Wellcome Studentships in History of Medicine at Cambridge

The Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of
Cambridge (U.K.) invites applications from candidates with interests in all
areas of history of medicine who would like to be nominated for the Wellcome
TrustÕs annual masterÕs award and doctoral studentship competitions. The
Department also invites applications for two doctoral studentships funded by a
five-year Wellcome enhancement award in history of medicine. We seek outstanding
candidates whose research would fall in the field ÔFrom Generation to
ReproductionÕ, i.e. who would investigate some aspect of how, since 1500, our
world of reproductive practice and controversy was created. We wish to highlight
the making, organization and communication of reproductive knowledge among and
between experts and laypeople. To this end, we shall draw critically on work in
history of medicine and science, womenÕs and gender history, studies of anatomo-
and biopolitics, and sociology and anthropology of the sciences, technology and
medicine. We would like to open up new fields of historical inquiry and take
fresh approaches to established topics in the history of medicine and biology.
Special interest attaches to the constitution of ÔreproductionÕ as a new object
of medical intervention and scientific research, and the increasing modern
detachment of sex and reproduction. Areas in which suitable historical projects
could be proposed include (but are not limited to):

- early-modern investigations into generation;
- generation and childbirth in early-modern medical cases and case-books;
- the reorganization of knowledge of generation/reproduction, especially in the
age of revolutions;
- such sciences as embryology, obstetrics, gynaecology, evolutionary biology,
reproductive physiology, sexual science, genetics and developmental biology;
- the visual cultures of these sciences;
- movements for sex reform around birth control and sexology;
- networks linking experimental biology to reproductive medicine and public
health, agriculture, especially animal breeding, and pharmaceutical industry;
- new techniques for monitoring and manipulating pregnancy, genes, gametes and
embryos, e.g. pregnancy testing, genetic screening, in vitro fertilization and
embryo transfer;
- new social and psychological practices for making babies and families.

For information about the Department, see http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk, and for
details of the studentships, http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/studying/funding.html
(under Wellcome Trust Awards). Informal inquiries may be made to the teaching
officer with the most relevant interests.
 

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