Introduction
Core Members
Seminars, conferences, visiting fellowships
Workshop: Health, Medicine and Cultural History
History of Medicine in the Medical Curriculum
Outreach, public understanding and engagement
Postgraduate opportunities
With the support of a £325,000 Wellcome Trust Enhancement Award, the medical historians at the Universities of Newcastle and Durham have formed a joint new Centre for the History of Medicine. The activities of the Centre comprise a co-ordinated research programme, a Masters training programme in the History of Medicine, a number of PhD projects, a series of seminars/workshops/conferences, teaching initiatives within the medical curriculum, and a series of public engagement activities.
Building on the close historical ties between the two Universities and on their international reputation for research in the history of medicine and science, one of the Centre’s particular strengths is its coverage of the whole Western medical tradition from antiquity until the twentieth century. A further characteristic is its strong interest in the history of medical ideas and the cultural history of medicine (from a comparative perspective), in particular in the epistemological, ethical and historiographical justifications of medical theory and practice offered through time. A related point of common interest is in the history of the communication of medical knowledge to wider audiences. Accordingly, the Centre’s five-year research strategy is concerned with the theme “Justifying Medicine: Historical Perspectives”, focusing on three specific sub-areas: (1) The justification of medicine as a science; (2) The ethical justification of medical research and practice; (3) The self-presentation of the medical profession and the dissemination of medical ideas.
The core members of the Centre currently are
• Philip van der Eijk (Professor of Greek at Newcastle), whose research interests are in ancient medicine, in particular the relationship between medicine and philosophy in the classical world (Hippocrates, Aristotle, Diocles, Galen, Methodism); the history of medical historiography; the communication and dissemination of medical ideas in antiquity; the comparative history of medicine in the Eastern Mediterranean; and the history of melancholy and mental illness. His main current work is concerned with the role of Aristotelianism in the development of medical science in antiquity, the middle ages and the early modern period, for which he earlier received a separate Wellcome Trust Project Grant.
• Andreas-Holger Maehle (Professor of History of Medicine and Medical Ethics at Durham), whose research interests are in the history of medicine after 1700, in particular the history of medical ethics, the historical relations between law and professional ethics in informed consent, the history and ethics of animal experimentation, and the history of pharmacology and pharmacotherapy. He is currently completing a book on the historical development of the drug receptor concept (final outcome of a Wellcome Trust Project Grant), and will then turn to a comparative study on the interaction between law and ethics in the issue of medical confidentiality in England and Germany between 1871 and 1933.
• Thomas Rütten (Wellcome Trust University Award Holder at Newcastle), whose research interests are in classical, medieval and early modern medicine, in particular the reception of Hippocratic medicine and the history of medical ethics; Hippocratism; the history and iconography of melancholy; the history of medical historiography; the genres of medical writing; and the role of medicine in the work of Thomas Mann. His current research is devoted to Hippocratism in the early modern period as expressed in the Hippocrates commentaries written in the 16th and early 17th century.
• Lutz Sauerteig (Wellcome Trust University Award Holder at Durham), whose research interests are in the comparative history of medicine in the 19th and 20th centuries, in particular in the history of sexuality and the body, the history of venereal disease, the history of medical ethics and the history of public health policy. He is currently working on a comparative history of sex education in England and Germany (1880s to 1970s).
In addition, Maehle directs the Centre for the History of Medicine and Disease (CHMD) in the Wolfson Research Institute at Durham University, Queen’s Campus in Stockton-on-Tees. He currently works here with Sauerteig (see above) and Iona McCleery (temporary Wellcome Lecturer in History of Medicine) who has research interests in medieval Portuguese medicine.
The history of medicine at Durham benefits further from staff in various University departments, including
• Charlotte Roberts (Reader in Archaeology), who has research interests
in palaeopathology and the history of disease;
• Peter Atkins (Reader in Geography), who has research interests in the
history of nutrition and tuberculosis;
• David Knight (Emeritus Professor of History and Philosophy of Science),
who has research interests in the history of science and religion, and in the
history of chemistry;
• Alison Todd (Lecturer in Anthropology), who has research interests in
the history of asthma;
• Carmen Pena (Lecturer in Spanish), who has research interests in medieval
Hispano-Arabic medicine.
At Newcastle, the Centre’s activities benefit from the presence of
• the research in bio-archaeology that takes place in the Centre for Bio-Archaeological
Science, in which staff from the School of Historical Studies (Prof. Geoff Bailey
and Dr Nicki Milner) co-operate with researchers in the Department of Fossil
Fuels and Environmental Geochemistry (Dr Brendan Derham);
• the research in the history of botany carried out by Dr Gavin Hardy
in the Marine Biology Department;
• the research in the early medieval history of healing conducted by Dr
Scott Ashley in the School of Historical Studies;
• the research in the history of science and knowledge systems that takes
place in the Centre for Research in Knowledge Science and Society (KNOSSOS)
directed by Prof. Milan Jaros (Physics);
• the research of the University’s Medicinal Plants Research Centre
directed by Prof. Elaine Perry, which draws on the knowledge of historical medical
remedies for modern application, esp. in the area of neurochemicals;
• and the research carried out in the Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences
Research Institute (PEALS) directed by Prof. Erica Haimes (Professor of Sociology
and Social Policy) and chaired by Durham’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Sir
Kenneth Calman.
