In this blog post, we introduce UCD’s MA in the History of Welfare and Medicine in Society and look back at the work and achievements of some
former students.
MA in the History of Welfare and Medicine in Society
Academic Year 2020/2021
Graduate
Taught (level 9 nfq, credits 90)
Medicine, illness and welfare occupy a central place in all our lives.
The MA in the History of Welfare and Medicine in Society is designed to enable
you to understand the place of medicine and welfare in society and history
(c.1750-1980) and engage with critical debates through various media including
film, literature, and art, amongst others.
The programme explores the main trends within welfare and medical
history from social history, gender history, post-colonial history to
individual experiences of poverty, and of illness throughout history. You will
explore how medicine and welfare regimes and policies overlapped with
culturally constructed conceptions of femininity and masculinity, race and
ethnicity.
The modules are taught through seminars and you will develop expertise
in presenting, analytical thinking, effective communication, and writing with
clarity and precision. You will also partake in a lively seminar series and
benefit from a vibrant postgraduate research community.
The dissertation, at the core the MA, allows you to engage your own research-based interests.
Your fellow students will be from diverse academic backgrounds and the
MA is popular among healthcare professionals keen to understand the historical
contexts that shaped current practices and systems.
The MA has a reputation for excellence and is taught be lecturers with
international profiles in the field.
Why do this MA?
Graduates have secured employment in the fields of media, education,
politics and in private and public sector management and policy.
Graduates have also proceeded to PhD studies at Irish, British, and
European institutions, securing prestigious external funding.
 |
| Assoc Prof Catherine Cox, Director, UCD Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland |
Further Details
Please see the course description for the MA in the History of Welfare and Medicine in Society at UCD Graduates Studies.
Former MA Students
In 2013 David Durnin contributed a post to this blog about Irish doctors in the first world war. A former MA student, David completed his PhD in history at the UCD Centre for the History of
Medicine in Ireland (2014) and received several grants and awards for his work
including an Irish Research Council postgraduate scholarship and the Royal
College of Physicians of Ireland History of Medicine Research Award. David has published
the following books:
- David Durnin, The Irish Medical Profession and the First World War (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
- David Durnin and Ian Miller (eds), Medicine, Health and Irish Experiences of Conflict, 1914–45 (Manchester University Press, 2016).
Another former MA student David Kilgannon published a post for us about AIDS and history in Ireland in 2015. David recently completed a Wellcome Trust funded PhD at the Department of History, NUI Galway, exploring
changing responses to those with an intellectual disability in Ireland in
the period 1947-84.
Our community of graduate scholars continues to grow. Posts by our most recent graduates, based on their MA research include:
- Natalie Baldwin, ‘A Prescription for Change: Training a Doctor in Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Ireland’.
