Historians of medicine are engaging with an increasingly diverse array of sources and methods, with developments in material cultural studies, sensory history, disability studies, and embodied and performative research offering particularly exciting possibilities. This four-day summer school introduces students to key tools for investigating sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touch in the past, as well as multisensory research approaches such as object-based analysis, and reconstruction, replication, and reenactment. The program includes guest lectures by internationally renowned scholars as well as interactive sessions where participants can experiment with novel techniques and unusual sources.
Students will be invited to brainstorm potential implications of the theme for their own research with visiting historians from across The Netherlands and will present their reflections on this in a showcase on the final day of the summer school. In addition to the classes, the program includes networking opportunities at sites of special interest for the history of medicine and/or sensory engagement.