Our HISTORY

The National Conference for Physician-Scholars in the Social Sciences and Humanities was founded in 2005 by a group of MD-PhD trainees in medical anthropology, though such gatherings have been held under different names for many decades. These students imagined the biennial conference as an opportunity to revisit and reinvigorate our mission: to explore how the fields of anthropology, economics, ethics, history, and literature can advance the practice and public understanding of medicine.

In the years since, MD-PhD trainees around the country have sustained this spirit of student leadership, organizing iterations of the conference at the University of California-San Francisco, University of Chicago, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, and Harvard Medical School. Our most recent conference was held in April-May 2022 at the University of California-Los Angeles School of Medicine. Please see below for materials and programs from past meetings (thanks to Kristen Ehrenberger for info on the 2005 through 2011 conferences; please contact us at info@shssm2024.org if you have programs or other information).

2005: University of California-San Francisco

Practicing Theory, Theorizing Practice: Physician Scholars in the Social Sciences and Humanities
San Francisco, May 14, 2005

2007: UIUC and University of Chicago

Rethinking Health, Culture, and Society
Chicago, April 20-22, 2007

2009: University of Pennsylvania

Understanding the Past, Transforming the Future
Philadelphia, March 28-29, 2009

2011: UIUC and University of Chicago

Charting the Bench and the Bedside
Chicago, April 15-17, 2011

2013: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-SAN FRANCISCO

VITAL SIGNS: The State of the Art and Science of Medicine and Society
April 13-14, 2013
Program
Individual Talks

2015: UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

Policies and Politics of Care
April 18-19, 2015
Program (or see conference website)
Abstracts

2017: Harvard medical school

Critique and Complement: Bringing insight from the social sciences and humanities to the clinic
Boston, April 29-30, 2017
Program

2019: university of Michigan

Thought Diversity in Medicine: Beyond Disciplinary Divides
Ann Arbor, April 6-7, 2019
Program
Individual Talks

2022: University of california-Los angeles

Practicing Care in Crisis: Applied Scholarship in Syndemic Times
Los Angeles, April 30-May 1, 2022
Program