MSc/PgDip/PgCert Health History

This module provides a structured approach to preparing Masters students for their dissertation projects. The nature of the class is to ensure that students can make use of the time dedicated to dissertation preparation in Semester 2 by following a structured programme focused on productive supervisory conversations and assessments targeted at supporting them towards robust and innovative dissertation research.

Advanced Oral History allows students to explore advanced oral history theory and practices as a valuable means of understanding the past. In weekly seminars, we will examine the advantages and limitations of oral history as both a research methodology and an outcome by reading and discussing key texts written by leading oral historians and related practitioners. In addition, students will gain practical experience designing and implementing a mini oral history project directly related to their postgraduate dissertations. 

By the end of the semester, students will have submitted their dissertation project proposals for ethics approval, and gained preliminary experience in conducting and analysing an interview of relevance to their dissertation topic. Students seeking careers in history, museum studies, human rights advocacy, international law, diplomacy, and journalism will find this course particularly relevant.

This class analyses core debates in the History of Pharmaceutical Science and the History of the Pharmaceutical Industry.

It uses a series of cases studies including: the establishment of pharmacology as a medical science, standardisation and the quality of medications, the globalisation of the medicinal market, pharmaceutical legislation, drug scandals and the politics of pharmaceutics.

Through analysis of the historiography and primary materials, students will engage with the ethical debates which have accompanied the rise of the pharmaceutical industry as a global giant.

This class examines key moments in the development of modern systems of regulating drugs.

With a focus on western countries since 1800, it explores the political, social and economic contexts of decisions to control and restrict the consumption of both psychoactive and pharmaceutical products.

The objective is to place state enquiries, legislative projects and international agencies in historical context.

This class analyses the role of medicine in the emergence of ‘modern’ forms of warfare, particularly the vital contribution that medicine made to manpower economy, discipline and morale.

It explores the ways that different countries have responded to the medical issues posed by modern warfare, the key objective being to place these military-medical developments within wider social, cultural and political contexts.

The aim of this class is for students to explore how dietary influences on health have been perceived in the West during the 20th century.

Nutrition has been and continues to be one of the most controversial areas of health and medicine and one of the goals of this module is to examine why this has been the case.

This class explores the complex interactions between medicine, gender, health and illness in the 19th and 20th centuries. You'll explore the key role that gender has played in the emergence of modern healthcare and medicine in a variety of settings, such as Britain, Ireland and the United States. You'll also examine a diverse range of topics to assess how men and women, and concepts of femininity and masculinity were defined by the medical profession and how responses to men and women’s health issues became increasingly gendered over time.

As well as developing your critical thinking skills through engagement with the secondary literature on these themes, you'll have the opportunity to get to grips with a variety of primary sources such as women’s magazines, advertisements, films, medical journals and oral histories.

This class is designed to help students reflect on the subject specific and transferable skills they have acquired through their academic journey, articulate them to a potential employer and apply them in the workplace. This module aims to provide students with an insight into the day to day workings of an organisation, in order to develop history-specific vocational skills and promote reflection on employability and also on the issues involved in disseminating history outside academia. The class offers students the opportunity of spending eight weeks in a placement of their choice with museums, archives, historical associations, third sector organisations, university professional services. Placements are provided but students who have already identified an organisation or project they would like to work with, can discuss this with the class lecturer. Students will be asked to complete a small project or piece of research for their host. Assessment for this class include an initial work plan and a reflective essay on the student's work experience.

This class will engage students with literary and historical materials, and with theoretical work from animal studies and ecofeminism. This will inform discussions about the place, meaning and function of meat eating and meat avoidance, and debates about human-animal relations, from the early modern to the modern world.

As well as philosophical and religious work you'll read a range of primary materials, including literary works from A String of Pearls (aka Sweeney Todd) to Roald Dahl’s Pig; from Swift’s Modest Proposal to Coetzee’s Lives of Animals, via Dracula, and develop skills in textual analysis and critical and theoretical engagement.

The topic of health is a constant fixture in the media through news and features, documentaries, talk shows, and more. Audience demand for health information is high, as is the relevance of this coverage to their lives, and therefore the responsibility of journalists towards their audiences. This class will highlight all these issues and emphasize many of the inherent conflicts in health journalism and heath communication.

The goal of this class is to examine the potential and limits of the media to accomplish health education of the public. We will examine how both information and entertainment media present and frame various health behaviours and how that affects media consumers. We will look at how theories, models, and assumptions of mass communication relate to public health issues. Topics to be covered include scientific inquiry, the media vs. science, framing illness, body image, stigma, entertainment education, mythologizing doctors, and others.

Assessment will include three pieces: a research paper on the media coverage of a health issue chosen by the student, a research paper on the public knowledge of the same health issue, and a poster presentation of the findings from the two research papers.

The dissertation is an exercise in independent study. You will research a topic of your choice, under the supervision of an expert member of the programme staff. You will make full use of primary and secondary source material, including the identification and use of relevant archival holdings. While guidance will be provided by the supervisor, you will propose the area of study, compile an adequate bibliography, and take all initiatives necessary to carry out the work.