Hygiene - Health Politics/Eugenics: Engineering Society in Twentieth-century Southeastern Europe

International Conference

Sponsored by the Fritz-Thyssen-Foundation

organised by:

Freie Universität Berlin (Dr. Sevasti Trubeta)

OxfordBrookes University (Dr. Marius Turda)

University of Graz (Dr. Christian Promitzer)

Programme

Thursday (31 May)

9.30 -10.00 Opening Remarks and Greetings

Organisers

Holm Sundhaussen (Chair for Southeast European History, Institute of East European Studies, Freie Universität Berlin)

Sybill De Vito-Egerland (International Affairs, Freie Universität Berlin)

10.00 – 10.30 Key Note Speech

Regenerating Mitteleuropa: Methodological and Theoretical Reflections on Eugenics, Hygiene and Health Politics in Central and Southeast Europe

Paul Weindling (Oxford Brookes University)

10.30 – 11.00 Discussion

Chair: Marius Turda (Oxford Brookes University)

11.00 – 11.30 Coffee Break

Morning Session: “Epidemics and Diseases”

Chair: Michael Wedekind (University Muenster)

11.30 – 11.50

Epidemics and Muslims: Typhus and Delousing Campaigns in Bulgaria

Christian Promitzer (University of Graz)

11.50 – 12.10

Combating social diseases in Bulgaria 1912 – 1944

Milena Angelova (American University, Blagoevgrad)

12.10 – 13.00 Discussion

13.00 – 14.30 Lunch

Afternoon Session: “Health Politics and Eugenics”

Chair: Sabine Schleiermacher (Department of Contemporary History,

Institute of History of Medicine, Charité/Berlin)

14.30 – 14.50

The nation and the idea of malaria sanitisation in early 20th century Greece

Katerina Gardikas (University of Athens)

14.50 – 15.10

The “Health” Regime of the National Organism and the Eugenics Discourse in Bulgaria, 1900-1944

Gergana Mircheva (University of Sofia)

15.10 – 15.45 Discussion

15.45 – 16.15 Coffee Break

Afternoon Session: “Hygiene and Social Hygiene”

Chair: Christian Promitzer (University of Graz)

16.15 – 17.35

Politics, modernization and public health in Greece (1900 -1940): the case of occupational health

Leda Papastefanaki (University of Ioannina)

16.35 – 17.00

Public health education and racial hygiene in interwar Yugoslavia

Zeljko Dugac (Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science, Zagreb)

17.00 – 17.30 Discussion

Friday (1 June)

Morning Session: “Eugenics and the State”

Chair: Gisela Bock (Freie Universität Berlin)

9.30 - 9.50

Eugenic Sterilisation in Interwar Romania

Marius Turda (Oxford Brookes University)

9.50 – 10.10

Prenuptial Health Certificates in Greece in the first half of the 20th century

Sevasti Trubeta (Freie Universität Berlin)

10.10 – 11.00 Discussion

11.00 – 11.30 Coffee Break

Morning Session: “Eugenics, Art and Gender”

Chair: Maria Bucur (Indiana University Bloomington)

11.30 – 11.50

From the New Yugoslav Person to “Humanitas Heroica”: Eugenics, Art and the Paradox of Modernity in Inter-War Yugoslavia

Rory Yeomans (Independent Scholar, London)

11.50 – 12.10

Gender, Religion, and Hygiene in Bosnia-Hercegovina 1878-1918

Brigitte Fuchs (University of Vienna)

12.10 – 13.00 Discussion

13.00 – 14.30 Lunch

Afternoon session “The Biological Capital of the Nation”

Chair: Ursula Ferdinand (Technical University Berlin)

14.30 – 14.50

Public health and Child Mortality in Bulgaria in the 1920s and 1930s

Kristina Popova (American University, Blagoevgrad)

14.50 – 15.10

Eugenics and puericulture in Greece in interwar years: medical concerns about the amelioration of the biological capital

Despina Karakatsani (University of Peloponnese )/ Vaso Theodorou (University of Thrace)

15.10 – 15.45 Discussion

15.45 – 16.15 Coffee Break

Evening Session: “Anthropology and minorities”

Chair: Katerina Gardikas (University of Athens )

16.15 – 16.35

The Mathematization of the Human Being: Anthropology and Ethnopolitics in Romania in the late 1930s and early 1940s

Michael Wedekind (University of Muenster)

16.35 – 16.55

Engineering Ethnicity: The 'Transylvanian Saxon Research Institute' (Forschungsinstitut der Deutschen Volksgruppe) in Word and Print, 1940-44

Tudor Georgescu (Oxford Brookes University)

16.55 – 17.30 Discussion

Saturday (2 June)

Morning Session: “Colonialism, Eugenics and Hygiene”

Chair: Paul Weindling (Oxford Brookes University)

9.30 -9.50

Questions About Eugenics and Colonialism in East Europe

Maria bucur (Indiana University, Bloomington)

9.50 – 10.10

Hygienic ideas between Odessa and Vienna - Who will shape the image of the New Jew in Palestine during the British Mandate period (1918-1948)?

Shifra Shvarts (Ben Gurion University, Israel)

10.10 – 11.00 Discussion

11.00 – 11.30 Coffee Break

11.30 – 12.00 Conclusions by the organisers

12.00 – 13.00 Final Discussion

End of the conference

15.00 Meeting of the “Working Group on the History of Racial Sciences and Biomedicine in Central and Southeast Europe (XIX and XXc.)’