MA History of Welfare & Medicine in Society
Graduate Taught (level 9 nfq, credits 90)
This innovative MA programme enables you to critically engage with debates in welfare and medical history in the modern period, within Ireland and internationally. Themes include eugenics; migration; institutionalisation and patients' experiences, analysed through social, gender, class and post-colonial history.
The MA has a reputation for excellence taught by lecturers with international profiles.
Modules are taught through seminars. You will develop expertise in presenting, analytical thinking, effective communication, and writing with clarity and precision.
The dissertation, at the core of the MA, allows you to engage your own research-based interests.
Medicine, illness and welfare occupies a central place in all our lives. The MA is designed to enable students who want to understand the place of medicine and welfare in society and history (c1750-1980) and to engage with some critical debates. Students will have the opportunity to explore themes through various media including film, literature, and art, amongst others.
How did culture and society respond to disease, health campaigns, new medical theories and innovations? Is there a relationship between medicine, welfare, ethnicity and identity?
How is medical and lay knowledge of sickness and therapeutics formed?
Can an understanding of these questions help in the development of current public health policy?
The MA provides a comprehensive understanding of historical methodologies and their potential application to current debates about disease and welfare.
The practical skills project-management, writing with clarity and precision, and communication skills garnered are essential for a range of careers including teaching, all forms of media, politics and academia.