I trained at the University of Edinburgh, taking a BSc (Hons) degree in Zoology and Science Studies. I then studied at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, completing a PhD with a thesis on smallpox inoculation in 18 th century Britain. Before coming to the Open University, I taught at Edinburgh, Manchester and Huddersfield Universities.
I made a major contribution to A218 Medicine and Society in Europe, 1500-1930, chairing the course in the later stages of production and in presentation. In 2007 A218 won an OU award for the quality of its teaching materials. I am currently deputy chair of the foundation course AA100 The Arts Past and Present, and wrote on a wide range of topics for the course, from medieval Islamic medicine to the British seaside. I am now involved on the Openings course Y180 Making sense of the arts. I have taken a leading role in designing the computing components on a number of courses including a DVD ROM teaching the use of visual sources for the history of medicine and a computer game to test students’ knowledge of the growth of seaside resorts.
I have successfully supervised a number of postgraduate students working on all aspects of modern medicine.
Susan Knowles, ‘A Regional Study of the Relationships between Workhouses, Hospitals and Anatomists in East Anglia following the 1832 Anatomy Act’ Ph.D completed 2010.
Catherine Lee, ‘The Contagious Diseases Act in Kent,’ Ph.D, completed 2008.
John MacKeith, ‘The Early Careers of Scottish Medical Graduates in the Nineteenth Century’, M.Phil, completed 2005.
Peter Higgins, ‘Medical Care in Prisons in the early Nineteenth century’, Ph.D, completed 2004. Published as Punish or Treat? Medical Care in English Prisons, 1770-1850 (Victoria, BC: Trafford Publishing, 2007).
Anna Simmons,‘The Scientific Activities of the Society of Apothecaries, 1750-1921’, Ph.D completed 2004.
I am currently supervising students working on the following topics:
Yvonne Fisher, ‘ The Role of the Coroner in the Nineteenth Century: A Study of Thomas Wakley and His Contemporaries and Their Influence on medical and Coronial Legislation in Victorian Society’
Julia Matheson, PhD ‘Common Grounds. Working-Class Horticulture in the East End of London, 1840-1914’
‘The Contagious Diseases Acts in Hong Kong’
After many years working on smallpox inoculation and vaccination, I am now researching into public health in nineteenth-century Scotland, with support from the Wellcome Trust. The study looks at a range of records from a large number of urban and rural communities across Scotland to construct a cultural history of public health, re-examining the motivation behind sanitary reform, and setting it within a wider project of civic growth and development.
Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for the History of Medicine, University of Glasgow.
The Politics of Vaccination. Practice and Policy in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, 1800-1874 (Rochester, USA: Rochester University Press, February 2008)
‘Evil Necessaries and Abominable Erections: Public Conveniences and Private Interests in the Scottish City, 1830-1870’ Social History of Medicine 18 (2005) 187-202.
‘The Idea of a Germ’ (Essay review of Michael Worboys, Spreading Germs. Disease Theories and Medical Practice in Britain, 1865-1900 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000) Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 34 (2003) 367-73.
‘Power, Policy and Practice: Public Health in the Scottish City’ in Steven Sturdy (ed) Medicine and the Public Sphere (Society for the Social History of Medicine series, London: Routledge, 2002)
‘A Question of Priority: Alexander Wood, Charles Hunter and the Hypodermic Administration of Medicines’ Proceedings of the Royal College of Physicians, 30 (2000), 349-51.
‘The Problems of Implementation: the Failure and Success of Public Vaccination against Smallpox in Ireland, 1840-1873’ in Elizabeth Malcolm and Greta Jones (eds) Medicine, Disease and the State in Ireland 1750-1950 (Cork: Cork University Press, 1999, 138-57.
‘Practitioners versus Legislators: the Shaping of the Scottish Vaccination Act’ Proceedings of the Royal College of Physicians 23, (1993) 193-201.
‘Smallpox Inoculation and Demographic Trends in Eighteenth century Scotland’ Medical History, 36 (1992) 403-29.
See also Open Research Online for further details of Deborah Brunton’s research publications.
