Centre for Health, Medicine and Society - School of Arts and ...

2009, Drs Alysa Levene and Tim McHugh will have completed a five-year period funded
by a RCUK Academic Fellowship Award and a Wellcome Trust University Award,
respectively, and they will both assume full teaching roles as senior lecturers in the
History Department. Dr Levene was awarded a Brookes Teaching Fellowship in 2009 for
a project on using assessment to bridge the first year transition for undergraduate
students.
The Centre is grateful to the Wellcome Trust for funding a number of postdoctoral
fellowships, and doctoral and master studentships. This Centre now has an active
community of fellows and postgraduate students enrolled on the MPhil/PhD programme
in the History of Medicine. Drs Yolanda Eraso and Ina Scherder started their fellowships
in September 2007, and Dr Kim Price in 2008. Both Drs Eraso and Price had previously
held doctoral studentships in the Centre funded by the Wellcome Trust and the AHRC,
respectively. Dr Scherder joined Oxford Brookes after completing her doctorate at the
University of Trier. From September 2008 to June 2009, Dr Projit Mukharji was a
postdoctoral fellow working with Professor Ernst, funded by a Wellcome Trust grant
transferred from the University of Southampton. Dr Mukharji has now taken up a post at
McMaster University, Canada. Details of the fellowships and studentships are given in
the report.
In addition to postdoctoral research fellows, the Centre has had a number of
postgraduate researchers employed on specific, grant-funded projects. Alison Stringer
has worked as a researcher for Professor Steve King’s Wellcome Trust funded project
on the sick poor in England in the 18th and 19th centuries, and Dr Helen Sweet as a
senior researcher for Professor Anne Digby’s Wellcome Trust funded pilot project on
outreach at McCord Hospital, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. In July 2009 Dr Tudor Georgescu,
who previously held a Wellcome Trust doctoral studentship in the Centre, commenced
work as a researcher on Dr Marius Turda’s one-year Wellcome Trust funded pilot project
on Romanian eugenics. Dr Anna von Villiez is currently the Research Officer for
Professor Paul Weindling’s three-year AHRC funded project on victims of human
experiments under National Socialism, which started in October 2007. Two AHRC
doctoral studentships are also associated with this award.
During the period under review, the Centre has been host to a number of international
visitors who have come to work on collaborative research projects with staff in the
Centre, in many cases funded by grants made available through the Centre. Professor
Estēe Dvorjetski, a Visiting Professor of Oxford Brookes University since 2004, is a
regular visitor and she will be spending the first semester of the coming academic year
in Oxford. Other international visitors have come from France, India, Japan, Norway,
Romania and the United States. In addition to the connections established with our
visitors, the Centre has a number of research associates whose collective expertise is
greatly valued.
As part of the Strategic Award, the Centre has received funding for an administrator (Dr
Carol Beadle) and a new half-time post of Outreach Officer. In October 2008 we were
pleased to appoint Jane Szele to this post. Jane has extensive experience, gained in the
United States, in academic and museum administration and development. Previous
posts held by Jane before joining the Centre include: consultant at the Harvard Museum
of Natural History; and adviser to the Patan Academy of Health Sciences, Kathmandu,
Nepal. Jane has worked energetically to raise the profile of the Centre by developing an
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