKRI FLF-funded project at King’s College London. Our project will cover the costs of travel and accommodation for all participants. If you are interested in presenting, please submit an abstract (ca.300 words) and short CV to mmor@kcl.ac.uk by 14 February 2025.