History of Medicine, Science, and Technology » News (tag [Announcement])

CALL FOR PAPERS-Blood is the Price of Coal

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 09:41:39 GMT

Dear all,
We invite the submission of papers for the Blood Is the Price of Coal Conference 2026

This free one-day conference aims to bring together researchers from higher education, community and campaign groups to explore the history of health and welfare in Britain’s coal mining industry. Held jointly by the University of Warwick's Centre for the History of Medicine, Science and Technology, and Modern Records Centre, the event will run alongside an exhibition which will explore some of the themes covered by the speakers through the National Union of Mineworkers' archives. We welcome contributions from new and established researchers, working inside and outside higher education.

Location: University of Warwick, Coventry,

Date: 18 June 2026.

'Like sausages in a sausage machine’: medical resistance to the dehumanisation of obstetrics in postwar Britain (Morris 1960, 913)

Wed, 06 May 2026 08:35:00 GMT

‘Never in Asylum Before’: Childbirth, Insanity and Jewish Mothers in Colney Hatch Asylum c.1900

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 11:08:00 GMT

We’re delighted to share that Hilary has recently published an article in Social History of Medicine. This is an outcome of her Wellcome Investigator Award held at Warwick between 2021 and 2025, which explored postnatal mental disorders in twentieth-century Britain along with postdoctoral fellows, Kelly-Ann Couzens and Fabiola Creed. This has appeared as an advanced Open Access article and will be part of a special issue on Women, Reproduction and Mental Illness, scheduled to appear later this year.

This article explores the admission of Jewish women diagnosed with mental disorders related to pregnancy and childbearing into Colney Hatch Asylum around 1900. Admissions with puerperal insanity were prevalent amongst ‘Hebrew’ women, and in published work, including that of the institution’s medical officers, this was related to assumptions about marital and sexual practices, heredity and the ‘neurotic’ tendencies of Jewish people. However, analysis of the asylum’s casebooks reveals discrepancies between these explanations and those drawn on in practice. Similarly to other women admitted with disorders associated with childbearing, the mental breakdown of Jewish women was largely attributed to domestic stress and the strains of childbirth. The article also explores the testimonies of family members whose comments were incorporated into the asylum records, suggesting that these provide valuable insights into families’ understanding of the role of childbirth in prompting mental breakdown, reinforcing institutional diagnoses or at times diverging from them.

Please access here : https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/hkaf098

Traumatised Minds: Neurosis and Hysteria in Soviet Medicine and Culture, 1971-1953

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 10:41:00 GMT

The call for papers is out for Dr Anna Toropova's Cultures of Trauma Workshop, 8-9 May 2025. More information and to apply here.

She is also recruiting for a Research Fellow for a 2-year fixed term contract, starting 1 September 2025. Apply here

Find out more about the Traumatised Minds: Neurosis and Hysteria in Soviet Medicine and Culture, 1971-1953 research project here.

Anniversary fever? History and the culture of NHS celebration

Fri, 24 Jan 2025 11:26:00 GMT

Congratulations to Roberta Bivins and Mathew Thomson who have had their article about NHS anniversaries published in Modern British History.

This was drawn from reflections from The Cultural History of the NHS research project.

Read the full article here

Abstract

Delivered a day after Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) reached its 75th year since its opening on the Appointed Day of 5 July 1948, the Pimlott Lecture for 2023 explored the culture of NHS anniversary-making. What can the marking of these anniversaries tell us about changing attitudes towards the service, and indeed, the British state? Here, examining evidence from the media, government archives, and Mass Observation, we argue that NHS anniversaries have long functioned as points of reflection but that their role as moments of national celebration and even communion has come to the fore only recently and culminated in the apparent ‘anniversary fever’ of 2018. We will explore the reasons behind the growing public fervour, what it can tell us, and the lessons offered by our work on this (still) best-loved of British institutions for historians working on highly politicized objects in ‘fevered’ times.

"Low Risk Doesn't Mean No Risk": The Making of Lesbian Safer-Sex and the Creation of New (S)experts in the Late Twentieth Century

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 11:19:31 GMT

We are happy to announce that 'The Cultural History of the NHS' project continues to bear fruit!

Dr Hannah Elizabeth, one of our postdoctoral Fellows, has just published their chapter, '“Low Risk Doesn’t Mean No Risk”: The Making of Lesbian Safer-Sex and the Creation of New (S)experts in the Late Twentieth Century' (open access here), an exciting piece of work informed by and begun during their time with us here at CHM!

Dr Elizabeth is now a Fellow on Dr Rebecca Wright's fantastic Wellcome Trust funded Project Carbon Bodies: Warmth and Fuelling Health in Britain, 1918 to 2022 at the University of Northumbria.

Congratulations to Samir Hamdoud on his successful Viva!

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 09:42:00 GMT

The CHM Team is very happy to celebrate Samir Hamdoud's successful viva last week.

Congratulations to Samir and his supervisor Hilary Marland, with thanks to examiners Claudia Stein and Vicky Long.

Nemone Lethbridge's play 'Baby Blues' on BBC television: maternal mental illness narratives, stigma and support in 1970s Britain

Mon, 18 Mar 2024 10:53:00 GMT

Dr Fabiola Creed, CHM Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the Wellcome Trust funded project The Last Taboo of Motherhood, which explores the history of maternal mental illness in twentieth-century Britian, has had an article published in Women's History Review.

Read the full article here

Abstract

In December 1973, the BBC aired Nemone Lethbridge’s auto-fictional play 'Baby Blues' as one of their influential ‘Play for Today’ (PfT) series (1970–1984). This article explores the impact of Lethbridge’s controversial television play, which drew attention to taboo topics, such as infertility, caesarean section childbirth, infanticide, suicide, and, separately, motherhood ageism and dismissive medical professionals. It will illustrate how Lethbridge’s play 'Baby Blues' was part of a broader change in discussing maternal mental illness and creating support for women experiencing postnatal depression and psychosis, instigated by the Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM). The article situates 'Baby Blues' within the wider history of the PfT series, with its focus on socio-political issues, and highlights the challenges Lethbridge faced in bringing the play to production. It analyses the mixed responses to the play, many of which were critical, and how this led to Lethbridge’s launching of a grass-roots self-help group, Depressives Anonymous (DA), in 1974, which was—and still is—a long-lasting legacy of 'Baby Blues'. The article builds on the history of maternal mental illness as explored in women’s narratives and its association with stigma, support and feminism, alongside the British Broadcasting Corporation’s television series PfT, in 1970s Britain.

Hybrid Lecture, 25 April 2024: Silenced and (Sur)veiled: Inscribing Identity on the Female Migrant Body

Fri, 23 Feb 2024 09:46:08 GMT

Professor Roberta Bivins, CHM Director, will be giving a talk on 'Silenced and (Sur)veiled: Inscribing Identity on the Female Migrant Body', at the Geneva Graduate Institute on 25 April 2024, as part of their Gender Seminar Series.

To find out more information about the event and to join the seminar, please click here.

The Mizo Discovery of the British Raj: Empire and Religion in Northeast India, 1890-1920

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 10:36:26 GMT

Congratulations to former CHM PhD student, Dr Kyle Jackson (2017), whose amazing doctoral dissertation (supervised by David Hardiman and Roberta Bivins) has just been published by Cambridge University Press. Order a copy here

Another great read for the CHM shelves!