MancHSTM

@manchstm.bsky.social

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We are the Centre for the History of Science, Technology & Medicine (CHSTM) at the University of Manchester. Follow us for updates about seminars, events, research, teaching. Currently posting: @ctimmermann.bsky.social https://www.chstm.manchester.ac.uk

Front cover of the BHM special issue on Photographs as Sources for African Histories of Health and Healing. Photo shows a villager in Lusigetti, Kenya, undergoing a chest radiograph provided by a WHO mobile X-ray unit, 1959, HQ31102, WHO Photo Library.
Event flyer - all details are available on the event registration page - click on the link in the post.
Group of people in front of No 10 Downing Street.
Book cover
Lawn with deck chairs and a redbrick university office building in the background.
Dr James Sumner and a young boy with colourful headphones interacting with a robot toy at Dr Sumner's Electric Dreams stall. Photo by Dr Erin Beeston.
SUMMARY New research explores how people learn about childbirth, and the impacts of knowledge practices observed in formal antenatal preparation. The study focuses on collective learning (storytelling, group-led sessions) while also considering the impacts of conventional practices (hospital procedure, midwife/teacher-led classes). The first part of this article introduces the project, with a closer look at advantages and limitations of midwife/teacher-led and group-led antenatal preparation. This qualitative research offers nuanced and grounded insights into how people learn about childbirth. Part two will be published in The Practising Midwife July 2025 issue. INTRODUCTION Childbirth is not an easy prospect and many birthing people find that standard childbirth education does not provide the preparation they need. Although positive impacts of participant-led formats are well accepted, most UK antenatal preparation uses a teacher-led class format. "Knowing Childbirth: Birth Stories and Collective Learning" is an ethnographic study exploring the role of storytelling, group-led formats and other collective practices in antenatal learning. This article introduces the research and summarises key differences between midwife/teacher-led and groupled settings. Other findings appear in the next issue of The Practicing Midwife, a forthcoming paper in Frontiers in Global Women’s Health, and the associated PhD thesis.
Book cover and cover blurb: Assemblages of Cancer offers a comparative, in-depth analysis of breast cancer in the UK, France and Italy, linking patients’ experiences with the biomedical, political and cultural context of the disease. The book is based on ten years of ethnographic research with patients and medical professionals across the three countries. It shows how breast cancer experiences can be best understood as provisional assemblages involving transformed bodies, uncertainties due to a possible relapse, and tinkering with standardised protocols and pathways to make treatments work for each patient. The analysis highlights the shared specificities and internal variations of breast cancer in the three countries. It explores how universal healthcare systems impacted by privatisation processes, local variations in the workings of biomedicine, and local changes to the North American pink ribbon discourses and advocacy transform the experiences of breast cancer. The book presents an in-depth analysis of how breast cancer and its treatments alter not only women’s bodies but also their personal and professional lives. It further analyses patients’ strategies to rebuild new meaning and values around the uncertainties brought by cancer and to counter its consequences. Across the chapters, the analyses cover questions linked to the organisation of healthcare systems, cultural discourses about breast cancer, and medical innovation. They connect these topics to how patients’ bodies are redefined and how their experiences and expectations for the future change. Additionally, they examine how breast cancer affects patients’ working lives and relationships, ultimately leading to a new understanding of the disease in Europe today.
Screenshot of the article