HSE University to Hold Conference for Researchers Studying Medicine and Health
On December 3–5, 2026, HSE University in Moscow will host ‘Comorbid Field 3.0: Social Well-Being, Health, and Medicine in Multiple Contexts,’ an interdisciplinary scientific conference with international participation organised by the Centre for Comparative Research on Social Well-Being at the HSE University Faculty of Social Sciences together with the HSE University–St Petersburg School of Arts and Humanities, the Institute for Interdisciplinary Health Research at the European University at St Petersburg, and Sechenov University. Applications for participation are open until October 4.
‘Comorbidity’ is a medical term meaning that a patient has two or more chronic diseases that are related to each other or coincide in time of occurrence. The term ‘comorbid field’ in the conference title emphasises the multilayered nature of the research subject, which includes medical culture and ethics, health policy, inequality in access to quality medical care, communication between doctors and nurses with patients, and much more.
Elizaveta Pronicheva
‘The main value of the conference lies in the diversity of disciplinary perspectives. To bring together historians, sociologists, anthropologists, philologists, psychologists, and clinicians in one place creates a field for polylogy, where the usual disciplinary barriers loosen and new research trajectories are paved,’ says Elizaveta Pronicheva, co-organiser of the conference and student of the Bachelor’s programme in History at HSE University in St Petersburg.
Natalia Baisha
‘All these trends are reflected in historical, anthropological, sociological, and medical approaches. As a result of their intersection, we can characterise the state and dynamics of relations developing in the field of medicine in more detail, as well as find something new at the intersection of sciences,’ adds Natalia Baisha, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Junior Research Fellow at the Centre for Comparative Research on Social Well-Being.
The tradition of holding conferences for representatives of various sciences studying medicine and health was established in St Petersburg in December 2024, when the workshop ‘Comorbid Field: Intersections of Social Sciences and Humanities Research on Health and Medicine’ was held at the European University. The participants examined subjects at the intersection of history, philology, psychology, sociology, and medicine, such as strategies for medical education in Soviet children's literature and unconventional health practices in modern Russia.
In the autumn of 2025, the international conference ‘Comorbid Field 2.0: Sociocultural Dimensions of Health, Illness, and Medicine’ was held at HSE University in St Petersburg, bringing together more than 160 scientists from Russian and international universities, as well as representatives of large clinics. Summing up the results of the conference, Pavel Vasilyev, Associate Professor at the Department of History, School of Arts and Humanities at HSE University in St Petersburg, proposed creating a platform for interaction between disciplines researching medicine.
Pavel Vasilyev
‘A year ago, while closing the second conference, I realised that this was no longer a one-time event, but a rather unique tradition emerging in the Russian academic context. At the same time, I felt concerned about whether I had any colleagues who were ready to continue this endeavour. Fortunately, we have found support from the Centre for Comparative Research on Social Well-Being and are now preparing to welcome colleagues to HSE University in Moscow in December. I hope to see both established researchers with whom I have been working fruitfully for a long time, as well as new people, including early-career scientists, researchers from various regions, and representatives of medical universities and research centres among the participants. The inclusiveness of academic dialogue is what distinguishes the ‘Comorbid Field’ from other events,’ explains Pavel Vasilyev.
This year, HSE University in Moscow is hosting the conference. It will be held on December 3–5 at the Centre for Comparative Research on Social Well-Being in a hybrid format (offline at HSE University at 11 Pokrovsky Bulvar and online via MTS Link and Yandex Telemost) in Russian and English.
As with last year's conference, the organising committee includes representatives of HSE University in St Petersburg Pavel Vasilyev and Elizaveta Pronicheva. Natalia Baisha and Anna Afanasyeva, Associate Professor of the Faculty of Humanities represent HSE University in Moscow. Associate Professor Anastasia Novkunskaya and Researcher Daria Tukina represent the Institute for Interdisciplinary Health Research at the European University at St Petersburg.
This year, Sechenov University is also among the organisers, and it is represented by Associate Professor Yulia Donskova.
The conference programme will combine sessions, panel discussions, and round-table discussions. Topics of focus will include:
- medical culture: institutions, practices, actors, and social resources for health.
- medicine in colonial and post-colonial contexts, in circumstances of migration, vulnerability, and unequal access to healthcare resources.
- healthcare policy: the state, experts, patients.
- methodology and specific features of teaching social sciences and humanities subjects related to medicine.
‘The main advantage of the conference is the opportunity to go beyond one's own discipline and get to know researchers and practitioners who offer different views on describing and measuring medicine, health, disease, and the resulting social well-being.
We hope that this experience will be useful to a wide range of researchers, as the conference allows us to expand the theoretical understanding of the way medical institutions function and analyse the experience of both recipients of medical care and those who provide it,’ says Natalia Baisha.
‘It would be great if the conference could serve as a platform for the establishment of new joint projects. Such involvement allows us to go beyond the narrow disciplinary framework and approach a more holistic study of the phenomena of health, disease, and medicine,’ notes Elizaveta Pronichev.
Participation is open to both experienced and early-career researchers, including undergraduates and doctoral students, as well as practitioners, doctors, and nurses interested in conducting and discussing research results. Individual applications for participation with reports in one or two fields and group proposals for participation in sections and round tables in one or two fields are both welcome.
The full list of conference topics and application forms can be found here.
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