In the third season of ELBOW Talks, we explored the core theme in our ELBOW project, namely electricity and its practices in science and medicine. Our third season carried the theme Electricty & Science.
The third season of ELBOW Talks investigated the connections of electricity, science, and bodies. In this season, we discussed the intersection of medical electricity and both sexuality and gender roles; scientific practices and the patient experiences; and various vivid experiments with electricity.
In Season 3, we were interested in following questions:
Electricity & Science
How was electricity understood in the 18th- and 19th-century science? What kind of electric practices were developed?
Medicine
In which ways electricity was used in medicine? What the electrical optimism in medicine meant in practice?
Sexuality & Gender
What cultural meanings the intersection of electricity, sexuality and gender carried? Why sexuality and gender mattered both in medical practices and in other electric experiments?
Abstracts
TALK 1 – ELECTRIC ATTRACTION
30 September 2025, 13:00–14:00 Helsinki time
TALK 2 – PATIENT, OBJECT OF DESIRE AND INVISIBLE ASSISTANT
28 October 2025, 13:00–14:00 Helsinki time
TALK 3 – SCIENTIFICATION OF MEDICINE
18 November 2025, 13:00–14:00 Helsinki time
TALK 4 – ELECTRIC HERMAPHRODITES
16 December 2025, 13:00–14:00 Helsinki time
Questions?
If you have any questions regarding the events, please contact us via email.
Elbow 