The University Pardubice and Universidad Autonóma de Madrid (TRANSCAP) conference inquired into different fields of social history of medicine. The conference in Pardubice offered a platform for interdisciplinary exchange in a friendly and fruitful workshop-style atmosphere creating a space of debate about the transformations of the place medicine and physicians have occupied in European societies during the last three centuries. Delving deeper into those similarities as well as differences was used as a means to better assess the political relevance of physicians and their role in cultural, social and national modernisation process.

The conference brought new results mainly in four areas of research – in the analysis of the establishment of medical doctors as actors in the field of the political cultures of modern states (Martykánová and Núñez-García, Rasimoğlu, Hanulík, Gilarranz, König, Schreiber, Grafl); formations of expert knowledge in the modern era (Lalanne Berdouticq, Dos Santos, Guttin, Rábová, Pojar); analysis of interdependence of gender normativity derived from the medical discourses and practices (Cabré and Alfonso, García Fernandéz, Marchand), and the dynamics of medical practices, reflected by physicians and patients in 19th–20th centuries (Tinková, Houtekamer, Rambousková).

The key note speech brought together DARINA MARTYKANOVÁ (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) and VÍCTOR M. NÚÑEZ-GARCÍA (Universidad de Sevilla) in their analysis of formation of expert body of Spanish physicians the period between the first constitution of 1812 and the 1856 revolution that ended the hegemony of moderate-liberal governments. They have illustrated how Spanish physicians as a professional group engaged in politics at three main levels; using political institutions to promote their professional interests; striving to control or influence policies related to one’s field of expertise; fighting to become a voice of authority in the public debate on issues related to health and medicine. Similarly, CEREN GÜLSER İLIKAN RASIMOĞLU (Acıbadem Mehmet Ali Aydınlar University) defined, how between 1839–1909 the process consisted in Westernization of medical education, elimination of the empirics and centralization of medical services led nationalization of the profession and gaining the political power. Through medical societies and the nationalization of medical language and terminology, not only did the Ottoman medical body become involved in the nationalization process of the country. The Committee of Union and Progress, which was founded in the School of Medicine in 1889 established to dethrone Abdülhamid II and reinstitute the Constitution, abolished by Abdülhamid in 1878 and later occupied important positions in the administrative body both in the Late Ottoman Empire and Early Republican Turkey. National interests provided SOPHIA KÖNIG (Universität Leipzig) in her paper the background for the overview over the discourse and legislative action concerning the process of giving birth in National Socialist Germany 1933–1945, with the focus on Leipzig, Saxony. She showed the contradiction of interests of state and individual motivations of future mothers. This increasing popularity of hospital births led to discussions on how to structure and restructure obstetrics in order to provide a high level of care for both mother and child, both on a national as well as on a local level with the growing official state promotion of the midwife-assisted home births.

The inter-connection between modern state development and medicine itself described TEREZA LIEPOLDOVÁ (Charles University Prague) in the analysis of ‘state medicine’ formation and Josef Brent's activities. Using the example of examination of bodies of the dead, Tereza Liepoldová explained in what ways expert medical knowledge was reaching the physicians and surgeons practicing in the Habsburg Monarchy and how was implemented expert medical knowledge and its transmission by education. AINHOA GILARRANZ (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) have analysed the iconographic representation of medical profession in public sculpture, in which two stages of the popular imaginary creation was followed - firstly the creation of public sculptures as an associative practice and their capacity to strengthen the doctor imaginary as a professional group and secondly, how the medical figures were incorporated to national narrative and were added to monumental pantheon of distinguished men in the pro cultural process of heritagization. FLORIAN GRAFL (Heidelberg School of Education) presented his research project, which will provide outcomes to the history of gendered violence in fascist Spain from a medico-historical aspect.

Formation of professional habitus was reflected by JANA SCHREIBER (Philipps-Universität Marburg) on the case study of the dispute between Physician Hoffmann and his colleagues form Collegium Medicorum in Frankfurt and used this example of open social struggle among the physicians for the analysis defining which practices of representation and distinction used by physicians in the 18th century to compete against their rivals. And how did the distinctive notion of honour determine the position of a physician within urban society and his professional success. VLADAN HANULÍK (University of Pardubice) have later presented the ways, in which professional codes of honour were further developed by the Honour Council of the Czech Medical Chamber in the first half of the 20th century. As an institution that should facilitate the codes of professional habits within the medical field and regulate the practice of medical encounters, the Honour Council developed into a semi-independent court institution which body participated on the shaping of the medical profession habitus and stimulated the development of modern notion in Czech society that medical profession is an “honourable and altruistic vocation, destined to serve and help” to the lay people.

