Helsinki-workshop, 7-8 November 2019 - Programme

Changing attitudes towards medical uncertainty at the research university from the 1880s

Thursday, November 7
Place: Athena, Siltavuorenpenger 3 A, room 347

From 9:30 Welcome coffee

9:45-10:00 Words of welcome (Laura Kolbe - University of Helsinki)
Opening of the workshop (Pieter Dhondt – University of Eastern Finland)

Chair: Mordechai Feingold – Caltech, California Institute for Technology

10:00-11:40 Courses on the ‘encyclopaedia and history of medicine’ around 1900: aims and challenges
(Pieter Dhondt – University of Eastern Finland)
10:40-11:20 Phantoms and patients in medical education 1800-1950 (Mieneke te Hennepe –
Rijksmuseum Boerhaave)
11:20-12:00 University hospitals in Sweden 1863-2019: From regional hospitals to life science hubs
(Rolf Hugoson – Umeå universitet)

12:00-13:00 lunch at UniCafe Olivia (Siltavuorenpenger 5 A)

Chair: Laura Kolbe – University of Helsinki

13:00-13:40 Medical uncertainty in reports of Swedish and Finnish physician in the early 19th century
(Saara-Maija Kontturi – University of Jyväskylä)
13:40-14:20 The role of medical uncertainty in the discussions about vaccination in early 20th-century
Finland (Suvi Rytty – University of Turku)
14:20-15:00 Bildungs-ideal and humanistic aspects of Finnish medical education between 1945 and 1958
(Sari Aalto – University of Helsinki)

15:00-15:30 coffee break

Parallel session 1 - Athena, Siltavuorenpenger 3 A, room 347

Chair: Anne Katrine Kleberg Hansen – University of Copenhagen
15:30-16:10 The Tragedy of Early Modernity in the Philippines: X-ray and United States Early
Treatment on Leprosy (Antonio C. Galang – Freie Universität Berlin)
16:10-16:50 The beginning of scientific psychology in the Polish lands at the turn of the 19th and the
20th century in the light of the press in the Kingdom of Poland and Galicia (Daria
Domarańczyk – University of Łódź)
16:50-17:30 Medical Theses and Dissertation Abstracts in the Knowledge Production and
Communication in Eighteenth Century (Kevin Chang – Harvard Yenching Institute)

Parallel session 2 - Athena, Siltavuorenpenger 3 A, room 166

Chair: Elizabethann Boran – Worth Library, Trinity College Dublin
15:30-16:10 A tough beginning: medical faculties in Romania (second half of the 19th century)
(Leonidas Rados – A. D. Xenopol History Institute, Iaşi)
16:10-16:50 Dealing with uncertainty in historical science at the end of the 19th century. Some aspects
of the Methodenstreit in France and Italy (Mauro Moretti – University for Foreigners of
Siena)

17:45-18:30 guided tour in the old medical departments at Siltavuorenpenger (Sari Aalto - University of Helsinki)

19:00- conference dinner at Laura Kolbe’s home, Meritullinkatu 20a6, Kruununhaka (buzzer Forss/Kolbe)
Friday, November 8
Place: Athena, Siltavuorenpenger 3 A, room 261

Chair: Eivind Engebretsen – University of Oslo

9:00-9:40 Hodegetics, deontology, history of medicine – an introduction to medical studies as a way
of dealing with medical uncertainity? The case of medical faculties in Prague between
1880s and 1989 (Petr Svobodný – Charles University, Prague)
9:40-10:20 Built-in medical uncertainty (Anne Katrine Kleberg Hansen – University of Copenhagen)

10:20-10:40 coffee break

Chair: Heather Ellis – The University of Sheffield

10:40-11:20 Overcoming medical uncertainty: the first gynecological courses in Belgium, 1890-1914
(Jolien Gijbels – KU Leuven)
11:20-12:00 Beyond medical uncertainty: teaching hypnosis to medical students in Belgium, 1890-1914
(Kaat Wils – KU Leuven)

12:00-13:00 lunch at UniCafe Olivia (Siltavuorenpenger 5 A)

Chair: Hilde de Ridder-Symoens – Ghent University

13:00-13:40 Uncertainty in clinical practice – its nature, transformations and consequences (Rolf Ahlzén
– Karlstad University)
13:40-14:20 Preparation for uncertainty in medicine via a liberal arts undergraduate education in
conjunction with a family medicine residency (Peter Rothstein – Juniata College,
Pennsylvania)
14:20-15:00 Medical uncertainty in present-day medical education in Helsinki (Maarit Nevalainen –
University of Helsinki)

15:00-15:30 coffee break

15:30-16:00 Concluding remarks (Pieter Dhondt and Anne Katrine Kleberg Hansen) and final
discussion

16:00-17:00 Meeting of the International Commission of the History of Universities (only for
members)

17:30-19:30 Public lecture: “Changing conceptions of certainty and uncertainty in science”,

by Ilkka Niiniluoto, professor emeritus of theoretical philosophy, University of Helsinki
followed by a reception offered by The National Committee of History of Science and
Technology
Place: Porthania, Yliopistonkatu 3, room P673