I am a historian of health, medicine and illness (1750 to the present), with particular interests in the development of medical journalism and the history of surgery and first aid. As Humanities and Healthcare Fellow, I work to foster interdisciplinary collaboration between the Humanities and Medical Sciences Divisions.
Research Interests:
I have a long-standing interest in the history of surgery, its changing social and cultural context and its ethical implications. My open access monograph, Belly-Rippers, Surgical Innovation and the Ovariotomy Controversy, published in 2018, looked at the history of ovariotomy, a highly controversial operation popularised in the nineteenth century, and which brought with it questions about the degree of power that surgeons could and should exercise over the human body. I am currently working on my second monograph about the development of medical journalism in the nineteenth century.
