Workshop: The History of Bodily Integrity

On 22 June, this workshop will bring together historians and other scholars who are working on the theme of bodily integrity, a concept which overlaps with the notions of bodily autonomy or human dignity.

Bodily integrity

The body has become an important category of analysis in histories of medicine, and increasingly also in cultural and political history more broadly. One new avenue of research is the theme of bodily integrity, which intersects with the history of ethics, medicine and human rights. It is particularly in the twentieth century that the issues of bodily integrity and autonomy have come to occupy such a central role in regard to discussions on human rights, women’s rights and patients’ ethics.

Topics and programme

The goal of the workshop is to discuss the theme of bodily integrity in an informal setting with short, pre-circulated papers. These papers explore topics such as autopsies and forensic medicine, ethics and institutional practices of handling dead bodies, and the issue of consent in regard to surgery and criminal interrogation.

This workshop is organised by Willemijn Ruberg as part of the ERC Consolidator project ‘Forensic Culture. A Comparative Analysis of Forensic Practices in Europe, 1930-2000’ that investigates the differences between forensic practices in Europe in the period 1930-2000.