COMET. Human Subject Research & Medical Ethics in Colonial Southeast Asia

New Guestblog - by Alfin Ganendra Albar
Where Ethics and Science Intersect: The Medical Treatment at Jombang Sanatorium

The referral system from clinics to hospitals that we know in Indonesia today is a legacy of the Dutch colonial health system. At that time, this referral system was commonly known as the Djogja-system, a healthcare service model designed to promote Western medicine as widely as possible, reaching even rural areas by linking local polyclinics to hospitals.

Read the full story on our Medium blog:

Where Ethics and Science Intersect: The Medical Treatment at Jombang Sanatorium Guestblog by Alfin Ganendra Albar

NEW BLOG - by Mohammad Khamsya Bin Khidzer
Walking Away Diabetes in the Tropics: A Reflection

This short memo is based on my short field trips in Jogjakarta and Singapore in June and July 2025. The trip was made possible with funding from ERC COMET. I would also like to acknowledge the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, specifically A/P Chang Jiat Hwee for hosting me as Visiting Scholar during this time.

Read the full story on our Medium blog:

Walking Away Diabetes in the Tropics: A Reflection This short memo is based on my short field trips in Jogjakarta and Singapore in June and July 2025. The trip was made possible with funding…

CALL FOR PAPERS

Ethical regimes. Doctors, patients and ethics in colonial and postcolonial medicine

We are pleased to announce a call for papers for a conference focused on ethical practices in medical research and treatment in the colonial and postcolonial context.

This conference seeks to explore the ethical practices of medical professionals conducting research in diverse colonial and postcolonial settings, and the role of their patients and subjects. This call invites scholars from a variety of disciplines—including history, anthropology, medical ethics, and (post)colonial studies—to contribute their research and insights.

Find more information at:

Call for Papers: Ethical regimes. Doctors, patients and ethics in colonial and postcolonial medicine We are pleased to announce a call for papers for a conference focused on ethical practices in medical research and treatment in the colonial and postcolonial context.

NEW GUEST BLOG - By Niki van der Gun

I want to recap my time as a medical historian by highlighting a topic that has captured my interest: interactions between indigenous and colonial doctors. Local medical practices often sparked fascination as well as contempt among European physicians, they expressed these sentiments through scientific or semi-scientific publications in medical journals. A telling example of their ambiguous attitudes can be found in the 1905 edition of the Journal of the Malaya Branch of the British Medical Association. The journal’s first two articles were on indigenous medical practices, written by C. W. Daniels and T. C. Avetoom, both were physicians working in British Malaya.

Read more on our Medium page:

“Our Beautiful but Insanitary Island” Ambiguous Attitudes towards Indigenous Medical Knowledge

NEW GUEST BLOG - By Aini Syarifah

"Nowadays the topic of 'Keluarga Berencana' (family planning) — or KB, as we call it — is a familiar topic among millennial parents in Indonesia. Usually, when discussing married life, common questions are: “Are you postponing your pregnancy? How many children do you want to have?”

But, did you know that 72 years ago, the idea of Keluarga Berencana used to be a controversial issue in Indonesia and even it became a banned program? How did a formerly controversial issue become a casual issue in Indonesia today?"

Read more on our Medium page:

The Controversy of “Keluarga Berencana” in Indonesia in the Early 1950s: Between Maternal… Guest Blog — by Aini Syarifah

CALL FOR PAPERS

We invite scholars from Southeast Asia to contribute to an upcoming workshop (and hopefully a publication) on 23 June 2025, called:

“Morality and ethics in the history of medicine in colonial and postcolonial Southeast Asia.”

This pre-HOMSEA conference workshop seeks to discuss all sorts of moral ideas and ethical practices surrounding health, medical research and treatment during the colonial period in Southeast Asia. More information can be found here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m6JPBO_4-9OqHROqTpUttMFldLSDURiS/view?usp=sharing

NEW BLOG
Vignettes of Empathy, by Bianca Claveria

A reflection on our fruitful workshop at Ateneo de Manila University in June 2024, 'Malasakit Sa May Sakit: Narratives on Health, Healing and Human Values in the Philippines.'

"The history of diseases and medicine in the Philippines is often overcast with gloom, despair, and suffering. In purposefully seeking out these vignettes of malasakit or empathy, not only is one able to nuance changes in human values in the past, but it also provides fertile ground for present-day Filipinos to confront current medical problems and anticipate potential ethical dilemmas in the future."

Read the full story on our Medium blog:

Vignettes of Empathy “Malasakit Sa May Sakit: Narratives on Health, Healing and Human Values in the Philippines” Workshop 2024

RECAP
Workshop Moral Ideas and Ethical Practices in History

On 11 October 2024, the COMET team organized a workshop bringing together scholars in the working on topics related to moral ideas and ethical practices in the history of medicine. During this informal afternoon, the invited speakers gave a brief presentation of their approach or argument in the Erasmus MC in Rotterdam. The aim was to get to know each other’s work, but also to discuss ways in which to study ethics and morality in history. What are best practices, what sources should we use and what concepts or approaches can help us along the way?

Read the full story on our Medium blog:

Recap: Workshop Moral Ideas and Ethical Practices in History In the Erasmus University Medical Center

Meet our newest COMET team members!

Dr. Mohammad Bin Khidzer - Postdoctoral Researcher:
As a postdoc, I will be converting my dissertation research Race and Diabetes in Postcolonial Singapore into a book project. Tentatively titled ‘Making Asian Diabetes Global: Disease, Race and the Global Bioeconomy from Postcolonial Singapore’, the book project connects the postcolonial history of race and disease in Singapore with recent efforts to make 'Asian Diabetes' a global health agenda. In the book project, I also explore the idea of racial temporalities as a way to understand how broad historical changes and imagined futures shape the lives of those living with diabetes at the present.

Dr. Gani Ahmad Jaelani - Fellow at the KITLV:
I am a trained historian, specialized in colonial history of Indonesia. My research interests include the nineteenth and twentieth century's history of science, medicine, and technology, and the formation of colonial knowledge. I am currently a visiting fellow at KITLV where I'm working on biochemical issues and the intersection between religion, class, and race in late colonial and early postcolonial Indonesia: ‘The bodies that built the nation: Biochemical research in late colonial and early postcolonial Indonesia’.

Medical history often centers doctors and researchers. But what about the patients themselves? How can we study patient-doctor communication in colonial Indonesia? How were different patients treated and how did they respond? And how can these relationships be seen as embedded in the colonial system?

Our team member Caroline Schep presented her insights on studying history 'from below' at Universitas Gadjah Mada

Sejarah kesehatan seringkali mengambil sudut pandang dari "atas ke bawah" atau pembuat kebijakan/tenaga kesehatan yg kemudian menempatkan masyarakat sebagai objek segala percobaan. Dapatkah kita membalik sudut pandang itu dan mengetahui bagaimana sudut pandang dan penilaian "pasien" atas situasi kesehatan yang mereka alami? Caroline Schep, M.A., Mahasiswi PhD dari @leidenhumanities akan membagikan pengalamannya mendengar "keluhan para pasien." Daftarkan diri anda dan dengarkanlah suara yang selama ini terabaikan.

Using eel blood to treat eye diseases? Check out this odd historical procedure in our newest blog by Caroline Schep:

When Scientific Freedom and Power Collide: the Case of Adolf Ellinger’s Eel Blood Therapy By Caroline Schep

A vaccine campaign using human vials and arm-to-arm inoculations? Read all about it in our newest blog on Medium by Bianca Claveria (Bee Claveria):

Human Vaccine Vials: The Balmis Vaccine Expedition By Bianca Angelien Aban Claveria