The advanced technologies being used in diagnosis and care within modern medicine, whilst supporting and making medical practices possible, may also conflict with established traditions of medicine and care. What happens to the patient in a technologized medical environment? How are doctors’, nurses’ and medical scientists’ practices changed when artefacts are involved? How is knowledge negotiated, or relations of power reconfigured? Technology and Medical Practice addresses these developments and dilemmas, focusing on various practices with technologies within hospitals and sociotechnical systems of care. Combining science and technology studies with medical sociology, the history of medicine and feminist approaches to science, this book presents analyses of artefacts-in-use across a variety of settings within the UK, USA and Europe, and will appeal to sociologists, anthropologists and scholars of science and technology alike.

For contents, see: http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&calcTitle=1&title_id=9922&edition_id=12413

As readers of this blog probably knows, Medical Museion is an integrated research and museum unit for promoting medical science communication based on the material and visual medical heritage. The research profile is centered around the contemporary history of the biomedical sciences, medical science communication studies, and studies of the production of the material and visual medical scientific heritage. We have a world-class collection of historical medical artefacts and images, an active program for the acquisitioning and preservation of the contemporary biomedical and biotechnological heritage, a permanent medical-historical public gallery, and an innovative temporary exhibition program.

We are looking for two new members of faculty to contribute to our integrated research, teaching, heritage and outreach programme focussing on late 20th century and contemporary medical and health sciences in a cultural, aesthetic and historical perspective. The aim of the programme is to develop new modes of research-based collecting, exhibition making and web-based outreach by combining scientific content, cultural interpretation and aesthetic expression in innovative ways.

On the outreach side, we are developing research-based science communication practices for a variety of audiences – spanning from health professionals to the general public – in the form of exhibitions and web products, and with special attention to the aesthetics of science communication.

On the acquisition side, we are in the process of developing research-based curatorial practices (heritage production) in close cooperation with research institutions, hospitals, pharma, biotech and medical device companies, and patient organisations in the region (‘museum 2.0’) .

The appointees are required to do research at an international level and research-based teaching, however most of teaching obligations are substituted with museum work.

Read the official full job description below.

Full job description

Applications are invited for 1-2 positions at the level of Associate Professor (indefinite employment period), alternatively Assistant Professor (limited to 3 years), at Medical Museion, Department of Public Health, to begin as soon as possible.

Medical Museion is an integrated research and museum unit for promoting medical science communication based on the material and visual medical heritage. The research profile is centered around the contemporary history of the biomedical sciences, medical science communication studies, and studies of the production of the material and visual medical scientific heritage. The museum has a world-class collection of historical medical artefacts and images, an active program for the acquisitioning and preservation of the contemporary biomedical and biotechnological heritage, a permanent medical-historical public gallery, and an innovative temporary exhibition program.

Job description
The appointees are expected to contribute to the museum’s integrated research, teaching, heritage and outreach programme focussing on late 20th century and contemporary medical and health sciences in a cultural, aesthetic and historical perspective. The aim of the programme is to develop new modes of research-based collecting, exhibition making and web-based outreach by combining scientific content, cultural interpretation and aesthetic expression in innovative ways.

On the outreach side, the museum is developing research-based science communication practices for a variety of audiences – spanning from health professionals to the general public – in the form of exhibitions and web products, and with special attention to the aesthetics of science communication.

On the acquisition side, the museum is in the process of developing research-based curatorial practices (heritage production) in close cooperation with research institutions, hospitals, pharma, biotech and medical device companies, and patient organisations in the region (‘museum 2.0’) .

The appointees are required to do research at an international level and research-based teaching with associated examination duties, and to disseminate their research results. Part of the teaching obligation is substituted with museum work. The Faculty determines the exact ratio between the different responsibilities and the ratio may also vary over time.

Associate professors may be asked to manage research, provide guidance and supervision of assistant professors, postdocs and PhD-students, and to take part in academic assessments.

The assistant professorship is a further-education post. Supervision is provided, as well as the opportunity to improve pedagogical competencies. Applicants for an assistant professorship are given credit for previous employment as postdoc in a relevant field of research.

