Medicine, Science and Society: Historical and Theoretical Perspectives (MA / MSc) - 2012/2013 entry

This programme emphasises the ways in which contemporary preoccupations have emerged from quite different systems of ideas in other times and places. A wide range of options is offered, covering topics from the Renaissance to the present and from Africa to Italy, though the focus is on developments in Britain. Students are awarded an MA or an MSc, based on consultation with the course director.

Find out more about studying in the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology.

• Designed for those wanting to enhance their understanding of the historical roots and the social and conceptual foundations of science and medicine. 
• Taught by internationally reputed scholars who share their research findings with students.

Take a 10-week core module in the first term. In the summer term, there is a five-week module on research skills. This acts as a preparation for the dissertation, which has to be submitted by 30 September of the final year of the programme.

You also take three option modules, selected from the list below. Each module is taught over 10 weeks and most are taught biennially.

Option modules include:

• Darwin, Darwinism and the Modern World
• Death, Disease and the Early Modern City
• Degeneration – Science, Culture and Social Prophecy, 1850–1945
• Disease and Society in Africa in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
• Freud and Psychoanalysis – Past, Present, Future(s)
• Medicines, Industry and Society in Modern Britain
• Practitioners, Patients, Pills and Potions – the Medical World of Pre-industrial Europe c.1400–c.1600
• Psychoanalysis and Fascism
• The Changing Shape of Knowledge, 1550–1750
• The ‘Decline of Magic’ – Magical Ideas in English Society, 1650–1750
• The Origins of Environmentalism.

Please note: not all options are offered each year. You should confirm module availability before enrolling.

Dissertation due 30 September of second year.

The British Museum and the British Library are just a few minutes’ walk away from Birkbeck. Other nearby specialist centres of research include the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine and the Institute of Historical Research, both of which offer regular seminars on research areas covered by the department.

If you are interested in further research, we offer a PhD/MPhil in History.

Graduates go on to careers as researchers, archivists, or journalists, or work in museums and galleries, and in education.

• You should apply as early as possible.
• Interviews from January.