Professor Hilary Marland, of the Centre for the History of Medicine, Department of History, has been awarded a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award worth just over £1 million to research health in prisons.

‘Prisoners, Medical Care and Entitlement to Health in England and Ireland, 1850-2000’ will undertake innovative research into topics that resonate with current concerns in the prison service, including the very high incidence of mental health problems amongst prisoners, the health of women in prison, and responses to addiction and HIV/AIDS. The project will seek to answer pressing questions, such as who advocates for prisoners’ health, to what extent are prisoners deemed entitled to health care, how do debates on human rights influence the provision of medical care for prisoners, and to what extent are prison doctors constrained by dual loyalty to the prison service and to prisoners themselves, their patients?

The project will engage with policy makers and prison reform organisations, and result in several public outreach projects, including a theatrical performance and commissioned artwork. Dr Catherine Cox, of Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland at University College Dublin, and Professor Virginia Berridge, at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, will be collaborating on the project.

Previous Wellcome Trust project grant success

Research from Professor Hilary Marland's and Dr Catherine Cox's, University College Dublin, previous Wellcome Trust project grant: 'Madness, Migration and the Irish in Lancashire, c.1850-1921' has lead to a collaboration with theatre company Talking Birds to create a new production, entitled ‘A Malady of Migration’.The drama production is funded by the Wellcome Trust grant, with additional contributions from the Institute of Advanced Study and the Department of History at Warwick and the Centres for the History of Medicine at Warwick and UCD. They will be supported by postgraduate students and others, who will be conducting supplementary research and taking supporting roles in the drama.