The scientific research requirements for the position can be found in “Københavns Universitets fælles regler for det videnskabelige personales forskningsindsats (forskningssikring)” (in Danish only) and to “KU-Academic Freedom and Responsibility at the Faculty of Health Sciences”; both are available at www.ku.dk/regel – click “Forskning-ph.d.-uddannelsen” and scroll down to items 58.10 and 51.04 (E).

Qualification requirements
Applicants for the associate professorship are required to have research and teaching qualifications on a level corresponding to that of a satisfactorily completed assistant professorship; however, such qualifications may also have been attained otherwise. Applicants are required to present documentation for scientific production on an international level as well as documented teaching qualifications.

Applicants preferrably also have one or more of the following additional qualifications:

• experience in exhibition making, web communication, etc.
• experience in collecting and curating, e.g., of documents, images or material objects.
• experience of and interest in communicating through social web media.

A basic training in medicine, public health, molecular biology, biochemistry or a similar field at the Bachelor level or above will be an additional advantage.

If the position is filled at the associate professor level, the appointees are expected also to supervise PhD-students and to raise funds for expanding the museum activities.

Applicants on the assistant professor level must have a strong academic background (PhD or evidence of an equivalent level of attainment) in a relevant field of research, for example, history of medicine, science and technology studies, ethnography, museology, design studies, communication studies, visual and material culture, art studies (Bildwissenschaft), medicine, the life sciences, medical technology, or architecture.

Applicants on the associate professor level must have at least three additional years of research and/or museum experience in a field of relevance for the position.

Terms of employment
Salary and employment terms are subject to the collective agreement made between the Danish Ministry of Finance and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations on the employment of academics in state service. In addition to the seniority-based salary and an annual pensionable supplement of currently DKK 48.750 (assistant professorship) (1 September 2009 level), or a pensionable annual supplement of DKK 86.998,10 (associate professorship) (1 September 2009 level), a salary supplement may be negotiated on an individual basis.

Applicants must state whether they wish to be assessed in relation to the associate professorship and/or the assistant professorship. All applicants will be assessed, but in case an applicant at the associate professorship level is selected, applicants on the assistant professorship level will not be considered.

Inquiries
For further information about the positions and Medical Museion, see www.museion.ku.dk and www.corporeality.net/museion or contact the Director, Professor Thomas Söderqvist directly: ths@sund.ku.dk, +45 2875 3801.

Foreign applicants may also find this link useful: www.ism.ku.dk (International Staff Mobility)

The application process
The application must be in English and contain:

• a curriculum vitae, including first name and surname, date of birth, gender, private address,  phone number, e-mail, nationality, capability of speaking Danish and/or English, awarded academic degrees and professional experiences (max 2 pages).
• a complete and numbered publication list.
• a numbered list of the publications (max. 10) to be considered in the assessment of the your scientific qualifications (please note that copies of all publications/works you wish to be considered in the assessment shall be attached to the application).
• an account of the your experiences with research supervision and management (applications for the associate professorship only), of your previous and ongoing research and museum collaborations, of your teaching qualifications or other material which may form the basis of an assessment.of your pedagogical skills, and of other qualifications relevant to the post applied for (max 3 pages)
• a research plan (max 2 pages).
• a plan for developing the field of medical science communication and/or medical science heritage construction (max 2 pages)
• your motivation for applying for this position.
• attachment (copies of publications).

(If an applicant for the associate professorship has not attained teaching experience through assistant professorship employment, completed the educational study for assistant professors, or obtained similar teaching qualifications, the associate professor appointment will be on a trial basis for up to 18 months.)

The application and the attached scientific works and other documentation that you wish to have considered in the assessment, shall be submitted in four printed copies collated as complete sets (including copies of publications).

