About

I am a historian of science and medicine and I teach history at the Department of History at the University of Nottingham. I have previously taught the history of science at the University of Leeds, and conducted postdoctoral research in history at The National Archives and the University of Birmingham.

My research explores the boundaries between science and society, the history of public health, and cultural representations of medicine. My recent book looks at the social and cultural influences on our notions of mental health through looking at the history of mental health diagnosis and public health statistics in the UK between 1800 and 1945. I have also recently published work on representations of mental health in Hollywood films between the 1940s and 1960s.

I am currently developing research on the way eugenics movements in Britain studied insanity and how this shaped the development of research and public policy on mental health during the twentieth century. I am also working on the history of ‘over diagnosis’ and the weaponisation of over diagnosis by political parties to justify welfare cuts, especially in relation to mental health conditions.

In my spare time I play guitar as part of ‘Hearing Things’, a collective of musicians based in Sheffield who perform pieces by minimalist composers, indulge in my love of the history of philosophy, and I dabble as an amateur in the history and philosophy of film.