Fully-funded collaborative PhD studentship: history of medical advertising
“Constructing and Consuming Imagined Futures: Advertising Healthcare to Publics and Professionals in Twentieth-century Britain”
The University of Leeds Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science,
in collaboration with the Science Museum and the Boots Company Archive,
invites applications for a fully-funded three-year PhD studentship on
healthcare advertising in 20th-century Britain. The studentship award
has been made by the Science Museums & Archives Consortium under the
AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership scheme.
The project, due to begin in October 2017, will be supervised by Dr James Stark and Dr Adrian Wilson at the
University of Leeds, Dr Oisín Wall at the Science Museum, and Sophie Clapp at Boots Company Archive.
Information about the project
The project will investigate, compare and explain
the use of language, expertise, images and authority in printed
advertisements and publicity produced for public audiences and medical
professionals regarding different healthcare products
and campaigns in twentieth-century Britain. Drawing especially on
extensive records at the Science Museum and Boots Company Archive the
student will focus on three case studies across the twentieth century.
This will provide a national picture of the interactions
between healthcare producers and consumers before the NHS, shortly
after it was founded, and once it was well-established.
The project is especially suited to candidates with
interests in British history, history of modern science, technology and
medicine, history of advertising/marketing, and medical humanities and
sociology.
The guiding research questions which the individual case studies will address will be:
1. How was the efficacy of products or services presented to different professional and public audiences?
2. Who were the targets of different medical advertising drives? How and why were they selected?
3. How did medical marketing utilise imagined futures centred around the eradication of disease in order to sell products?
4. What techniques of advertising were used, and
how did these differ over time and as between commercial and
public-health campaigns?
5. What do different advertising techniques reveal
about how particular medical concerns were viewed, or perceived to be
viewed, by audiences?
Where you'll be based
The PhD studentship will be based at the University
of Leeds Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science and the
Science Museum. The Leeds HPS Centre has a very active graduate
programme, including currently around 30 HPS research
students, ten of whom are AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Awards holders.
The wider School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science, within
which HPS is located, has strong affiliations with the cross-School
Centre for Medical Humanities, and offers a stimulating
interdisciplinary environment for postgraduate research.
Applications
Candidates should have, or expect to attain, a good degree and should meet AHRC eligibility criteria: http://www.rcuk.ac.