Applicants will be assessed according to “Bekendtgørelse nr. 284 af 25. april 2008 om ansættelse af videnskabeligt personale ved universiteter” (“Ministerial Order no. 284 of 25 April 2008 on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities”), which are both avaliable at www.ku.dk/regel  – press “Personaleforhold” and scroll down to section 20.1.  Please note that:

• applicants will only be notified of the number of applicants, not of other applicants’ names
• applicants will be notified of the composition of the panel of assessors and will be asked to address any problems concerning legal capacity
• applicants will be contacted if the panel of assessors wishes to see further documentation and/or include works not listed by the applicant in their assessment
• applicants will be informed of and requested to focus only on their own assessments
• one or more applicants may be asked to attend an interview and/or deliver test lectures

 The Faculty invites applications from all qualified candidates regardless of gender, age, ethnic origin or religion.

Please send your application marked file no 211-0673/09-3012 and “Associate (Assistant) Professor at Medical Museion” to:

The Faculty of Health Sciences
University of Copenhagen
Blegdamsvej 3B (Panum building)
DK-2200 Copenhagen, Denmark

Applications must be received by the Faculty not later than  25 May  2010, at 2pm (CET). Material received later will not be considered.

If you wish to deliver your application personally, please contact the Faculty’s Service Center , Blegdamsvej 3B, first floor.

Electronic or fax applications will not be accepted.

The Faculty of Health Sciences comprises 12 departments and 10 study committees. The Faculty employs 2,000 people, including 1,000 teachers and scientists and 1,000 technical/administrative employees. The Faculty has 4,500 students, including 750 Ph.D. students. Please read more about The Faculty of Health Sciences at www.sund.ku.dk

The Hybrid Art and Science Exhibition was held in various locations around Sheffield. My drawing was part of a collection of work on display at the Sheffield Institute of Arts Gallery.

The piece selected for the exhibition is called ‘Bacteria Drawing’ and was made in May 2009. The drawing is a collaborative piece and is constructed from 22 drawings which form one large piece. It is about 170 cm in height, approximately150 cm approx wide and spreads about 170 cm along the floor out from the wall.

The drawing was made in Lisbon in May 2009 and is an outcome of my involvement in an invited residential project with Drawing Spaces at Fábrica Braço de Prata in conjunction with the Gulbenkian Institute of Science.

Over the last ten years my research has been created in the lab or dissection room rather than in the traditional setting of the artists’ studio. As a way to bring the lab into the gallery and to demonstrate the role of drawing, I allowed bacteria to grow on Petri dishes left in the project/gallery space at Fábrica Braço de Prata.

Using a microscope and drawing attachment, I invited members of the public to come and draw the bacteria they saw when looking down the microscope. The bacteria growing was formed from the breath of those who walked in and out of the project/gallery space. The participants were effectively drawing their own breath. Therefore they contributed both to the existence of the object they observed and to the method of revealing their continuous insights and understanding of their encounters with this phenomenon.

Using a drawing attachment on the microscope which allowed them to look down the microscope and see the bacteria whilst simultaneously seeing a projected image of their own hand holding the pencil meant they were effectively ‘tracing’ what they saw directly onto paper. They engaged with something that would normally repel them and through the activity of drawing, they saw the beauty and detail in bacteria. Rather than being concerned with the mechanics of making a drawing, they concentrated on the activity of actually looking, something we all frequently forget to do.

Joining together all the drawings made, the piece ‘Bacteria Drawing’ grew and developed collaboratively, paralleling the growth of the actual bacteria itself.

This drawing brought about further evidence of how important the activity of drawing is to understanding and dignifying observed subjects. The public saw the beauty of the unfamiliar by drawing. The project showed that drawing is not mere documentation but is about participation. This participation is embodied in the relationships that develop between artist and object and that the object observed is dignified through the respect and understanding gained in the activity of drawing.

Rather than Bourriaud’s altermodernism, we should pursue an alter-realism: dispense with the art gallery altogether and make reality our experimentation lab.

I admit it’s taken out of context. Nevertheless, try to translate the sentence into the domain of science/medical museums and sci- and bioart, as represented by, for example, the Wellcome Collection:

Dispense with the sci- and bioart gallery and make scientific reality our experimentation lab.

In other words, don’t move the aesthetic out of the laboratory into galleries and museum exhibitions (this is what all sci- and bioartists so far have been doing). Go to the lab instead, do some real experiments and re-frame this practice into an aesthetic experiment within the walls of the lab itself. The lab is your art gallery.

