"Stress, shock and adaptation in the twentieth century" to be held in Exeter NLM and NIH on 9-10 November 2010 (360G-Wellcome-093962_Z_10_Z)

This workshop will explore what happens when the concept of "stress" enters into medical discourse and policy. While there have long been associations made between modernity and illness, the concept of stress has intensified and refocused such debates. No longer restricted to maladapted individuals and groups, the problem of stress is shared by all, becoming the most widely utilized medical concept in the twentieth century. In this workshop we will be exploring the scientific, intellectual and political decisions underlying the emergence of the stress concept; its uses in making novel linkages between disciplines such as ecology, neurology, physiology, psychiatry, public health, and a range of social sciences; and its application in a variety of sites or places, such as the battlefield, the office-building, the transport system, the hospital, and home. The workshop will bring together leading historians of science and medicine, exploring many different perspectives on stress - from scientists and physicians, to health activists, urban planning and environmental design professions, industry, policy makers, and regulators. The very diversity of .conceptions and varied applications of "stress," ensures its value as a means of exploring how social, political, and economic concerns have shaped the production and application of scientific knowledge.