{"word_count": 526, "character_count": 3856}
Appel à contributions - Food and Hospitals. An Historical PerspectiveVendredi 26 avril 2013  |  Bruxelles (Belgique)While contemporary grumblings about hospital food have become the quintessential hospital complaint, it is undeniable that a clean, warm bed, rest and the provision of food and drink, rather than medicines and therapies have always greatly increased hospital patients’ chances of recovery. Indeed diet has from the time of Galen been a central part of medical therapy. However, even if central to the day-to-day routine of hospitals, workhouses and asylums, food and drink continue to be overlooked in historical accounts of hospitalisation. This conference aims to foreground the role of food and drink in health care institutions in the past.Food and drink were crucial to hospital and asylum expenditure from medieval to modern times, not unusually comprising one half of medical institutions’ annual budgets. Drink and diet naturally varied with country, region and locality. The organisers of this conference are interested in exploring broad geographical perspectives and associated fads, prejudices and phobias. The acquisition, preparation and use of foodstuffs were also managed by diverse groups, sometimes lay or clerical, as well as medical, including doctors, nurses and dieticians. Dietary needs and preferences of patients also varied with age, gender, race and religion, while meals were often augmented or restricted in line with diagnosis and discipline. Views concerning the role of food and drink in recovery also shifted significantly, both in earlier centuries, and more recently with the rise of the nutritional sciences.We welcome abstracts on any of the following themes:Treatment: Diet &#38; Medecine:TheoryThe role of diet and medical theoryThe psychology of food and food choiceFood as medicine; medicine as foodFood and religion: daily bread and the sin of gluttonyPracticeDietary restrictions and punishmentsArtificial and forced feedingAlcohol and medical therapiesWater, wine and other dietary liquidsNutrition and malnutritionHigh diets, low diets and milk diets Infant feeding and nutritionMeat eaters versus vegetariansFood for convalescence, weight gain and obesitySupply:The procurement and purchase of food Waste, resistance and food smugglingHospital gardens, farms and work therapyFood production and local economiesTheft of provisions and food crimeFood and philanthropyRationing, shortages and inequalitiesPreparation:In-house preparation and distributionFood for patients versus food for staffWells, vineyards and hospital breweriesHospital kitchens and their technologiesSpaces of food preparation and consumptionInvestigating quality and improving foodFood and Disease:Food-related disorders and diseasesHospital nutritionists and the science of foodHospital medicine and food metaphorsToxins, poisoning and contaminationAllergies, additives and adulterationHunger, starvation and famineThe Advisory Board of the INHH, as organisers of this conference, wish to invite proposals for 25-30 minute papers on any aspect and era relating to the history of food, drink and institutional medicine.Abstracts should be between 200-300 words in length and will be received until 30 April 2012.A programme, featuring an address by Professor Peter Scholliers (VUB, Belgium), will be advertised in June 2012.This two day (26-27 April 2013) event will be hosted by the University of Birmingham (Brussels campus)  and the Free University of Brussels (VUB),  Sponsored by the Society For Social History of MedicineFor more information, please contact: Dr Jonathan Reinarz, History of Medicine Unit, University of Birmingham, UK - j.reinarz@bham.ac.ukBrussells_Poster.pdfContactFrances Worrallcourriel : f.l [point] worrall (at) bham.ac [point] ukRoom 13090 Vincent DriveUniversity of BirminghamBirminghamB15 2TT