Latest department news
Did You Know...?
The School of History was ranked No. 2 in the country in the Research Assessment Exercise 2008, and has just launched a new Modern History MA programme, for September 2009.
New Appointment in the History of Modern Medicine
The School of History is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Julie Anderson to the post of Senior Lecturer in the History of Medicine.
Dr Anderson's area of expertise is the cultural and social history of 20th century medicine in Britain and the Commonwealth, particularly with regards to war and medicine, surgery and disability. She will be with the department from May 2010.
Professor Schmidt's Appointment at Wellcome
Professor Schmidt, who has been the key driving force behind the success and development of the History of Medicine at Kent, has recently been appointed by the Wellcome Trust's Board of Governors to the Medical History and Humanities Funding Committee. This appointment lasts for a period of three years, from 1 October 2009.
More
In 2004, Professor Schmidt was awarded a Wellcome Trust project grant of around ₤200.000, and in 2005, he was instrumental in securing a prestigious Wellcome Trust University Award of around ₤220.000.
Under Professor Schmidt’s leadership, the School of History has recently advertised for a Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in the History of Modern Medicine which is part of the School’s long-term strategy to invest and further develop excellence in research and teaching in medical history and the humanities.
Professor Smith receives international award
Professor Crosbie Smith (Professor of History of Science) and his co-author, Dr Anne Scott, were recently awarded the prestigious Abbott Payson Usher Prize for their article Trust in Providence: Building Confidence into the Cunard Line of Steamers.
The Prize is awarded by the US-based Society for the History of Technology to the author(s) of the best article published by the Society in the preceding three calendar years. The article was derived from his AHRC-funded ‘Ocean Steamship Project’ (2001-7) which received a grant of around £500,000.
This is Professor Smith’s third major international award. Professor Fincham, Head of the School, commented: ‘One of the School of History’s great strengths over the years has been in the history of science and technology, in which Crosbie Smith has presided over a team of innovative scholars with an international reputation for the quality and innovation of its writings’
Antony Beevor
Updated.On October 6, acclaimed military historian Antony Beevor launched the School of History's open seminar series with a talk entitled Playing Fast and Loose with History.
In his talk, Beevor challenged his audience on the dangers of 'faction creep' and 'counter-knowledge', before tackling questions from those in attendance.
Beevor holds an honorary degree from the University of Kent, and is perhaps best-known for his critically-acclaimed Stalingrad and Berlin - The Downfall. The Guardian recently praised him with '...single-handedly transforming the reputation of military history.'
Karl Brandt - Hitler's Doctor
Professor Ulf Schmidt's book, Karl Brandt. The Nazi Doctor. Medicine and Power in the Third Reich,(Continuum, 2007) has recently been published in a revised German edition as Hitlers Arzt - Karl Brandt: Medizin und Macht im Dritten Reich (Aufbau Verlag, Berlin, 2009).
This is the first full-scale biography of Karl Brandt, Hitler’s doctor, one of the most powerful figures of the Third Reich.
More
Professor Schmidt's book tells the story of Brandt's rise to power and influence at the heart of Hitler’s inner sanctum of trusted servants and asks how a rational, highly cultured, young professional could become responsible for mass murder and criminal human experiments on a previously unimaginable scale?
In this riveting biography, Ulf Schmidt explores in detail that Brandt belonged to a generation of a young ‘expert élite’, who in the 1930s and 1940s were willing, and empowered, to support and conceive an oppressive, militarist and racist government policy, and ultimately turn its exterminatory potential into reality.
Professor Sir Ian Kershaw praised the book as follows: “Ulf Schmidt’s excellent biography of Karl Brandt, a significant, though hitherto remarkably little-known, member of Hitler’s entourage casts significant new light on how a cultured, intelligent and idealistic doctor could so fervently believe in the principles of Nazi inhumanity that down to his execution he saw nothing wrong in eliminating the sick and infirm in the interests of a more healthy Volkskörper”.
Steam, Sail and Science
On Friday 11 September The National Maritime Museum, in conjunction with the School of History's Centre for the Study of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM), will be hosting a one day symposium exploring the realtionship between naval history and the history of science and technology and new areas of research in Victorian and Edwardian maritime history.
More information can be found on the symposium's webpage.
