Funding: pre-dissertation funding

Wellcome Trust, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge
The Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge (U.K.) invites applications from candidates with interests in all areas of history of medicine who would like to be nominated for the Wellcome Trust's annual master's award and doctoral studentship competitions.
The Department also invites applications for two doctoral studentships funded by a five-year Wellcome enhancement award in history of medicine. We seek outstanding candidates whose research would fall in the field 'From Generation to Reproduction', i.e. who would investigate some aspect of how, since 1500, our world of reproductive practice and controversy was created.
We wish to highlight the making, organization and communication of reproductive knowledge among and between experts and laypeople. To this end, we shall draw critically on work in history of medicine and science, women's and gender history, studies of anatomo- and biopolitics, and sociology and anthropology of the sciences, technology and medicine. We would like to open up new fields of historical inquiry and take fresh approaches to established topics in the history of medicine and biology. Special interest attaches to the constitution of 'reproduction' as a new object of medical intervention and scientific research, and the increasing modern detachment of sex and reproduction.
Areas in which suitable historical projects could be proposed include (but are not limited to):
- early-modern investigations into generation;
- generation and childbirth in early-modern medical cases and case-books;
- the reorganization of knowledge of generation/reproduction, especially in the age of revolutions;
- such sciences as embryology, obstetrics, gynaecology, evolutionary biology, reproductive physiology, sexual science, genetics and developmental biology;
- the visual cultures of these sciences;
- movements for sex reform around birth control and sexology;
- networks linking experimental biology to reproductive medicine and public health, agriculture, especially animal breeding, and pharmaceutical industry;
- new techniques for monitoring and manipulating pregnancy, genes, gametes and embryos, e.g. pregnancy testing, genetic screening, in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer;
- new social and psychological practices for making babies and families.

Informal inquiries may be made to the teaching officer with the most relevant interests. Applications should be submitted through the Board of Graduate Studies in the usual way. Deadline: May 1 of each year