History of Medicine – (M.A.)

Contents

Course length

Full-time: PGCert: 4 months, PGDip: 9 months; MA: 12 months
Part-time: PGCert: 2 semesters; PGDip: 3 semesters; MA: 24 months

The MA in History of Medicine consists of four modules: a compulsory core module, two elective modules and a dissertation. Postgraduate diploma students take Modules 1, 2 and 3; postgraduate certificate students take Module 1 and one elective module. Modules may change from time to time; an indicative list is shown below.

Module 1: Key Concepts and Methods in Research in History of Medicine Every student takes this compulsory core module which is designed to help make the transition from undergraduate- to graduate-level work. You will develop your understanding of the historiography of medical history and acquire the necessary skills in research methods and interpretation of historical sources, which will enable you to engage in independent research. This module is taken in Semester 1 and is assessed by two written assignments.

Modules 2 and 3: elective modules You will take two specialist modules enabling you to conduct close study of topics in two different areas of medical history. The topics for these modules reflect the specific research expertise of the staff in the centre and the programme offered varies from year to year. Each module lasts for one semester and is assessed by two or three written assignments. Full-time MA students take one elective module in each semester. Part-time MA students take their first elective in Semester 2 of the first year and their second elective in Semester 1 of the second year. Modules include:

* Patients and Practitioners, 1700-1850 breaks neatly into two parts. In part one we will be dealing with the general theoretical and source issues that underpin an understanding of the doctor-patient relationship. We will also understand the early history of doctoring and doctor-patient relationships. In part two, we will move on to consider various aspects of the doctor-patient relationship, including the supply of doctors, patient networks, the role of institutions, doctoring as an art and regional differences in the strength and character of doctor-patient relationships.
* Body Politics: Health and Modernity in Britain, 1830-1914 examines the political and cultural dynamics of British public health during the period 1830 to 1914. Students will be given the opportunity to engage with the very latest historiography and explore how an ostensibly discrete and humanitarian field of governance raised broader questions about the meaning of urban civilisation, the limits of the state, the scope and organisation of expert authority, and the politics of gender, class and sexuality. It will encourage students to think about these issues in terms of the bigger picture of modernity and the practice and regulation of modern freedom.
* Medical Experience in the Countryside, 1500-1789 examines various comparative themes in the social history of medicine as it pertains to rural Europe during the Early Modern Period (1500 to 1789). Students will be given the opportunity to study the fundamental issues that have been explored by historians of rural society and the social history of medicine.
* Engineering Society: Eugenics and Biopolitics in Europe, 1800-1945 examines various comparative themes in the history of eugenics, genetics, biopolitics, anthropology and modernity from 1800 to 1945. Students will be given the opportunity to study the fundamental issues that have pre-occupied historians of biology, science and modernity since the 1800s and combine these with specific case studies from a wide range of European countries.
* Science, Magic and Religion introduces students to history of science based theories on the social construction of knowledge systems and alert them to the boundary issues involved in the construction of science, magic and religion. All three will also be looked at as cultural systems and implicated in the establishment of cultural and political hegemony. A further focus will be the historical specificity of the definitions of the boundaries between science, magic and religion. The second part of the course focuses on methodological issues, in particular primary source selection and interpretation.
* From Pills and Potions, To Penicillin and Prozac. Barely a week goes by without news of a medical breakthrough, and this often refers to a drug promising either a treatment for a disease previously unresponsive to medical intervention, or else a significant improvement over existing treatments. On the other hand, some times one also hears about disasters or abuses involving the testing, administering, or taking of drugs. On these occasions, the clinical researchers who test the drugs, the doctors who prescribe them, but more often the pharmaceutical companies who make them, are transformed in the public eye from heroes into villains, and become the subject of controversy, some times even legal prosecution. The objective of this module is therefore double: 1) to help students to make sense of this complex picture by placing it in a wider historical context; 2) to explain how drugs have come to occupy such an important place in our society, by examining their evolution not only in terms of scientific and medical progress, but also in terms of a complex, changing inter-relationship between consumers, producers, the medical profession, and the state.
* Ethics and Ideas: From the Hippocratic Oath to Informed Consent. Students will be given the opportunity to study the fundamental issues that have pre-occupied historians of medical malpractice and clinical research. This module will examine various comparative themes in the history of medical ethics from Hippocrates to the present.
* The History of Death and Dying in Britain, 1750-1900 introduces students to the social and medical history of death and dying in England, 1750-1900. It explores a variety of historiographical debates about culture meaning of death through a diverse range of funerary artefacts, as well as printed primary medical texts. In this way, it examines the social meaning of death, as well as efforts by the medical profession to alleviate the sufferings of dying patients appropriately.

Module 4: Dissertation This is the capstone of the master's course. You will have the opportunity to conduct a major in-depth investigation into a historical topic of your choice, leading to the production of a 15,000-word thesis. The topic may be related to one of your elective modules or may be chosen from another area of your interest. You will be supported in your research by individual supervision from a specialist tutor and by group workshops on advanced research design that take place during Semester 2 (part-time students take this in Year 2). The dissertation is completed over the summer and submitted by 1 September.