History of Science, Technology and Medicine The University of Manchester

Overview

Key Features

We will explore key debates such as:

• Why does Britain have a National Health Service?
• Can better science education cure economic problems?
• How did epidemic disease affect the colonial ambitions of the European powers?
• Why do we end up depending on unreliable technologies?

Your studies will pay particular attention to the roles of sites, institutions, and schools of thought and practice, and to the changing ways in which scientists and medics have communicated with non-specialist audiences.

You will learn through lectures, seminars and tutorials and gain experience of historical essay-writing, before researching and writing an extensive dissertation on a specialised topic, supervised by experienced researchers.

This History of Science, Technology and Medicine course from The University of Manchester  focuses on humanities skills, but may be taken successfully by students from any disciplinary background. It works both as an advanced study course for students with undergraduate experience in the history of science, technology and medicine, and as a conversion route for students from other backgrounds, often in the sciences, but also including general history, social policy, and other fields.

The History of Science, Technology and Medicine pathway is appropriate if you have wide-ranging interests across the field, or are interested in the histories of the physical sciences or the life sciences in particular.

Career opportunities

Many of our students go on to PhD research, whether in HSTM itself, in other fields of history, or in a range of allied subjects including historical geography, science and technology studies, and museum studies. PhD graduates from the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine may go on to academic careers or to relevant specialist roles in areas including publishing, public policy research, and the museums sector.

Other graduates have gone on to a diverse range of careers involving a significant element of specialist expertise on the role of science or medicine in society. These have included museums, science centres and the heritage sector; libraries and archives; media production; journalism; specialist public relations; technical authorship and editing; and policy analyst roles.

The HSTM master's is also a valued qualification for general graduate recruitment, owing to its combination of scientific and medical context with a humanities-style focus on writing skills.