EAHMH Prizes
The EAHMH Book Award
Our book award is granted to the best medical history monograph published in the two years preceding the EAHMH biennial conference. Nominated books can be on any medical history topic concerning Europe or Europe’s relationship with the wider world.
The award reflects the strong commitment of the EAHMH to new approaches to medical historiography. Books may be nominated by anyone, including publishers, EAHMH members and authors themselves. Books considered for one prize will not automatically be considered for the next and need to be re-nominated each time within the period of eligibility. Edited volumes, as well as works with three or more authors, are not eligible.
In case the award-winning book is written in a language other than English, the Scientific Board of the EAHMH will provide advice for promoting it in English.
The EAHMH book award is 3000 Euros and is sponsored by the Dutch Stichting Historia Medicinae and the British Wilkinson Charitable
Foundation
The 2025 book award was grated to Heidi Hausse for The Malleable Body: Surgeons, Artisians, and Amputees in Early Modern Germany (Manchester University Press, 2023)
The following books were shortlisted:
Dan Healy, The Gulag Doctors: Life, Death, and Medicine in Stalin’s Labour Camps (Yale University Press, 2024)
Steven Shapin, Eating and Being: A history of ideas about our food and ourselves (University of Chicago Press, 2024)
Nina S. Studer, The Hour of Absinthe: A Cultural History of France’s Most Notorious Drink (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2024)
Janet Weston, Looking after Miss Alexander: Care, Mental Capacity, and the Court of Protection in Mid-Twentieth-Century England (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2023)
How to enter
Information on how to enter the next edition of the book award contest will be posted here, so be sure to check back for updates.
Dr Gareth Millward (Chair of the committee), Institut for Kultur- og Sprogvidenskaber
Syddansk Universitet
Campusvej 55
5230 Odense M, Danmark
Prof. Lauren Kassell, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
University of Cambridge
Free School Lane
CB2 3RH Cambridge, United Kingdom
Prof. Dora Vargha, Institut für Geschichtswissenschaften
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Friedrichstraße 191-193, Room 5100
Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlín, Germany
Previous winners
Pieter van Foreest student prize
The Pieter van Foreest prize is awarded to the (PhD) student with the best paper on any medical history topic presented at the biennual EAHMH conference. The prize commemorates Pieter van Foreest, the ‘Dutch Hippocrates’, also known as a keen medical observer. The prize (EUR 500) will be awarded during the General Assembly on the final day of the conference. Prize winners will be invited to publish their paper in the Association’s European Journal for the History of Meicine and Health.
To be eligible, students have to be paying members of the EAHMH. Those wishing to be considered for the prize should indicate this when submitting their abstracts. Applicants should include their university, department and name of their supervisor. The Scientific Board of the EAHMH will act as jury.
Granted through the generous support of the Dutch foundation Stichting Historia Medicinae.