Philippa Carter

Dr. Philippa Carter is University Assistant Professor in the History of Medicine and Health before 1800 at the University of Cambridge's Department of History and Philosophy of Science. She serves as an Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of History and is a Fellow and Director of Studies at Sidney Sussex College. Additionally, she manages the MPhil in Health, Medicine and Society program.

Her educational background focuses on early modern European history with specialization in medical and intellectual history. Her research spans a wide range of interests including:

• Early understandings of mental and physical illness
• Bodies and embodiment in historical contexts
• Mind/body relations in premodern thought
• Disability and visible difference
• Disease categorization and diagnosis across historical periods
• Boundaries between natural philosophy, magic, and religion
• Sciences of the psyche

Dr. Carter's scholarly work examines premodern Aristotelian understandings of 'nature,' particularly in the processes of 'generation' and 'corruption.' Her research bridges cultural history, medical history, gender studies, and the history of science, with particular attention to how historical societies conceptualized bodily experience and mental states. She has published significant work on childbirth and madness, gender and witchcraft, and is currently completing a monograph on madness, brain disease, and the soul in early modern England.

Her recent publications demonstrate a consistent focus on the intersection of gender, medicine, and social history in early modern contexts. The articles reveal trends toward examining marginalized historical experiences, particularly women's health and mental states, while connecting historical medical concepts to contemporary understandings.

Among her notable scholarly contributions:

• 'Childbirth, "Madness", and Bodies in History' (History Workshop Journal, 2021)
• 'Work, Gender and Witchcraft in Early Modern England' (Gender & History, 2023)
• "Madness Embodied" (forthcoming in The Bloomsbury Cultural History of Madness)

Dr. Carter teaches on Early Science and Medicine at the Department of HPS, Part I History Tripos Outline Paper 4 ('Early Modern Britain'), and Part II, Paper 11 ('Early Medicine'). She serves as Associate Editor for the digital humanities project 'Reading Early Medicine' and is actively involved with Cambridge Reproduction research initiatives. Her work contributes significantly to interdisciplinary approaches to historical medical understanding, connecting past and present perspectives on reproductive health, mental illness, and bodily experience.