Doctoral Program

Welcome to the Doctoral Program in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology

Our Doctoral Program attracts a strong cohort of students from diverse backgrounds, including medicine, science, and history. Our PhD program prepares them for scholarly careers in teaching, research, and policy. The program is sponsored by two departments and students apply to, enroll in, and graduate from either History of Medicine or History of Science and Technology, but take courses in both.

In collaboration with the School of Public Health, we offer a combined degree program, the PhD in the History of Medicine/MHS in International Health; for School of Public Health students we contribute to a reciprocal combined PhD in International Health/MA in the History of Medicine.

We offer a range of graduate courses, such as the graduate survey, research seminars, reading seminars, and individualized tutorials. All of our students gain valuable teaching experience as TAs for undergraduate courses and our senior students have proved very successful in winning Dean’s Teaching Fellowships which enable them to design and teach their own undergraduate courses.

Thematically, the Department focuses upon the histories of global health and disease; biomedicine; medical ways of knowing; healing practices; and the body. Temporal and geographic emphases include early modern Europe; sixteenth- to twentieth-century England; nineteenth- and twentieth-century Africa; early modern and modern China; twentieth-century America; and Russian and Soviet-era medicine and science.

Our program is warm and collegial; typically, our students consult with a number of faculty informally, while working closely with an adviser and a committee. We pride ourselves on careful and close mentorship. All departmental students fulfill a common set of requirements, but we tailor the program to fit each student’s individual research and training needs.

For more information on our graduate program, contact Prof. Ahmed Ragab (aragab2@jhmi.edu).