She describes The Participatory Museum as “a practical guide to visitor participation … the nuts and bolts of successful participatory projects” in cultural institutions. The first half of the book focuses on principles, the other on practice, mission and staff culture. It’s available both in paperback and as a PDF/ebook, but Nina is also about to publish a free online version later this month.

True to the participatory spirit of her blog and book project (she has involved hundreds of volunteers in the writing and production process) Nina will continue to make the website for the book a place for continued discussion and debate.

Nina’s visit here at Medical Museion in Copenhagen in October was inspiring and I’m looking very much forward to reading her book — and to see the reviews and the comments on her website.

Hello Thomas
I’m writing this to let you know about a brand new featured post we just made over here at Medicareer entitled, “Top 50 Biotech Blogs.” I thought that you and your readers over at Biomedicine on Display might find it to be an interesting read. Please do let me know if you have any feedback — http://phlebotomytechnicianprograms.org/2010/top-50-biotech-blogs/
Warm Regards,
Emily Johnston
Medicareer

Tired as I always am seven o’clock in the morning when I’m preparing breakfast for Johanna I clicked on the link and found a site with a nice long list of blogs — with ours at the top, fairly decently described. But, of course, the site has no contact address, no link to a main site, and no “Emily Johnston” at a company called Medicareer exists on the web. So what do these guys actually get out of bringing all this blog information together? Have I installed malicious code now by clicking on their site? Anyone who knows?

Concentric asks for papers for an issue on ‘bios’ — i.e., the old Greek word for ‘life course’ which has been used by post-thinkers since Foucault (Agamben, Hardt, Negri and others):

How then are we now to rethink human life in terms of our increasingly intimate relations with machines, perhaps even our posthumanity? How are we to evaluate our “prosthetic life”? How are we now to define, interpret, understand concepts of law and polis (government, nation-state), state power, capitalism and globalization, in relation to human­ and also earthly plant and animal­ life (bios, ecos)? What new and unforeseen power struggles, perhaps even conflicts between human and non-human, life and death, might now be coming into play? In this era of the new bios, and new ecos, must we establish a new bio-(eco-)ethics, construct a new bio-(eco-)subjectivity?

We must ask once again, as philosophers asked thousands of years ago, “What makes us live?” “What ensures our existence?” “What is it that we call human life?” Can we look at (our own human) life anew and write about it afresh? How may the traditional literary genres, and specifically those concerned with life-writing, the writing of memoirs, biographies, autobiographies, be changing in terms of their form and content and their media of expression? What is the significance of “life-writing” at this particular historical moment?

This is all very mainstream ad nauseam — I always wonder if these literary and cultural studies guys have ever paid a visit to a life science lab? And what would their jargon sound like if they had?

Humanities at the Cutting Edge:
Conversations between surgery, pathology, the humanities and the arts

This looks like it could be an interesting conference where invited speakers range from surgeons to artists and parallel sessions will be running workshops, conference papers and art exhibitions/performances. There is a provisional programme and the deadline for abstracts has been extended to 31 March 2010
Please include

Title and name:
Institutional affiliation:
Address for correspondence:
Email:
Telephone contact:
Title of proposed presentation:
Abstract (maximum 250 words):

Please return to: petrina.bradbrook@pms.ac.uk
Copy to: alan.bleakley@pms.ac.uk  and robert.marshall@rcht.cornwall.nhs.uk

AMH 2010
HUMANITIES AT THE CUTTING EDGE
CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN SURGERY, PATHOLOGY, THE HUMANITIES & THE ARTS

‘with a knife, with a little knife which scarcely fits into the hand but penetrates thinly through the astounded flesh’
- Federico Garcia Lorca

PROGRAMME
DAY 1: Monday July 5th
Early evening: Parallel events (tickets on first-come-first-served basis):
Registration at Tate or at Knowledge Spa: 6.00-6.30
Tate St Ives event
18.30-19.15: Talk by David Cotterrell, introduced by Alan Bleakley
19.15-19.45: Questions and discussion chaired by Christine Borland
19.45-21.30: Drinks and food reception Tate Café
Knowledge Spa, Truro event
18.30-19.30: Talk by Francis Wells, introduced by Tony Pinching
19.30-19.45: Questions and discussion chaired by Tony Pinching
19.45-21.30: Drinks and food reception in the atrium

