E
pidemiology Unbound
We invite papers to join a shared submission for a symposium to the 2026 joint ESHS & HSS meeting at Edinburgh. Symposia, for this meeting, constitute a group of two to four organised sessions on the same subject or theme. Organisers will submit the symposium as a whole, but all participants will also have to submit their abstracts to the conference website as well.
The EHSH & HSS conference and the theme “Shifting Perspectives: Plural Worlds, Contested Sciences,” provides us with a welcome opportunity to tackle a central question for most of the projects and research perspectives at the Epidemy Lab: what has been the impact of epidemiology and epidemiological reasoning on science across the twentieth century?
We invite papers to join two or three sessions at the Edinburgh conference to discuss the diffusion, dispersion, and adaptation of epidemiological reasoning in fields not directly concerned with the dynamics of disease. Papers for this symposium might include case studies of the epidemiological transformation of other medical specialities (e.g. psychiatry, oncology, or clinical medicine). However, they might also consider the spread of epidemiological principles and practices outside of medicine, in economics (behavioural economics, risk assessment, forecasting); in the information sciences (network analysis, agent based modelling, social contagion); political science (policy analysis, mis- and disinformation, infodemiology); social psychology and behavioural sciences (nudge theories, crowd-behaviour, mimesis and imitation); or in the social sciences (network theories, contagion models, social structures) and humanities at large (contagion, affect theories, media studies).
We particularly welcome papers that trace aspects of epidemiological practices and theories across disciplinary boundaries, and which seek to synthesise commonalities and divergencies in the spread of epidemiological thinking more broadly. We do not apply a narrow definition of what epidemiological thinking might include or describe but instead seek to understand why and under which circumstances epidemiological perspectives were considered useful to engage, disrupt and shift perspectives within other disciplines and fields.
Overall, the aim of this symposia is to map the ecology of epidemiological knowledge across the scientific landscape of the twentieth century, and to critically asses the following questions:
- What are common principles, characteristics and aspects of epidemiological reasoning in its adaptation, utilisation and integration in fields not originally concerned with subjects of epidemiological concern?
- How has epidemiological reasoning transformed and disrupted disciplinary traditions and conventions and what kind of problems were supposed to be resolved with such transformations?
If you are interested in joining this conversation and are intent of submitting a paper to the EHSH & HSS Conference in Edinburgh in 2026, please leave a short note in this form, including your name, affiliation, probable title of your paper and any other information you’d like to include at this stage.
Please note the deadline for all papers to the EHSH & HSS joint meeting is the 1 December 2025.
The Epidemy Lab
Lukas Engelmann, Carolina Mayes, John Nott
