School of Social and Political Science

Background

I am an interdisciplinary scholar working at the intersection of the history and sociology of science and medicine. Originally trained in the biological sciences, I found myself increasingly interested in understanding science itself: what it is, how it produces trustworthy knowledge, and what work it does in the wider world. I went on to study for a Master's degree in the philosophy of science followed by a PhD at the University of Edinburgh's renowned Science Studies Unit. After seven years of postdoctoral research and teaching at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at the University of Manchester, I returned to the University of Edinburgh with a Wellcome Trust University Award in the History of Medicine. I have remained here ever since, as the Science Studies Unit has expanded and amalgamated with other units to become one of the world's largest and most dynamic centres of research and teaching in science, technology and innovation studies. 

Qualifications

• MA (Natural Sciences) University of Cambridge
• MA (Philosophy of Science) University of Western Ontario
• PhD (Science Studies) University of Edinburgh

Publications

“Local mutations: On the tentative beginnings of molecular oncology in Britain 1980-2000”, New Genetics & Society, publish ahead of print, February 2021, DOI: 10.1080/14636778.2021.1880887 

“Finding the global in the local: constructing population in the search for disease genes”, in Jean-Paul Gaudillière, Claire Beaudevin, Christoph Gradmann, Anne M. Lovell, Laurent Pordié (eds), Global Health and the New World Order: Historical and Anthropological Approaches of a Transition (Manchester University Press, 2020), pp. 154-182.

“Half a century of Wilson & Jungner: reflections on the governance of population screening”, Wellcome Open Research, 2020, 5:158, DOI 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16057.2 (with Fiona Miller, Stuart Hogarth, and twenty-six others)

"Seeing utility: regulatory reform and genetic tests in the USA, 1989-2000”, Sociology of Health & Illness, e-pub ahead of print (2020), DOI 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.112924

“Patient organization involvement and the challenge of securing access to treatments for rare diseases: report of a policy engagement workshop”, Research Involvement and Engagement, 3 (2017): 14, DOI 10.1186/s40900-017-0065-z (with Koichi Mikami)

The Therapeutic Implications of Muscular Dystrophy Genomics, Wellcome Witnesses to Contemporary Medicine, vol. 62 (London: Queen Mary University of London, 2017), edited with Apostoulos Zarros, Caroline Overy, Koichi Mikami and E.M. Tansey

“Biotechnology and the transformation of vaccine innovation: the case of the hepatitis B vaccines 1968-2000”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 64.1 (2017), 11-21 (with Farah Huzair)

“Personalized medicine and the economy of biotechnological promise”, in Therese Feiler, Kezia Gaitzkell, Tim Maughan and Joshua Hordern (eds), Personalized Medicine: The Promise, the Hype and the Pitfalls, Special Issue, The New Bioethics: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Biotechnology and the Body, 23.1 (2017), 30-37

“Doing comparison: producing authority in an international organization”, in Annabelle Littoz-Monnet (ed.), The Politics of Expertise in International Organizations (London: Routledge, 2017), pp. 187-202 (with Richard Freeman)

“Importing forensic technologies into border control: genetic ancestry and isotope testing in the UKBA’s Human Provenance Pilot Project”, in Benjamin N. Lawrance (ed.), Adjudicating Refugee and Asylum Status: The Role of Witness, Expertise, and Testimony (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015), pp. 202-220 (with Richard Tutton and Christine Hauskeller)

Knowledge in Policy: Embodied, Inscribed, Enacted (Bristol: Policy Press, 2014), edited with Richard Freeman

“Suspect technologies: forensic testing of asylum seekers at the UK border”, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 37.5 (2014), 738-752 (with Richard Tutton and Christine Hauskeller)

Genetics and the Sociology of Identity, Special Issue, Sociology, 47.5 (2013), edited with Christine Hauskeller and Richard Tutton.

“Reciprocal instrumentalism: Scotland, WHO Europe, and mental health”, International Journal of Public Policy, 9.4-6 (2013), 260-276 (with Jennifer Smith-Merry and Richard Freeman)

"Making knowledge for international policy: WHO Europe and mental health policy, 1970-2008", Social History of Medicine, 26.3 (2013), 532-554 (with Richard Freeman and Jennifer Smith-Merry)

"Recovery in Scotland: the rise and uncertain future of a mental health social movement", Society and Mental Health, 3.2 (2013), 114-132 (with Jennifer Smith-Merry)

"Stakeholder consultation as social mobilization: framing Scottish mental health policy", Social Policy and Administration, 46.7 (2012), 823–844 (with Jennifer Smith-Merry and Richard Freeman)

"The meanings of 'life': biology and biography in the work of J.S. Haldane", Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 21 (2011),171-191.

“Implementing recovery: an analysis of the key technologies in Scotland”, International Journal of Mental Health Services, 5 (2011), article 11 (with Jennifer Smith-Merry, Richard Freeman)

"Looking for trouble: medical science and clinical practice in the historiography of modern medicine", Social History of Medicine, 24 (2011), 739-757.

"Scientific method for medical practitioners: The case method of teaching pathology in early twentieth-century Edinburgh", Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 81 (2007), 760-792.

"Knowing cases: biomedicine in Edinburgh, 1887-1920", Social Studies of Science, 37 (2007), 659-689.

"Making sense in the pathology museum" in Anatomy Acts: How We Come to Know Ourselves, ed. Andrew Patrizio and Dawn Kemp (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2006), pp.107-115.