Conference "Comorbid Field 2.0: Sociocultural Dimensions of Health, Disease, and Medicine" on October 31 - November 1, 2025

Applications are now open for participation in the conference “Comorbidity Field 2.0: Sociocultural Dimensions of Health, Illness, and Medicine”, which will be held from October 31 to November 1, 2025, at the HSE St. Petersburg School of Arts and Humanities.

Unsplash. Piron Guillaume

Update: please note that the application period has been extended until September 7th.

In recent decades, social and cultural studies of medicine have come to occupy a prominent place within the global humanities. However, within Russian academia, they remain marginal, hindered by institutional and disciplinary barriers. Nevertheless, recent developments — most notably the COVID-19 pandemic — have underscored the importance of developing a comprehensive understanding of medicine as a complex, multi-layered system, as well as the need to advance both theoretical and practical knowledge from the perspective of the social sciences and humanities.

On October 31 - November 1, 2025, the St. Petersburg School of Arts and Humanities of HSE University will host a conference entitled “Comorbid Field 2.0: Sociocultural Dimensions of Health, Disease, and Medicine.” The conference is held jointly with the Faculty of Humanities and the Ronald F. Inglehart Laboratory for Comparative Social Research, as well as the Student Scientific Society of the Department of History of the St. Petersburg School of Arts and Humanities of HSE University. We strive to promote inclusivity and openness in scientific discussion and invite both experienced and early-career researchers (including students) to participate.

Over the past five years, HSE University has expanded its educational and research activities by launching new courses on the history of epidemics, reproductive health and demographic policy, and the sociology of health and disease. Project and research groups have been established to study the history of Russian psychiatry, to analyse healthcare practices, and to explore other facets of medicine. A significant step in institutionalising this field at HSE University was the opening of the Institute of Health Psychology at the St. Petersburg campus in autumn 2024. Similar interest in the sociocultural dimensions of health and medicine is evident in other academic institutions as well. For instance, the European University at St. Petersburg houses the Institute for Interdisciplinary Health Research (IIHR). In December 2024, IIHR, together with the Moscow and St. Petersburg campuses of HSE University, organised a workshop titled “Comorbid Field: Intersections of Social Sciences and Humanities Research on Health and Medicine.” This event highlighted the growing collaborative efforts in exploring the social sciences and humanities perspectives on health and medicine in Russia.

Our project aims to continue the tradition of such workshops. We want to create a regular discussion platform for debating various aspects of medicine and healthcare, as well as methodological approaches to their study from the perspective of social sciences and humanities.  This platform will enable us to critically reflect on the current state of sociocultural research in medicine within Russia and to suggest ways to bridge disciplinary divides, thereby fully integrating health and medicine-related topics into the humanities research agenda. Additionally, we aim to formalise and expand the community of researchers in this field that has developed at the university in recent years and to connect it with a wider scientific network beyond HSE.

Within the framework of the conference, we propose the following topics for discussion (but are not limited to them):

• Medical culture: institutions, practices, agents;
• Representations of health, illness, and the body;
• Epidemics and pandemics in historical perspective;
• Medicine in colonial and postcolonial contexts;
• Social studies of medical knowledge and technologies;
• Health policy: the state, experts, patients;
• Medical ethics and biopolitics;
• Psy-disciplines;
• Gender aspects of medicine, sexual and reproductive health;
• Social studies of drugs;
• Practices of self-care;
• Migration, vulnerability, and access to medical care;
• One health: humans, non-human animals, and the environment;
• Digital health and telemedicine;
• Medical education and professional communities;
• Methods and specifics of teaching social and humanitarian disciplines related to medicine;
• Participatory approach in health and medical research: experiences of interaction between practicing specialists and researchers.

We welcome both theoretical papers and empirical research, as well as interdisciplinary projects at the intersection of history, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, cultural studies, and other humanities and social sciences. We also invite representatives of medical universities and research institutions, as well as practicing medical professionals, to participate in order to establish a productive dialogue between different approaches to the study of health and disease.

To apply for Comorbid Field 2.0, please submit an abstract of your paper (250–500 words). Please include brief information about the author(s) in the text of the email: full name, affiliation, academic degree/level and year of study, email address, and phone number. In addition, we are open to suggestions and invite proposals for panels (consisting of 3–4 presentations) or round table discussions. In this case, please attach a list of prospective participants and information about them, as well as an abstract of the panel or round table (250–500 words).

Applications for participation will be accepted until September 7, 2025, at the following email address: comorbidities.hse@yandex.ru. The results of the application review will be announced by September 10.

The event will be held in a hybrid form. The conference organizing committee is considering the possibility of reimbursing travel/accommodation expenses for some participants based on the results of the application selection process. Further details will be announced at a later date.

The conference program can be found by following the link.

Conference Organizing Committee: 

Anna Afanasyeva, Associate Professor, School of Philosophy and Cultural Studies, HSE University 

Natalia Baisha, Doctoral Student, School of Sociology, HSE University

Pavel Vasilyev, Associate Professor, Department of History, HSE University  St. Petersburg 

Alisa Kuznetsova, Exhibition Specialist, Museum of the History of Pavlov University

Elizaveta Pronicheva, Head, Student Research Society, Department of History, HSE University St. Petersburg.