Seminars
Research seminars are integral to academic life at CHSTM. We maintain two regular, wide-ranging seminar series. These seminars are open to anyone who is interested: students, fellow academics and the wider public - all welcome.
CHSTM Research Seminars
We are very pleased to announce that our CHSTM Research Seminars are back. We aim to produce a varied programme featuring invited speakers from institutions across Britain and the world, ranging from well-known senior figures to promising younger members of the profession.
We are particularly keen to foster an interdisciplinary atmosphere; alongside all aspects of the history of science, technology and medicine, our speakers' institutional backgrounds have included science studies, cultural history, social anthropology, museums work and many other fields.
Unless otherwise indicated, meetings will take place in the CHSTM Seminar Room, 2.57 Simon Building (see the University's maps and travel page for directions). We will also stream seminars via zoom. Links will be announced before the seminars. Sign up for our mailing list to receive updates and check our CHSTM Blog for seminar announcements and abstracts.
Semester 1
29 October 2026, 5:00-6:30pm
Pickstone Lecture
Professor Roberta Bivins (University of Warwick)
‘A Positive Difference: Minoritised Communities in British Healthcare and Innovation’
17 November 2026, 4:00-5:30pm
Professor Joseph D. Martin (Durham University)
Battery Agnotology and the Roots of the Tobacco Strategy
8 December 2026, 4:00-5:30pm
Dr Elsa Devienne (Northumbria University)
Plastics Protests: Mobilising against Plastics in the US (1980s-present)
Lunchtime (Work in Progress) Seminars
This is a less formal weekly series of half-hour papers and work-in-progress reports. The lunchtime seminar provides valuable experience for graduate students from CHSTM and elsewhere who may be presenting for the first time.
The lunchtime seminar series runs throughout the academic year every alternate Tuesday, 1-2pm. Currently all seminars are held online, via Zoom. Each semester's lunchtime seminar series is organised by postgraduates within the Centre. The current convenors are Krittapak Ngamvaseenont: krittapak.ngamvaseenont@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
and Sotirios Mikros: sotirios.mikros@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
Semester 1
13 October 2026, 1:00-2:00pm
Carmen Cao (University of Cambridge)
'The Fault Lay Entirely with the Shanghan 傷寒 Medication'?: Li Gao's Theory of Neishang 內傷 in the Siege of Daliang, 1232–1233
27 October 2026, 1:00-2:00pm
Maria Bovolon (Scuola Superiore Meridionale)
Jewish Medical Emigrés Fleeing Italy: Resettlement and Scientific Change after 1938
10 November 2026, 1:00-2:00pm
Chiara Lacroix (European University Institute)
Making the Body Malleable: Plastic Surgery, Fitness, Fashion, and Body Modification in France and Italy, 1890s–1930s.
24 November 2026, 1:00-2:00pm
Tsung Jen Hung (University of Sydney)
A Low-Brow Medicalization? Dog Meat, Snakes, and Moral Worlds in Java’s Therapeutic Landscape
Further details will be announced on Bluesky: @chstmphds.bsky.social, and via the CHSTM mailing list.
ALL WELCOME
Please sign up for our mailing list for updates about seminars and other CHSTM events (click on 'subscribe or unsubscribe' in the menu area on the right of the listserv homepage), or follow us on Bluesky: @MancHSTM.bsky.social and @CHSTMPhDs.bsky.social