Prof. Steven King

Prof. Steven King is Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Health, Medicine and Society: Past and Present and Assistant Dean of Research in the School of Arts and Humanities. He was awarded his PhD in 1994.  His research interests are varied, spanning a range of periods, themes and countries, but may be grouped under four broad headings:

The History of European Industrialisation, with a particular focus on the demography and family and kinship characteristics of industrial populations during the period 1650-1850.

The History of British and European Poverty and Welfare, with a particular focus on the regionality of welfare, the administration of relief and the experience of being poor in the period 1600-1920.

History of Medicine, with a particular focus on the medical history of industrial England, the sick poor, the medical marketplace and doctor-patient relationships in the period 1650-1850.

Local History, with a particular focus on family and community history in the period 1700-1900.

His most immediate research projects are ‘The sick poor of Northamptonshire, 1750-1850’ and ‘Women in local government 1880-1920’.  He is formulating a new project (jointly with John Stewart, Reader in Medical History and Social Policy) on welfare peripheries in the European context.

Over the past four years Steve has played an active role in the development of the Social Sculpture Research Unit's modus operandi, offered insights into the dimensions of its research territory, and faciltated its transdisciplinary work in the university.  

Aspects of his work with the Wellcome Trust Centre connect with the 'Thought Banks: social healing arenas' and the Art and Healing programme that Shelley Sacks has been running since 1992. 

In addition, the SSRU is becoming a locus for his own particular passions with forests and trees as arenas for new forms of participatory healing and transformative social process.