REMID
Religionswissenschaftlicher Medien- und Informationsdienst e. V.
Online Workshop: Protestant Missionaries and Clinical Medicine, 1600–1950
März 19, 2027 @ 9:00 — 17:00
Workshop Summary
Durham University’s Centre for Global Histories of Medicine, Disease and Health will host an online exploratory workshop on Friday, 19 March 2027 on Protestant Missionaries and Clinical Medicine, 1600–1950.
Workshop Rationale
Historians of colonialism have long recognised the role played by medically-trained protestant missionaries as agents of empire who established Western hospitals and promoted clinical medicine. Yet, though helpful autobiographies of such clinicians exist, the specifics of their lives — their lived experiences and individual interface with patients — is often framed via narratives that foreground large colonial institutions such as church mission boards, colonial office directives, hospital management or public health agencies.
Workshop Questions
But who, precisely, were these clinicians? Building on recent research that has shown the protestant medical missionaries came from different religious, social, gendered and ethnic (including non-European) backgrounds, the project seeks to develop ways to understand how their training, motivations and objectives effected their vision of clinical medicine. The workshop seeks to establish a firmer understanding of their everyday lives and activities in clinical contexts with papers that address questions such as: What was the relationship between clinicians’ early theological and clinical training? How did their theological commitments influence doctor-patient relationships? How did their understanding of clinical medicine impact their religious and ethical beliefs? How were their clinical commitments influenced by the beliefs and/or experiences of their patients?