The wide range of areas, periods and methodologies covered by this cluster of researchers makes the Centre ideally suited and situated for the training of Masters and PhD students in the history of medicine. MLitt/MPhil/PhD projects currently being supervised range from the role of medicine in Aristotle’s ethics, dreams in ancient medicine, music and medicine in antiquity, eighteenth-century mercury treatments, to the history and ethics of genetic databases. Moreover, the Library holdings of Durham and Newcastle are very conveniently complementary in this respect. Newcastle’s Robinson Library houses an excellent History of Medicine research collection and has two special collections related to medical history: the Pybus Collection (a rich collection of historical medical works from the 16th century onwards, engravings, letters, portraits and busts), and the Medical Collection (a large collection of 18th- and 19th- century medical works). Durham University Library has up-to-date research collections in History of Medicine and in History and Philosophy of Science, holds all major journals in the field, and houses the Kellett Collection on early modern anatomy and surgery.
The Centre runs a number of seminars and workshops, such as the Pybus History of Medicine Seminar series and the biennial “Approaches to Ancient Medicine” conference. Activities planned for the near future include a workshop on “Health, Medicine and Cultural History” on 30th January 2004, and an international conference on the history of sex education and the mediation of sexual and medical knowledge of the body in spring 2005. Building on its very wide circle of international contacts in the US and on the Continent, the Centre will further be awarding a number of visiting fellowships.
Workshop: Health, Medicine and Cultural History
Speakers include: Julie Anderson (Manchester), Mark Jenner
(York), Michael Stolberg (Würzburg), Steve Sturdy (Edinburgh), and Bertrand
Taithe (Manchester)
Venue: Centre for the History of Medicine and Disease, University of
Durham, Queen's Campus, Stockton
Date: Friday 30 January 2004
The aim of this workshop, supported by the Wellcome Trust and the Society for
Social History of Medicine, is to discuss what Cultural History can offer to
History of Medicine. We want to examine the various approaches of cultural history
regarding their theoretical premises, and the methodological implications they
have for medical history. Which of the theoretical premises are heuristically
useful for us? Where do we have to be careful not to transfer approaches, theories
and models developed in and for other fields to the history of medicine? It
has been noted that within cultural studies often the historical dimension has
been neglected. Hence, there is also the question what a cultural history of
medicine can offer to cultural studies.
We would like to discuss the following key issues: - the ways and means of producing,
representing and distributing medical knowledge via images and language - the
material and technological culture of medicine - the experience of disease and
the body
For further details, registration and the full programme, please visit our web
page at http://www.dur.ac.uk/chmd/events/workshop.html
or contact Dr Lutz Sauerteig, Centre for the History of Medicine and Disease,
Wolfson Research Institute, University of Durham, Queen's Campus, University
Boulevard, Stockton-on-Tees TS17 6BH, UK, email: l.d.sauerteig@durham.ac.uk
A major objective of the Centre is the strengthening of the provision of History of Medicine teaching to students in the medical curriculum, especially by means of the so-called Special Study Modules. In the Newcastle Medical School, van der Eijk teaches Medicine in the Classical World at stage 4 of the medical curriculum, while at Durham’s School for Health Maehle teaches Medical Ethics within the Personal and Professional Development strand at stage 1. With the presence of Rütten and Sauerteig (whose appointment is in the Durham School for Health), the number of options offered to medical students will be increased, thus contributing to a greater role of History of Medicine in the medical curriculum of both universities.
The Centre is contributing to the promotion of the public understanding of medicine and its history by means of a number of events (e.g. public lectures/debates) based on a confrontation between past and present in medical theory and practice. In this area, the Centre co-operates with Newcastle University’s Public Lectures Programme “Insights”, the Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Institute (PEALS), and the International Centre for Life. The activities include a series of public lectures on key themes such as “The Hippocratic Oath and the History of Doctoring”, “Blood and the Heart: Transfusion, Transplantation and the Sanctity of the Body”, “Drugs, Policy and Society”, “When physicians err – Historical responses to medical failure” etc., each topic being approached both by a medical historian and a contemporary medical expert.
Each year, the Centre awards a number of postgraduate studentships in the History of Medicine. For further information on this, and on other activities of the Centre, please contact:
Prof.
Philip van der Eijk
University of Newcastle Classics
School of Historical Studies
Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU
Tel. (+)44.191.2228262
Fax. (+)44.191.2228262
email: philip.van-der-eijk@ncl.ac.uk
or Thomas.Rutten@ncl.ac.uk
or
Prof. Holger Maehle
University of Durham
Centre for the History of Medicine and Disease (CHMD)
Wolfson Research Institute
Queen’s Campus
University Boulevard
Stockton-on-Tees TS17 6BH
Tel. (+)44.191.33-40701 (Maehle)
Tel. (+)44.191.33-40702 (Sauerteig)
Homepage: http://www.dur.ac.uk/chmd
email: a.h.maehle@durham.ac.uk
or l.d.sauerteig@durham.ac.uk