Marsilius Academy 2026 Feel the Heat: Science and Histories of Fever
September 20-25, 2026 in Heidelberg
Extended application deadline: 1 July 2026
Fever has long been a threatening and inescapable feature of the human condition; as the German poet Friedrich Hebbel noted in 1860, “He who would live must hazard the fever.” For centuries, “fever” denoted a disease marked by various sensations – heat, but also an altered pulse, or delirium. Only from the 1840s onward was fever reduced to quantifiable temperature, and reframed as a symptom of diverse diseases, which from the late 1800s onward came to be associated with specific pathogens. Today, the re-emergence of old and the emergence of new infectious diseases rank among the principal challenges facing humankind.
This multidisciplinary summer school brings together perspectives from the life and natural sciences as well as the humanities to re-examine the multifaceted nature of fever.
Topics include epidemics and pandemics of febrile illnesses; their prevention, including vaccines and their societal acceptance (or resistance); the sensory register of fever, including but exceeding heat and temperature, e.g. its production, theorisation, and effects on the body; disease causation, e.g. through pathogens and vectors; and febrile sequelae, post-acute infectious syndromes, and the narratives of sufferers unable to fully recover from febrile infectious diseases. Taken together, these approaches invite a renewed reckoning with fever as both a biological phenomenon and a social and cultural object.
Public Session - Panel Discussion
Marsilius kontrovers: The Measured Human: Between Diagnosis, Prevention and Self-Optimization
The possibilities for measuring the human body are constantly expanding – and with them the hope of understanding, predicting and influencing health ever more precisely. The history of medicine is also a history of its measurement techniques: from the introduction of temperature measurement in the late 19th century and the routine analysis of blood values in the mid-20th century to today’s analysis of genetic data.
Measuring the body is no longer confined to the clinical setting. It is increasingly becoming part of everyday life, particularly through the use of smartwatches, and is therefore also increasingly being used for self-optimization. This development inevitably raises the question of where the boundaries lie between medical diagnosis, meaningful prevention and the desire for self-optimization. How reliable and useful is the increasing measurement of the human body? Can we learn from history how the growing practice of measuring the body has been received by society? How is the increasing quantification of the body changing our understanding of health – and what does it mean for our conception of humanity when more and more aspects of our bodies are translated into data and measurable values?
The panel brings together experts from medicine, biophysics, history, theology and ethics to discuss, together with the audience, the opportunities and challenges arising from the increasing measurement of the human body – and how it is transforming medicine, society and our understanding of what it means to be human.
The audience, both on site and via livestream, is warmly invited to participate: Thursday, 24 September 2026, 7:00 pm in in the lecture hall of the Marsilius Kolleg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 130.1, 69120 Heidelberg, and online via livestream. The event in Marsilius Kolleg will be held in German and simultaneously interpreted into English.
This panel discussion is part of the Marsilius Academy “Feel the Heat: Science and Histories of Fever” (20–25 September 2026).
Application: Target group, expectations and participation fee
The Academy is aimed at Master students as well as PhD candidates. A participation fee of 100€ - including room and board - will be charged. Travel costs are to be covered by the participants themselves. Participants are expected to present the current status of their work in a poster session and as a short pitch.
Applications can be submitted online untill 1 July 2026.
Confirmed Speakers
Table
Scientific Committee
Organisation Team
Sponsors and Cooperation Partners
The Marsilius Academy 2026 is a joint venture of Heidelberg University's Marsilius Kolleg with the Cluster of Excellence „SynthImmune“, and the ERC project „FEVER – Global Histories of (a) Disease, 1750-1840“. It is also co-sponsored by the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) and the DFG Priority Programme “Physics of Parasitism” (SPP 2332).
