Environments, expertise and experience: the transmission and boundaries of medical knowledge and practice. (360G-Wellcome-085433_Z_08_Z)

Our key objective is to expand and sustain a critical mass of researchers exploring three inter-related themes. 1. Environments, bodies and boundaries. Research will focus on the impact of domestic, occupational, and urban environments on medical understandings and patient experiences of disease. Revolving partly around research on stress, this strand will also focus on `sick building syndrome', child health, and the relationship between environmental change and health. 2. Sexual knowled ge, sexual experiences and health. This strand explores theories of sexuality, sexual practice and health from ancient to modern worlds. It encompasses projects on impotence and infertility, bodies, sex and health, and how representations of sexual practices in `other historical contexts have shaped modern debates. 3. Transmission and boundaries of medical knowledge. Much of our research analyses the construction and transmission of medical knowledge across time and space and exchanges betw een expert understandings and lay experiences of disease. We aim to develop these themes into a designated strand that encompasses work on the reception and dissemination of Galen s physiology and research on the cultural history of heredity. Seminars, joint conferences, staff exchange schemes and collaborative research projects will be used to disseminate research findings, strengthen international links, and facilitate comparative research.