DAY 2: Tuesday July 6th
8.30-9.00: Registration and coffee, Knowledge Spa, Truro
9.00-9.15: Opening – Alan Bleakley and Rob Marshall
9.15-9.30: Welcome – Professor Liz Kay, Dean of Peninsula College of Medicine & Dentistry
9.30-10.30: Plenary – Allison Crawford (Toronto)
10.30-11.00: Break
11.00-12.30: Workshops 1, parallel paper sessions 1, exhibition
Workshops 1
Juliet Percival: drawing on the body for Gunther von Hagens
Marie-Christine Pouchelle and Francis McKee: Robotics
Parallel sessions 1
Participants’ papers
12.30-14.00: Lunch and exhibitions/ AMH AGM 2010
14.00-15.30: Workshops 2, parallel paper sessions 2, exhibition
Workshops 2
Mark Kidel: representations of surgery in film
Deborah Kirklin: writing for Medical Humanities
Parallel sessions 2
Participants’ papers
15.30-16.00: Tea
16.00-17.00: Plenary – Kevin Patterson (Vancouver), introduced by Alan Bleakley
18.30-19.30: Speakers and guests – drinks at the Bleakleys
20.00-late: Conference dinner at the Beach Café, Sennen

DAY 3: Wednesday July 7th
8.30-8.45: Registration and coffee, Knowledge Spa, Truro
8.45-9.00: AMH 2011 Leicester – Paul Lazarus
9.00-10.00: Plenary – Must – performance by Peggy Shaw (New York) and Clod Ensemble (London)
10.00-10.30: Break
10.30-12.00: Workshops 3, parallel paper sessions 3, exhibition
Workshops 3
Peggy Shaw & Clod Ensemble
Roger Kneebone and group (simulation)
Parallel sessions 3
Participants’ papers
12.00-13.30: Lunch and exhibitions
13.30-14.30: Plenary – Roger Kneebone – simulation (London)
14.30-15.00: Summing up and reflections

Exhibition open
Waterstone’s bookshop and stalls throughout the conference

Now I am beginning to think about a third volume in the ’series’ to catch up with new trends in science historiography. One of the most interesting issues — both from a museological and historiographical point of view — is how historians should deal with the growing avalanche of scientific digital documents.

I.e., how to preserve, utilise, and make sense of the enormous output of digitalised desk and laboratory data for the writing and displaying of contemporary history of science? Not just gigabytes of text documents (like manuscripts, electronic lab notebooks and emails), but also terabytes of quantitative experimental data — not to forget digitalised images and material things that embody such data (such a microarrays and biobanks).

Our guest blogger Martin Fenner wrote a very inspiring post about digital preservation a few weeks ago. “It’s surprising”, Martin concluded, ”that we have barely started to think about digital preservation”.

Another scholar who has thought about the problem is university archivist and library administration scientist Christopher Prom, currently a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar at the Centre for Archive and Information Studies, University of Dundee.

Prom is giving a talk here in Copenhagen next Thursday (4 March), titled ”Preserving the ‘Papers’ of 21st Century Science”, in which he will review the current state of work in preserving digital records and provide some suggestions regarding methods and tools that archives and others stakeholders can use to make sure that the electronic record of the 21st century will be accessible also in the 22nd. Here’s his abstract:

We cannot understand the full impact of scientific work without access to the correspondence, notes, and other materials that scientists generate on a daily basis. But how, in the digital era, can we best preserve the ‘papers’ generated by scientists? Such records are stored as mere electronic impulses, distributed across many locations, and written in formats that cannot be rendered without machines and software. As a result, rich historical sources, such as correspondence in email format, are at risk. Recent events in East Anglia demonstrate that such records are susceptible to hacking and misrepresentation in the short term. In the long term, they may be even more susceptible to loss through corruption or neglect.

The venue for Prom’s talk is the Niels Bohr Institute, Blegdamsvej 17; it starts at 2.15 pm. Copenhagen historian of physics Finn Aaserud organises the event.