HSTM Network Ireland Conference, Maynooth University, 13-14 November 2015

Conference Programme

 

Friday, 13th November

11.00 Registration and Coffee

11.45 Opening comments

12.00

Panel 1A: Patients, Health and Illness

‘I believe it would now be impossible for you to send him’: An exploration of the medical assessment and diagnosis of male missionary candidates by the Foreign Missions of the Irish Presbyterian Church, 1840-1845
Cathy Jamieson, Queen’s University, Belfast

‘A lonely furrow in virgin soil’: the evolution of aftercare institutions for polio in Ireland, 1949-1968
Stephen Bance, University College Dublin

Seán Ó Ríordáin (1916-1977), poet and professional patient
Ciara Breathnach, University of Limerick

Panel 1B: Networks and communication in Science

‘Those ingenious communications’: correspondence networks of the Dublin Philosophical Society
Sue Hemmens, Marsh’s Library, Dublin

The Boyden Council: Ireland and international astronomy in apartheid South Africa, 1955-1978
Keith Snedeger, Utah Valley University

A reflection on Irish scientists’ contribution to the demonstration lecture
Charles Markham, Maynooth University

1.30 Lunch

2.30

Panel 2A: Conceptualising Health and Disease

Medicine and nutritional science in Ireland: Vitamin theory in infant feeding, 1880-1922 Jutta Kruse, University of Limerick

‘Lives as full and happy as their disabilities will permit’: intellectual disability in Ireland in a social history context
Jean Walker, Maynooth University

Racial epidemiology and the construction of (South) African AIDS
Gerry Kearns, Maynooth University

Panel 3B: Sources and resources for HSTM in Ireland

Presentations by the RDS, RCPI, RIA, Edward Worth library on sources for the study of HSTM in Ireland, this will be followed by a roundtable discussion on the complying of an online resource for HSTM researchers.

1 4.00 Coffee

4.30

Panel 3A: Ethics, Bodies and Medicine

Drugs and douches: illegal abortion methods in twentieth-century Ireland
Cara Delay, College of Charleston

“I Would Have Gone On With The Hunger Strike But Force-Feeding I Could Not Take”: Convict Prisoners on Hunger Strike, England, 1913-74
Ian Miller, Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland, Ulster University

Why did healthcare professionals become involved in torture during the War on Terror Myles Balfe, University College Cork

Panel 2B: Irish Science in the Nineteenth Century

Romanticism and the life-sciences in late-Victorian Dublin
Tanya O’Sullivan, Queen’s University, Belfast

‘While I was geologising’: the all-encompassing eye of George Victor du Noyer, geological surveyor and antiquarian
Susan Hegarty, St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra

‘Lady scientists’ in the literature at the fin-de-siècle Ireland: a radiant forerunner or distracting new women?
Mai Yatani, Trinity College Dublin

6.00 Keynote by Mark Harrison, Director of the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine and Professor of the History of Medicine, University of Oxford

7.00 Wine reception/social

8.30 Conference Dinner

Saturday, 14th November 2015

9.30 Coffee

10.00

Panel 4A: Epidemic Disease in Irish History

English cowpox and Irish smallpox: The advent of vaccination and Union between Britain and Ireland, 1800-1815
Michael Bennett, University of Tasmania

The epidemics of Limerick, 1910-1915
Margaret Buckley, University College Cork

‘Sleepy sickness spreads’: Encephalitis Lethargica in Belfast
Patricia Marsh, Queen’s University, Belfast

Panel 4B: Technology in nineteenth-century Ireland

The fashioning of technology and self: a case study of optical telegraphy in Ireland, c. 1797-1804 2
Adrian James Kirwan, Maynooth University

Technological and other challenges faced by the Ordnance Survey in the 1880s and 1890s Jacinta Prunty, Maynooth University

11.30 Coffee

12.00 Panel

5A: Early modern medicine

Medical practitioners in Seventeenth-Century Dublin
John Cunningham, Trinity College Dublin

The chemist, the medical doctor and the new experimental philosophy: letters of Moyse Charas to Élie Bouhéreau (1677-79) in Marsh’s Library Dublin
Jean-Paul Pittion, Trinity College Dublin

An examination of folk cures and disease in the School Manuscript Collection of 1938
Carol Barron, Trish Mahon and Johnny Dillon, Dublin City University/Brunel University/ University College Dublin

Panel 5B: Teaching and resources for HSTM

‘Teaching history of science to science undergraduates’
James Sumner, Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Manchester Tyndall correspondence project

‘Publications for teaching history of science’
Peter Bowler, Queen’s University, Belfast

