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Project

Catholic doctors at the cradle. The persona of the Catholic physician in relation to reproductive health in Belgium and the Belgian Congo, 1909-1968.

During the 19th and a great part of the 20th century, religious orders in Belgium and the Belgian Congo held a strong position in health care institutions. Notwithstanding this seemingly comfortable position, relationships between Catholic medicine, the state and other health care providers were often tense. On a more fundamental level the secular ideology of modern biomedicine and the totalizing and outspoken ambitions of public health discourses were at odds with Catholic notions of the supremacy of care of the soul above care of the body. The main research question of the project focuses on whether and how Catholics in Belgium and in the Belgian Congo have forged specifically catholic visions on medicine and medical professions, in relationship to other types of health care. This question is approached from a double angle. In the first place, systematic attention will be paid to the role of state policies and of the evolving political power balances towards which Catholic medical professionals had to relate. In the second place, the circulation of knowledge between colony and metropole will be studied. The subfield which will be serve as an entrance to the history of Catholic medicine and professional identity formation, is the field of reproductive public health. Chronologically, the project will study the period between 1900 and 1965.The first stage of the primary research will be devoted to a general study of sites of Catholic medical sociability.The main sources for the study of sites of Catholic medical sociability are the journals of these societies. The analysis of these journals will be oriented first and foremost towards a conceptual grounding of the empirical part of the project, by using the concept of 'persona' as an analytical tool. For the study of the role of Catholics in the field of reproductive public health, a number of scientific and professional, ideologically ‘mixed’ societies in which researchers and health care providers of both Catholic and non-Catholic background collaborated will be studied.

Date:1 Oct 2017 →  5 Dec 2022
Keywords:Catholic medicine, reproductive health, construction of identity
Disciplines:Curatorial and related studies, History, Other history and archaeology, Art studies and sciences, Artistic design, Audiovisual art and digital media, Heritage, Music, Theatre and performance, Visual arts, Other arts, Product development, Study of regions
Project type:PhD project