Hospitals Holistically: A Wide View of Hospitals and Caregiving in the Middle Ages, International Network for the History of Hospitals sponsored panels and roundtable at the 59th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 9–11, 2024

This CFP seeks participants for both paper panels and a roundtable discussion on topics related to medieval hospitals and leprosaria in a discussion of all aspects of the institution. Hospitals were prominent sites of charitable caregiving in medieval communities, and the study of their establishment, staffing, and social services enriches our understanding of medieval life. Topics of interest within the hospital include, but are not limited to: labor practices, the spatial organization of caregiving, methods and tools of treatment, carative / medical education and theory, representations and understandings of hospitals, and local and regional community-building. We encourage papers addressing a wide range of geographies and time periods. We also seek participation from a robustly interdisciplinary and methodologically diverse group of scholars, inclusive of archaeologists, art historians, and historians of science and economics. 

Session ID #s: Panels (4954, 4956), Roundtable (4957)

Session organizers
Brittany Forniotis, Duke University
Christopher Herde, University of Wisconsin