1.30 Lunch (until 3.00)

2.00 Visit to National Science Museum (on campus)

3.00

Panel 6A: Stressful Environments

The depiction of prison medicine in medical journals in England and Ireland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
Nicholas Duvall, University of Warwick/University College Dublin

‘Insane at the time of commission’: stress, trauma, reprisals and suicide in the auxiliary division, 1920-30.
Eammon Gardiner, National University of Ireland, Galway

A killer atmosphere: the politics and process of eliminating smog and saving children’s lives in 20th century Ireland
Ida Milne, Queen’s University, Belfast/Maynooth University

Panel 6B: History and Philosophy of Science

The atomistic theories of Robert Boyle and William Higgins
Conleth Loonan, Maynooth University

Vitalism & Natural History in John Toland’s Pantheisticon
Ian Leask, Dublin City University

4.30 Coffee

5.00 Keynote: David N. Livingstone, Professor of Geography and Intellectual History, QUB

6.00 Closing comments

Call for Papers:

 

History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Network Ireland Inaugural Conference

Maynooth University

13-14 November 2015

Supported by the Irish Research Council New Foundations scheme

Organised by: HSTM Network Ireland

In co-operation with: Department of History, Maynooth University, HSTM Network Ireland

The HSTM Network Ireland fosters research, teaching and public engagement in the history of science, technology and medicine (HSTM) in Ireland.  It brings together researchers based in Ireland and welcomes overseas members with relevant interests. We aim to raise the profile of HSTM in Ireland and link Irish-based researchers to an international community of scholars. The Network’s inaugural conference will promote awareness of archival sources for HSTM on the island, advocate HSTM as a subject at all levels of education, support and develop public events with an HSTM element, and produce an accessible bibliography of HSTM research.

Inaugural Conference

The conference committee (composed of Ida Milne (Queen’s University Belfast), Ian Miller (Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland, University of Ulster) and Adrian James Kirwan (Maynooth University)) invites you to register for the HSTM Network Ireland’s inaugural conference taking place at Maynooth University on 13-14 November 2015. The event will showcase innovative, original research currently being pursued by established and early-career researchers working in HSTM in Ireland and abroad.

A provisional conference program can be consulted through this link: HSTM Provisional Conference Schedule

Location, Travel & Accomodation Information:

The campus and town: Maynooth is a university town 28km west of Dublin, in Co Kildare, situated on the M4 motorway from Dublin to the west.  Its name comes from the Irish Maigh Nuadhad, meaning ‘plain of Nuadha’.  It is historically significant as the seat of the Duke of Leinster, the Fitzgerald family, at Maynooth Castle and then Carton House (now a premier hotel and golf club), and as Ireland’s main Roman Catholic seminary, St Patrick’s College. It is also the location of the Irish Catholic Bishop’s Conference. It centres around a small main street, and has a variety of restaurants, pubs and shopping centres.   

Transport: Most places are within easy walking distance of the college, but there are good local taxi services. It is served by frequent commuter connections by rail and bus to Dublin. Dublin Bus services include the 66 and 67 routes. Information about the Dublin (Connolly Station) to Maynooth train service is available from IrishRail and on commuter buses from DublinBus.

Parking: Please note that the university operates a parking permit system and clamping is enforced. Paid parking is extremely limited on campus. However, parking at a rate of €5 a day is available off of Leinster Street (Google Maps lists it incorrectly as Newman Pl.). This is located past the Garda Station in Maynooth town. It is a short five minute walk to the main gates of the University’s South Campus.

Venue: The conference will take place in An Foras Feasa, which is located on the first floor of the Iontas building, on the university’s north campus; a campus map is available here

Campus accommodation: The campus has a variety of conference accommodation to suit different budgets. These range from college rooms with shared toilet and shower facilities to en suites; prices begin at €27 excluding breakfast. Accommodation can be booked through the Maynooth Campus Accommodation website 

N.B. please use the following code to avail of the conference discount: HSTM_07/15 

Registration & Conference Dinner

Cost: Conference registration will cost: €20 waged or €10 unwaged/students (coffee breaks and lunches are included in this price) for non-speakers. 

Conference dinner: An optional conference dinner will take place on Friday,13 November, at Picaderos restaurant. This has a selection of Argentinean and Spanish food as well as more traditional fare. The restaurant is located in Maynooth town and is a five minute walk from the University’s south campus. There will be an additional charge of €35 for the conference dinner, which is applicable to all.

Booking: To book your place at the conference please proceed to the Maynooth University online shop.

Registration is essential and closes on October 30th

Contact us:

All communication should be sent to hstm.conf.2015@gmail.com