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SUMMARY:Sex\, Disease and Fertility in History - Speaker to be confirmed
DTSTART:20150928T080000Z
DTEND:20150928T170000Z
UID:TALK55711@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:24901
DESCRIPTION:This conference\, conducted under the aegis of  the current 5-
 year Wellcome Strategic Award to the History and Philosophy of Science Dep
 artment\, ‘Generation to Reproduction’\, has been designed to capitali
 se on an interdisciplinary approach. It aims to further our understanding 
 of the role of the venereal diseases in influencing the fertility of popul
 ations in the past. It will do so by bringing together medical\, social an
 d cultural historians with scholars from other disciplines with a knowledg
 e of the biology\, epidemiology and demography of the venereal diseases an
 d their likely impact on fertility in the pre-HIV-AIDs era.\n\nDemographic
  history has been a major knowledge growth area\, internationally\, during
  the last five decades or so and Cambridge’s History Faculty and Geograp
 hy Department have both played and continue to play a leading role in this
  inter-disciplinary field.  Understandings of the inter-related processes 
 of fertility and mortality lie at the centre of the study of demographic c
 hange. While much has been explored and learned\, there remains a paucity 
 of specifically demographic study of the relationship between diseases and
  fertility\, in relation to accounts of the many large-scale demographic c
 hanges that have been documented. The principal diseases that are known to
  affect fertility – both directly and through their culturally-mediated 
 impact on sexual behaviour-  are the sexually-transmitted diseases of gono
 rrhoea and syphilis\, although a range of other such diseases\, notably Ch
 lamydia\, may also have been significant in the past. The conference is co
 nvened to focus primarily on this relationship between sex\, disease and f
 ertility\, although it will also be interested in other diseases affecting
  fertility either directly or through their consequences for sexual behavi
 our.\n\nScientific\, medical practitioner and lay understandings of the 
 ‘venereal’ diseases have each been subject to great variation and chan
 ge in different societies throughout the past. These changing understandin
 gs have influenced\, in different ways\, both cultural values and social a
 nd sexual behaviour\, with consequences also for fertility and reproductio
 n. Therefore this conference will also be hearing from scholars with resea
 rch that can throw light on this aspect of the relationship between diseas
 e\, sex and fertility.\n\nIt is the first conference in a long time- quite
  probably ever- to address this issue and is likely to produce important n
 ew insights and to identify future research proposals\, drawing from an in
 terdisciplinary dialogue between biology and history.
LOCATION:CRASSH\, Alison Richard Building\, 7 West Road\, Cambridge\, CB3 
 9DP
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