EUROPEAN SUMMER SCHOOL IN PRAGUE: A STUDENT COMPETITIONBridging Generations: Perspectives about Health and Medicine in Post-War Europe

30 May 2025

Photo: Wikimedia, Creative Commons CC0 1.0

We are excited to invite pupils and students to participate in a creative competition about integrated perspectives on health and medicine in post-war Europe. The successful candidates will be awarded a week-long stay to attend a European Summer School in Prague in 2027.
This is an excellent opportunity to engage with important themes in the humanities and social sciences such as sexuality and giving birth, medical ethics, human rights, health care and national traditions.

The competition focusses on the field of medicine to approach the history of Europe beyond the usual clichés and dichotomies of the time.  It invites participants to dive creatively into Europe’s past, exchange ideas and experiences across generations through historical sources or interviews and express their own perspectives. We particularly encourage participants to explore the surprising similarities, parallels and interdependencies between Eastern and Western contexts.

The competition is part of the ERC-funded project “Taming the European Leviathan. The Legacy of Post-War Medicine and the Common Good”. Our project is dedicated to an integrative history of Europe in the second half of the 20th century.

Eligible topics include, for example:

Public Health and Disease
·      Socially Significant Diseases and Epidemics
·      Traditional and Alternative Medicine
·      Mental Health and Well-Being: Cultural Attitudes and Stigma
·      Disability, Inclusion, and Healthcare Accessibility
·      “Male” and “Female” Spaces of Care
·      Visions of the “Healthy Life”
·      Sports, Health, and Pushing the Body to its Limits
 
Gender, Sexuality, and (Reproductive) Health
·      Sexuality: Cultural, Religious and Legal Perspectives
·      The Medicalization of Pregnancy and Birth
·      Giving birth Across Generations: Interviews with Mothers and Grandmothers 
·      Aging, Longevity, and Cultural Perceptions of Aging Bodies
·      LGBTQ+ Health and Healthcare Disparities
 
Ethics, Rights
·      Evolution of Informed Consent
·      Health, Ethics, and Human Rights
·      Medicine, Health Care and National Traditions
·      Health Communication
·      Access to Healthcare: Gender, Social and Economic Barriers
·      Bioethics and (Emerging) Medical Technologies

Topics beyond the above suggested areas will also be considered. 

A variety of formats will be welcome:

·      Written essays
·      Photographic essays
·      Comics
·      Short films
·      Other creative expressions

Who can participate?

We will be inviting final-year Gymnasium students and undergraduates who are focussing on history, science, or art as part of their study. Students will be offered the opportunity to put together an assignment that addresses one of the themes and formats identified in the call. The best entries will be selected from the submissions and their authors will be invited to a summer school in Prague in the summer of 2027. Here they will explore Prague from a medical history perspective, gain up-to-date insights into research and establish international contacts with students from Bulgaria, Hungary and Germany.

Participation is possible in coordination with the project team at the University of Hamburg, further details regarding submission dates and other deadlines will be released in the coming months. 

For further information please contact Dr James Farley (james.farley"AT"uni-hamburg.de).