Health History (Taught)

The MSc in Health History is a research-led postgraduate programme which seeks to introduce students to a range of issues, controversies, debates, and specialist topics in the history of health and medicine. It provides specialist modules, taught by experts in the field; a sources and methods module which engages with both practical and intellectual issues in the history of medicine and of health and healthcare; and the opportunity to carry out an extended piece of original historical research and writing in the form of the dissertation. Students have the opportunity to explore a variety of themes such as:

the development of psychiatry since the 19th century
understandings of meat-eating and vegetarianism
the history of gender, sexuality and health
the rise of regulation for drugs and medicines
the role of film, video and television in the production, communication and contestation of medical and health-related knowledge
how nutrition has been and continues to be one of the most controversial areas of health and medicine
oral history theory and research practices
the role of medicine in the emergence of ‘modern’ forms of warfare
the relationship between heritage, health and tourism
the often-vexed relationship between medicine, the public, and the state
how the media presents and frames health behaviours and its impact on media consumers
The MSc Health History is organised around the expertise of fifteen Strathclyde-based members of the Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare (CSHHH) Glasgow. The CSHHH is a collaboration between Strathclyde and Glasgow Caledonian University and Scotland’s largest centre for the history of health and medicine. The research-led teaching on the MSc in Health History focusses on the histories of drugs and intoxicants, medicine and warfare, children’s health, food and nutrition, gender and health, mental health, disability, health and the environment and patient experiences of health and illness.