Mini-Symposium/Higher Seminar: “Diabetes: Making of a Modern Disease”

The discovery of insulin was a medical sensation, celebrated at the time and for decades afterwards as a triumph of scientific medicine. However, rather than "conquering" diabetes, it transformed the disease and created a vast new landscape of complex relationships between patients, physicians, governments, and industry. The treatment protocols established from early on put emphasis on educating the patient, and came with the expectation that she would assume a high degree of responsibility for managing her own health through using specialised equipment and adhering to scientific principles. In this way, diabetes became a model case for chronic illness in the 20th century.

At this mini-symposium, we will hear presentations from historians working on various aspects of the history of diabetes in the 20th century:

Luke Whittle (PhD candidate, University of Dundee): How Scotland shaped Diabetes: From insulin's discovery to its users.

Martin Moore (Researcher, University of Exeter): On misfiring engines and carb-loving horses: the clinical and epidemiological imaginaries of diabetes in twentieth century British medicine.

Oliver Falk (Researcher, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin): The emergence of a medical problem - diabetes and epidemiological research in the first half of the 20th century.

The symposium is arranged within the framework of the research project ActDisease (www.actdisease.org). During the symposium, the ActDisease researchers Ylva Söderfeldt, Julia Reed, Andrew Burchell, and Tim Debroyer will act as discussants.