Call for Papers: American Jews’ Engagements with Health, Illness, and Wellness

American Jewish History solicits paper proposals for a themed issue addressing health and healthcare.

We hope to explore a broad range of questions about how the perception of illness and the pursuit of health and wellness have shaped and been shaped by American Jewish life. We encourage proposals that address any aspect of Jewish life in the Americas, as well as relevant work on American Jews outside of the Americas.

Topics might include:

• Plagues, Pandemics, and Health Crises

• The role of American Jews in shaping national ideologies and movements concerning physical and mental health

• Jewish hospitals, health-focused organizations, and benevolent societies

• The role of American Jews in American and global healthcare industries

• Ideas about health and hygiene and their impact on Jewish communal and family life

• Genetics, screening and counselling

• Jews as a subject of American medical research

• Comparative studies between Jews and other health-based communal groups (whether religious, ethnic, or ethnonational).

Proposals of 250 words should be submitted by September 1, 2022; proposals will be selected for development by September 30. Final drafts will be due for submission by February 15, 2023. All article submissions must successfully pass peer review before being accepted.

Please send all proposals to nunderwood@ajhs.org