Health, Medicine and Society
The Health, Medicine and Society group examines the health, illness and treatment of individuals and communities in a social and cultural history context. Our research expertise ranges from the 14th century to the present day, and covers a number of different geographies and cultures, including Mediterranian Europe, Uganda, Kenya and India. Our research focuses on the social and cultural history of medicine and health, and thinking about the human life course, from birth to death.
We are interested in six key themes:
- The human life course from birth to death;
- How health and medicine are shaped by gender, race and age;
- Health and medicine during periods of war and conflict;
- Health and family life;
- Medical practitioners and caregivers;
- Policy and public health initiatives and how they were developed, received and used by different individuals and societies
Recent projects
Current and recent projects undertaken by staff in the Health, Medicine and Society group include:
- Living with Dying: Everyday Cultures of Dying within Family Life in Britain, c.1900-50 (Laura King and Jessica Hammett)
- Legacies of War (Jessica Meyer and Laura King)
- Maternal mortality in East Africa (Shane Doyle)
- The Grief Series - The Role of Objects and Places in Remembrance Culture (Laura King)
- Men, Women and Care: The gendering of formal and informal care-giving in interwar Britain (Jessica Meyer)
- Before HIV: Sexuality, Fertility and Mortality in East Africa, 1900-1980
Visit our projects for more information.
Our expertise
Alex Bamji
Manuel Barcia
Shane Doyle
Will Gould
Will Jackson
Laura King
Marie-Louise Leonard
Iona McCleery
Jessica Meyer
Alexia Moncrieff
Jonathan Saha
Visit our profiles to find out about academic staff researching in this area.