Centre for Comparative Research on Social Well-Being at the Faculty of Social Sciences in the HSE University invites you to take part in the interdisciplinary conference "Comorbid Field 3.0: Social Well-being, Health and Medicine in Multiple Contexts", which will be held for the first time in 2026 at HSE Campus in Moscow in collaboration with the Institute for Interdisciplinary Health Research at the European University at St. Petersburg, Sechenov University, the Faculty of Humanities and St. Petersburg School of Arts and Humanities at HSE University.

The conference will take place in offline and online formats in Russian and English 3-5 December 2026, and the deadline for applications will be 4 October 2026. The offline format is 11 Pokrovsky Boulevard (buildings G, F, D), Moscow. The online format is the MTS-Link platform and/or Yandex-Telemost.

The expertise in the study of healthcare practices, medical institutions and other aspects of the interaction between medicine and society, accumulated by our colleagues from the Institute for Interdisciplinary Health Research at the European University at St. Petersburg, as well as the Faculty of Humanities and St. Petersburg School of Arts and Humanities at HSE University, is being integrated this year into the thematic streams "Comorbid Field 3.0" and supplemented by research into social well-being.

The aim of our conference is to develop a research network at the intersection of practical, social and humanities-based approaches to the study of medicine and health in Russia, as well as to actively engage young researchers in this field, facilitate the exchange of experience and foster international, inter-campus and interdisciplinary links.

We strive to foster an inclusive academic dialogue and invite participation from both experienced and established researchers and early-career scholars (students and PhD-students, including those from medical universities), as well as practitioners – doctors and nurses – interested in conducting and discussing research findings.

The conference programme will combine sessions, panel discussions and round-table discussions, thematically focused on the social and cultural dimensions of health, illness and the social well-being that emerges from the functioning of medical institutions.

We propose the following thematic streams for discussion:

• Medical culture: institutions, practices, actors and social resources for health
• Representations of health, illness, patients’ bodies and healthcare professionals’ quality of life in fiction, film and popular culture
• Epidemics and pandemics from a historical, epidemiological and clinical perspective, and their implications for social well-being
• Medicine in colonial and post-colonial contexts, in situations of migration, vulnerability and unequal access to healthcare resources
• Social study of medical knowledge and technologies
• Healthcare policy: the state, experts, patients
• Health and medical institutions that promote social well-being
• Forensic medicine as a discipline at the intersection of medicine, law and social protection
• Medical ethics, biopolitics and trust in healthcare
• Psychological disciplines: research into mental health, social adaptation and integration
• Gender aspects of medicine, sexual and reproductive health: equal opportunities and well-being
• Social studies of pharmaceuticals
• Self-care and health practices
• Human and animal health in the context of the environment and the social well-being of communities
• Addictive behaviour: social exclusion, stigmatisation and social reintegration
• Digital Health and Telemedicine: Access to Healthcare, Digital Inequality and Quality of Life
• Medical education and the well-being of professional communities, occupational health and diseases
• Communication between the doctor, the nurse and the patient
• Methodology and Specific Features of Teaching Social Sciences and Humanities Subjects Related to Medicine
• A participatory approach in research on health, medicine and social well-being: experiences of collaboration between practitioners and researchers

Dear colleagues, we would be delighted to receive group proposals (involving 3–5 participants) for organising sessions in the thematic streams, as well as individual proposals including the title and a brief abstract of theoretical papers, empirical studies and interdisciplinary projects at the intersection of medicine, history, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, cultural studies and other humanities and social sciences.

Early-career researchers (students and PhD-students) who have delivered presentations are invited to further develop an article based on their presentation and submit it to one of the partner thematic collections of the journal "Young Historian" published by the Russian State University for the Humanities (Russian Science Citation Index - RSCI) (in accordance with the journal’s submission requirements). When preparing the article, it is important to include the following note in the text: "This article was presented at the interdisciplinary conference "Comorbid Field 3.0: Social Well-being, Health and Medicine in Multiple Contexts", held at the HSE University in 2026".

Important dates and application forms:

• Registration for individual proposals with reports in 1-2 thematic streams will be accepted up to and including 4 October 2026 using the form available here.
• Registration for panel proposals to organise sessions in 1-2 thematic streams will be accepted up to and including 4 October 2026 using the form available here.
  Sessions may last up to 2 hours (120 minutes, including a break) and will involve the discussion of no more than 5 papers and a presentation by 1 discussant.
• The results of the review of proposals containing papers and collective proposals to organise sessions will be announced by 18 October 2026.
  • The conference programme will be available from 15 November 2026 on the conference page.
  • Registration for attendees will be open from 15 to 30 November 2026 on the conference page and "News" of the Centre for Comparative Research on Social Well-Being.

If you have any questions, please contact the organising committee by email at comorbidities.hse@yandex.ru

See you at the conference!

Conference organising committee:

• Anna Afanasyeva, HSE University, School of Philosophy and Cultural Studies, Faculty of Humanities
• Natalia Baisha, HSE University, Centre for Comparative Research on Social Well-Being, Laboratory for Psychology of Social Inequality
• Pavel Vasilyev, HSE Campus in St. Petersburg, School of Arts and Humanities; Reaviz University
• Yulia Donskova, Sechenov University
• Anastasia Novkunskaya, European University at St. Petersburg, Institute for Interdisciplinary Health Research
• Elizaveta Pronicheva, HSE Campus in St. Petersburg, School of Arts and Humanities
• Daria Tukina, European University at St. Petersburg, Institute for Interdisciplinary Health Research; Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences