Thomas Söderqvist A new series of Witness Seminars have been announced for the spring of 2006. The History of Twentieth Century Medicine Group, headed by Tilli Tansey, The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL in London, are arranging the following four seminars between March and July:
– March 16: The Early Development of Total Hip Replacement
– April 4: The Discovery, Use and Impact of Platinum Salts as Chemotherapy Agents for Cancer
– May 9: Medical Ethics Education in Britain 1963-1993
– July 11: Superbugs and Superdrugs: The history of MRSA
(all seminars start at 2pm)
The organizers write:
Witness seminars are meetings to which individuals associated with a particular set of circumstances or events in recent medical history are invited to discuss, debate, agree or disagree amongst themselves about their reminiscences in a chairman-led meeting. Practically a form of open peer-review, these meetings are recorded, transcribed and edited for publication, as contributions to the literature of the recent history of medicine. To date nearly 40 Witness Seminars have been held, most of which have been published-hard copies are available for purchase and electronic copies may be downloaded free of charge at:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed/publications/wellcome-witnesses/index.html
Note that attendance at Witness Seminars is by appointment only. Contact Wendy Kutner, tel.: +44 (0)20 7679 8106, email: w.kutner@ucl.ac.uk.
For a general background of the history of the Wellcome Witness Seminar series, see E.M. Tansey, “Witnessing the Witnesses: Potentials and Pitfalls of the Witness Seminar in the History of Twentieth Century Medicine”, in Ronald E. Doel and Thomas Söderqvist, The Historiography of Science, Technology and Medicine: Writing Recent Science, Routledge 2006 (forthcoming)
