Alex Mold
BA PhD
Associate Professor
in History
LSHTM
15-17 Tavistock Place
London
WC1H 9SH
United Kingdom
I am a historian of public health in modern Britain. I have worked on the history of heroin addiction, the role of voluntary organisations in health, the development of patient consumerism and the history of health education. My current work is funded by a Wellcome Trust Medical Humanities Investigator Award. This multi-stranded project is concerned with the place of the public in public health in Britain since 1948.
I am Director of the Centre for History in Public Health. This centre brings people together who are interested in the history of public health, health systems and global health.
I am also the joint Head of the Doctoral College.
I have supervised PhD students on women’s activism around breast cancer, the history of health and safety, and lifestyle public health and coronary heart disease. I welcome discussions with prospective students who would like to work on the history of public health in post-war Britain.
Affiliations
Teaching
I organise the History and Health module. I am a tutor on the MSc in Public Health, and I give lectures on a number of other modules. I currently supervise two PhD students who are working on topics connected to the recent history of public health in Britain.
Research
My research interests revolve around the contemporary history of medicine and health in Britain. I have worked on the history of illegal drugs, the role of the voluntary sector in health service provision, the history of health rights and the emergence of patient consumerism. My current work looks at the place of the public in public health in Britain since 1948. Whether it involves appealing to individuals to stop smoking, or asking patients what they think of health services, the ‘public’ is constantly constructed and reconstructed within public health policy and practice. This project seeks to historicise these concerns, aiming to explore and explain the changing place of the public within public health in post-war Britain.