Workshop: Contagion and Calculus. Histories of modelling epidemics.

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Workshop: Contagion and Calculus. Histories of modelling epidemics.

This workshop will explore the story of infectious disease modelling to evaluate its impacts on theory, methods and policy.

By School of Social and Political Science

Date and time

Thu, 16 Jun 2022 09:00 - Fri, 17 Jun 2022 14:00 GMT+1

Location

University of Edinburgh

George Square Edinburgh EH8 9LD United Kingdom

About this event

Models have guided the Covid-19 pandemic response with unprecedented authority. The workshop seeks to push beyond this very recent horizon to show that the success story of infectious disease modelling is deeply interwoven with the history of science and medicine. Contributors discuss the ascent of modelling within epidemiological reasoning to evaluate its impact on theories, methods and policies in medicine and public health. The workshop’s aim is to expand the historical geography of infectious disease modelling and to extend our understanding of the mobility of modelling between epidemiology and economics, sociology and the information sciences.

The workshop will be held in person in Edinburgh. There is very limited set of places available for in-person participation for guests but the event will be live streamed on Zoom.

Please register for either in-person or remote participation and indicate your preference. Thank you

Thursday 16 June 2022

9:00 – 9:15 Welcome

9:15 – 11:15 Panel 1 – Modelling Disciplines

  • Christopher J Phillips - Modeling Disease for One and All: Putting Cause and Effect Back into the Story
  • John Nott - Malthus and modelling, demography and disease: on the long and tangled history of demographic and epidemiological modelling
  • June Barrow-Green - Ronald Ross and Hilda Hudson. A collaboration on the theory of epidemics.
  • Lukas Engelmann - Modeling Social Contagion

11:30 - 12:45 Keynote - Andrew J Mendelsohn - Where did modeling come from and why does this matter?

14:00 – 15:20 Panel 2 – Modelling Science

  • Mark Liang - Beeting Disease: Modeling and Nationalizing Sugar Beet in Britain, 1930-1948
  • Elsbeth Heaman - A social-statistical investigation of racialized disease and dying in early Victorian Canada
  • Erinn Campbell - Anticipating the impact of invasive plant pests and pathogens, 1989-2007

15:40 – 17:00 Panel 3 – Modelling Inputs

  • Daniel B Cohen et al - Big Data and sense - Ebola Virus Disease and Covid-19
  • Luiz Alves - An “Epidemiology without numbers”? Quantitative methods and the institutionalization of Brazilian Epidemiology (1970 – 2000)
  • Liza Hadley - The interaction of models and policy for pandemic control
  • Jonatan Sacramento - Making a health emergency visible: defining, counting and modeling the Zika epidemic in Brazil

Friday 17 June 2022

9:30 – 12:30 Panel 4 – Modelling Boundaries

  • Jacob Steere-Williams - ‘Precursors and Trailers’: Modeling Endemicity and Infectivity in early Twentieth Century Britain
  • Ann Kelly - On Means and Models of Mosquito Dissection: Global Health in the Twilight of the Detinova Technique
  • Jenn Fraser, Thandeka Cochrane - Resisting Models: Representing Cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Armaan Mullick Alkazi - Mediating between different worlds: Modelling in Indian Tuberculosis policy
  • Mathieu Corteel - Obstacles in Epidemiological Modelling: An Historical Epistemology Study
  • Emma Broder - From hysterical contagion to latent variable analysis in contested illness definition

12:30-13:00 Gladys Kostyrka – Commentary and Discussion

Venue

If you plan to attend in person, please ensure that you book the correct category of participation, and that you check back on Eventbrite for venue confirmation closer to the time.

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Organised by

The School of Social and Political Science is one of the leading schools of social science in the UK, our success reflects excellence across teaching, research and impact. 

Our member subjects include Politics and International Relations, Social Anthropology, Social Policy, Social Work, Sociology and Science, Technology & Innovation Studies. We also host a number of centres and institutes.

We have over 1000 UG students, over 500 PGT students, and over 300 PGR students currently on our programmes of study. We provide an outstanding educational environment and support the highest quality research. In REF 2014, 77% of our research performance was categorised as 4* or 3*.

Our academic staff profile is cross-disciplinary, with a strong and growing international orientation. Building upon established strengths in International Development, we are centrally involved in the University's Global Development Academy, and work closely with the Global Justice Academy, the Global Health Academy and the Global Environment & Society Academy.

The Dean and Head of School is Professor John Devaney.

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