Course Overview

The MSc in Health History is a research-led postgraduate programme that seeks to introduce students to various 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 degree is suitable for those from humanities, social science and health science backgrounds and those who work or have worked in healthcare and are interested in learning about the history of their profession.

The MSc Health History is organised around the expertise of eighteen full-time staff members in 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. Our experts all teach in the MSc class and have expertise in a range of fields, including the history of drugs and intoxicants, medicine and warfare, the history of birth control, the history of mental health, the history of maternal health and welfare, the history of disability and the history of public health.

General Eligibility

Academic Requirements

First or second-class Honours degree, or overseas equivalent, in History or a related discipline

Part Time Work Details

20 hours of work permit weekly for international students.

Language Requirement

• IELTS 6.5 overall (no individual band less than 5.5)