[Discussion] The Cultural Meaning of Infection

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

*"Invisible Enemies": The Cultural Meaning of Infection and the Politics
of "Plague"*

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International conference at the University of Zurich (Switzerland),
September 21-24 2005

Organised by Forschungsstelle f=FCr Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte,
Philipp Sarasin, Silvia Berger, Marianne H=E4nseler and Myriam Sp=F6rri

The conference is devoted to the discussion of cultural perceptions of
infectious diseases and their metaphorical spin-offs in past and present
political discourse. We aim to bring to-gether epidemiological
investigations with cultural and social analyses of public discourses on
infectious diseases and their political dimensions. Historical
contributions will situate con-temporary discussions in the wider
historical context, and provide points of comparison be-tween older
conceptions and phantasms associated with plagues with contemporary
repre-sentations and political action.

The conference will last three days and will combine keynote talks and
workshops. The conference languages will be English and German. Papers
to be presented in workshops are invited on the following specific and
more generally related issues, in order to stimulate a
cross-disciplinary discussion:

    * Plague and smallpox: Infection and the politics of quarantine in
      the Ancien R=E9gime
    * Cultural history and history of science of bacteriology and
      immunology
    * Fears of infection in the 19th and 20th century: Women, Blacks,
      Jews, and Immigrants
    * War, fight and migration as bacteriological (and immunological)
      master metaphors
    * The "Spanish Influenza" of 1918 and the puzzles of virology
    * Architecture and infection
    * Infection and identity: scientific, social, cultural and
      psychoanalytic aspects of the self/non-self-relation
    * The invisible enemy: Technologies and metaphors of visualization
      in bacteriology and immunology
    * Metaphors of infection in the political discourse of the 20th
      century: parasites, mi-crobes and the politics of "ethnic cleansing=
"
    * The return of infectious diseases: epidemiological, cultural and
      political dimensions of infection in an age of globalization
    * Discourses about Aids
    * SARS as global infection - SARS as metaphor of globalization?
    * Politics and technologies of border control and security in Europe
      and the U.S.
    * Bioterror: Political reality or political phantasma?

Keynote Speakers are:
Sander Gilmann, Christoph Gradmann, Ilana L=F6wy, Ruth Mayer/Brigitte
Weingart, Wolfgang Preiser, Nancy Tomes, Paul Weindling

Contributions from the fields of epidemiology, history, sociology,
literature, philosophy and cultural studies are welcome. Abstracts in
English or German (max. 200 words) should be submitted via email to lic.
phil. Myriam Sp=F6rri (e-mail address provided below), until *March 31st,
2005*.

	Myriam Sp=F6rri
Forschungsstelle f=FCr Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte
R=E4mistr. 64
CH-8001 Z=FCrich
Switzerland

Phone: +41 (0)1 634 36 64
Fax: +41 (0)1 634 49 88
Email: spoerri@fsw.unizh.ch <mailto:spoerri@fsw.unizh.ch>