The Research Group for the 'History of Medicine and Public Health' is a vibrant community of scholars from the School of History and other Schools in the Faculty of Arts at Leeds whose research and teaching encompasses the histories of medicine and public health in the medieval, early modern and modern periods.

We examine the social, cultural, economic, demographic and political contexts of the practice of medicine, and explore what was 'public' about health in different time periods and parts of the world.  Our research is global in scope and focuses in particular on reproductive health, mortality, nutrition, mental health, the political dimensions of healthcare, the relationship between gender and health, and the intersection between medicine and religion.

Our research feeds into the teaching of a number of undergraduate and postgraduate modules, such as HIST2170 'Patient Voices: Medicine and Healthcare in the Middle Ages', HIST2220 'The Body, Disease and Society in Europe, 1500-1750', HIST3260 'Tradition and Modernity in Colonial Africa: Uganda's Kingdoms 1862-1964', HIST5960M 'The British Settler Colonies in Africa', and HIST5875M 'Lifecycles: Birth, Death and Illness in the Middle Ages'.

We work closely with scholars in other fields, and actively seek to bring up-to-date research in medical history to a wider audience.  The School of History is host to You Are What You Ate, an innovative project supported by the Wellcome Trust and run by historians, scientists, historical re-enactors and archaeologists, which aims to encourage public debate and personal reflection on modern eating habits through exploration of the dietary choices of the past.