AUDE-MARIE LALANNE BERDOUTICQ (L’École des hautes études en sciences sociales Paris) reflected the struggle over medical expertise in the process of medical examination of recruits in Great War Britain. Medical knowledge and procedures became part of the public debate reflecting the process and validity of medical assessment. As Aude-Marie demonstrated, the Great War constituted an unprecedented test of the legitimacy of medical experts, whose decisions and competence were challenged by politicians and public opinion. In a different context, MAXIME GUTTIN (European University Institute, Florence) dealt with the way, in which had European scholars constructed the brain as the seat of hereditary and defective constitutions in a way that bridged the studies of racial differences and mental diseases. The relationship between the construction of the brain as the organic seat of mental diseases, and the construction of the brain as the marker of racial hierarchies was influenced by the climate in accounting for racial and mental inferiorities. VOJTĚCH POJAR (Central European University) then introduced in his paper the analysis of the circulation of knowledge facilitated by the emerging transnational networks of eugenicists in the Late Habsburg Empire. The paper questioned the analytical value of the national framework for studying knowledge production in the late Habsburg Empire, and beyond, because, as Pojar demonstrated, the partially overlapping communities of temperance supporters, of reformist sociologists, of nationalist activists claimed the language frontiers of the empire as well as professional differentiation.

As different transfer of knowledge have JAVIER MARTÍNEZ DOS SANTOS (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) analysed also the development of psychology education in the second half 19th century Spain. It was Pedro Felipe Monlau who managed to establish the official textbook, which was later used until the year 1894. The concept of Monlau's manual could be defined as the physiological study of the qualities of the soul- As Javier Dos Santos implies, Monlau's work managed to establish itself as a compulsory textbook because it satisfied one of the needs of the incipient state in formation and offered a perfect representation of the values of the emotional culture of the moderate liberalism in power. And ŠÁRKA C. RÁBOVÁ (University of Pardubice, Masaryk University Brno) later explained the knowledge transfer on the characteristic of strategies of educational posters against tuberculosis using in Czechoslovakia in the first half and the first decades of the second half of the 20th century, which were intended to convey the important information in the simplest possible way to both the educated classes and the illiterate or those who did not have time to read the texts.

DANIELA TINKOVÁ (Charles University Prague) presented research reflecting Josef Gottfried Riedel, the first public professor of psychiatry in the Habsburg Monarchy. Riedel, appointed as a primarius-headmaster of Prague asylum in 1838 developed during his fifteen-year tenure, this institution into the the leading institution of its kind, not only within the Habsburg Monarchy, but certainly at least within Central Europe, applying liberal no-restraint system, work (and maybe also art / music) therapy and strict discipline, he constituted the basis of his cure principle which was later used as an formative example. TIMO HOUTEKAMER (European University Institute Florence), explored the non-standardised medical material written by a diverse selection of patients diagnosed with dementia praecox in the Burghölzli psychiatric clinic in Zurich between 1899 and 1901. Patients were often asked to write an autobiographical text that was referred to as a medical history. Timo have demonstrated, how these texts, as places where patient’s knowledge and medical knowledge were intertwined, have shaped the relationship between patient and physician.

MARTINA BOROVIČKOVÁ (University of Pardubice) followed the dynamics of knowledge transfer between medical centres and regional periphery, focusing primarily on physicians working in a public hospital in Hořice, Czech Republic. And BARBORA RAMBOUSKOVÁ (Universidad Autonóma de Madrid, University of Pardubice) introduced the outcomes of quantitative analysis of correspondence of Božena Němcová. Without any medical education, the Czech writer considered herself to be an experienced healer based on her own and her children's illness experiences and connections between doctors and thus became independent on the professionalized “school” medicine.

MÓNICA GARCÍA FERNÁNDEZ (University of Leeds, UK / University of Oviedo, Spain) have analysed the changing discursive ideas about sexual difference in Francoist Spain, conceiving multiple categories (or biotypes) of gendered bodies, from the “virile” to the “feminine” woman and from the “effeminate” to the “virile” man.Mónica have demonstrated popular visual and textual representations of the sexed body and sex difference during Franco’s dictatorship. These ideas became later popular also in a political context, that of the Second Republic, that passed favourable legislation for women’s rights and in which certain feminist ideas gained legitimacy. MONTSERRAT-MARIE CABRÉ and GLORIA DE ALFONSO (Universidad de Cantabria) systematically explained, how medical journals in Spain between the years 1882–1936 integrated the academic accomplishments and the professional work of the first generations of women who had access to formal higher education. Medical journals echoed the progresses made by women in professional training and practice as well as their broad participation in literary and cultural life. Cabré and Alfonso then defined the analysis of authorship as a privileged location from which we have to derive how medical professional circles embraced the agency of the new groups of highly educated women. ALICIA MARCHAND FERNÁNDEZ (Universidad de Cádiz) traced back the making of male domination in the relation between anarchism and medicine in Spain between 1875–1914. From the point of view of masculinity, both anarchist physicians present a scientific and revolutionary virility, based on their intellectual and social capital, that was manifested by common and intermingled elements of romantic and positivist masculinities, as they changed in accordance with the different experiences of each one in their respective contexts.

