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Title
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Conservation and Contagion: Nature Protection, Biodiversity Loss and Infectious Disease
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Venue
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School of the Arts Library, University of Liverpool (Hybrid)
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Dates
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17-18 June 2027
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Organisers
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Dr Jules Skotnes-Brown, Dr Perseverence Madhuku, Dr Katherine Arnold
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Keynote Speaker
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Professor Gregg Mitman
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Description
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Over the last few decades, the relationship between biodiversity loss and the spillover of zoonotic disease has been subjected to unprecedented scrutiny. From the development of the “cut hunter” theory of HIV/AIDS in the 1990s and 2000s, to the flurry of articles during the COVID-19 pandemic that the destruction of nature is a major driver of infectious diseases, conservation has increasingly been framed as a prophylactic against the emergence of the next pandemic. Recent record temperatures, ecological disasters, ongoing extinctions, deforestation, and accelerating pandemics have brought ever-greater urgency to protecting the environment on health grounds. More than 190 countries have committed to conserving 30% of the earth’s “terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine areas” by the year 2030, while calls for the monetization of “biodiversity credits” as a neoliberal conservation finance mechanism akin to “carbon credits” have proliferated.
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Conservation is undoubtedly urgent for tackling the health problems of the twenty-first century. At the same time, the imposition of top-down conservation measures upon local communities with insufficient or no consultation has often resulted in poor health outcomes for locals. Historically, the border-zones of African national parks have frequently become spillover zones for diseases of wildlife such as trypanosomiasis, brucellosis, or foot-and-mouth disease. The presence of protected wildlife in agricultural areas, similarly, is a considerable problem for subsistence herders whose animals contract diseases circulating among wildlife. Likewise, the removal of Indigenous people from conservation areas has denied them access to important medicinal plants, nutrition, and mental or spiritual wellbeing.
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Drawing on perspectives from the humanities, social sciences, life sciences and conservation policymakers, this interdisciplinary workshop seeks to understand how conservation has shaped the burden of infectious disease in past and present. In so doing, it aims to chart how conservation has been linked with medical and health questions, whether conservation (or lack thereof) has resulted in the emergence of epidemics or pandemics, and how conservation has shaped the health of humans and animals alike.
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Submission Requirements
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Papers are welcome from any discipline and topics may include (but are not limited to):
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- The history, anthropology, or geography of conservation and zoonosis
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- How the establishment of protected areas in past and present has shaped health
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- The tensions between the need to conserve global health and improve the health and wellbeing of local communities
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- One Health and Planetary Health approaches to infectious diseases in conservation areas
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- The anthropology or history of conservation and livestock/companion animal diseases
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- Creative writing, artistic, dramatic, or musical approaches to conservation and infectious disease
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- Policy papers on how conservation can improve the health of local communities
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- Community approaches to conservation and the prevention of infectious diseases
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- Approaches to living with wildlife reservoirs of disease in past and present
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For successful applicants, travel, accommodation, and visa costs will be covered by the Wellcome Trust. We intend to publish a selection of the conference papers in a journal special issue, edited volume, or alternative creative output.
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Please submit a 250-word abstract and short bio to Dr Jules Skotnes-Brown at jules.skotnes-brown@liverpool.ac.uk by 1 February 2027. We aim to respond by 15 February.
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We also request that successful participants send us rough draft papers by 3 May 2027. These do not need to be full length papers – they only need to outline the core concepts of your paper. They can be short 2,000-4,000-word papers, edited transcripts of your talk, or an advanced plan. This will allow us to provide the best possible feedback for future publication. No manuscripts will be shared beyond speakers at the workshop, and nothing will be fed into AI.
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AI Statement
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We kindly ask that prospective speakers do not use AI in the preparation of abstracts, presentations, or draft papers for this workshop. We also ask that no part of this CFP is uploaded to AI. This is due to both environmental concerns and the concerns of many scholars that their work may be fed into LLMs without their consent.
