Twentieth century disease ecologies: an intellectual history of emergence, 1920-1970 - Extension. (360G-Wellcome-103159_Z_13_A)

Although the origins of the modern ecological understanding of infectious diseases has been examined by other scholars, for the most part these studies have focussed on specific groups of scientists and/or disciplinary settings. Moreover, preliminary studies of the subject are divided as to the extent to which these ecological perspectives were already present in medical micribiology as opposed to being importation from biology and molecular genetics. There is a need therefore for a comprehensiv e, monograph-length study that surveys the history of ecological perspectives across a range of disciplines from bacteriological epidemiology, to evolutionary biology, parasitology, animal ecology and immunology, and across a broader group of scientific researchers. In particular, this study will build on the preliminary surveys of this field by Anderson, King, Mendelsohn, and Tilley (see bibliography) by tracing the intellectual influences and professional associations between scientists at the forefront of research into epidemic diseases in the interwar and post-war periods. At the same time it will examine the connections between these scientists and key public health institutions, such as the Rockefeller Foundation and the Hooper Foundation, and the effect that post-war debates around the eradication of infectious diseases and environmental politics had on these nascent ecological perspectives