In summary, the conference addressed the core objective: it brought together a wide range of representatives from different international institutions and was interdisciplinary in the best sense. The relationships of physicians, patients and society was reflected in the context of the 19th and 20th centuries in a transnational comparative perspective interweaved through all the contributions, albeit in varied variations of the spectrum of historical analysis defined by different methodological approaches. The diverse perspectives of the participants enriched many interesting and controversial discussions. It was particularly enriching to have researchers from different national background present their experiences and findings. Many of the case studies presented served as a ground for further comparison between reflection of physician's role in the societies on transnational level.

Conference overview:

Darina Martykánová (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), Víctor Núñez García (Universidad de Sevilla): Physicians and Politics in the Era of Constitutional Revolutions

Daniela Tinková (Charles University Prague): The Birth of a "Psychiatrist": Josef Gottfried Riedel (1803–1870): Reform and Establishment of Psychiatry as a University Discipline in the Habsburg Monarchy

Timo Houtekamer (European University Institute Florence): Non-standardized Ego-Documents. The Intertwinement of Medical and Patient Knowledge in Psychiatric Case Files Around 1900

Javier Martínez Dos Santos (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid): Medicine and Religion in the Struggle to Define the Psychological Subject Through the Educational Plans of Nineteenth-century Spain

Vladan Hanulík (University of Pardubice): Shaping the Boundaries of Professional Honour in Medicine in 1st Half of the 20th Century. Legal Disputes within the Medical Field in Interwar Czechoslovakia

Aude-Marie Lalanne Berdouticq (L’École des hautes études en sciences sociales Paris): „Is the Army doctor to be blamed for making mistakes?“ The Legitimacy Crisis of Army Medical Experts in Britain 1914–1918

Martina Borovičková (Czech Pharmaceutical Museum, Kuks; University of Pardubice): Multiple identities of a Medical Practitioner: Physician´s Career at Czech regional Periphery in 19th and 20th Century

Montserrat Cabré - Gloria de Alfonso (Universidad de Cantabria): Women’s Authorship in the Spanish Medical Press (1882–1936): A Methodological Approach (online)

Sophia König (Universität Leipzig): The Debate on Home Births and Hospital Births in National Socialist Germany 1933–1945

Mónica García Fernández (University of Leeds, UK / University of Oviedo, Spain): The Anatomy of Marriage: Hormones, Gender and the Sexed Body in Francoist Spain

Barbora Rambousková (Universidad Autonóma de MadridUniversity of Pardubice): Representation of Diseases in the Correspondence of Czech Novelist Božena Němcová

Tereza Liepoldová (Charles University Prague): The Birth of State Medicine in the Habsburg Monarchy at the Dawn of the 19th Century

Jana Schreiber (Philipps-Universität Marburg): Self-Fashioning and Social Conflicts among Frankfurt Physicians in the 18th Century

Maxime Guttin (European University Institute, Florence): Inheriting Differences. The Role of Medical Studies on the Brain in the Construction of Mental Diseases and Racial Categories

Ceren Gülser İlikan Rasimoğlu (Acibadem University): Professionalisation of Medicine in the Ottoman Empire

Šárka C. Rábová (Masaryk University Brno, University of Pardubice): Tuberculosis in Visual Communication: Posters Educating People on How to Prevent and Fight the Disease

Ainhoa Gilarranz (Universidad Complutense de Madrid): Honour and Stone: Heritagization of the Medical Profession in Spain (1875–1936)

Vojtěch Pojar (Central European University): Transnational Origins of a National Science: Transnational Networks and the Circulation of Early Eugenic Knowledge in the Late Habsburg Empire, ca 1900–1914

Alicia Marchand (Universidad de Cádiz): Male Domination, Anarchist Physicians and Degeneration in the Restoration Spain

Florian Grafl (Heidelberg School of Education): Politicised Medicine? Combating Sexual Diseases in Spanish Fascism (1939–1945)