After studying and working in science communication, Liz studied for an MSc in the History of Science, Technology, Medicine and Society at the London Centre for History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHoSTM) at Imperial/UCL. She specialised in the history of the nineteenth and twentieth century, and wrote her dissertation on the comparability of approaches between medical and natural history research. Liz has a general interest in nineteenth century medicine, in particular asylum research and medicine, as well as the early use of scientific witnesses in legal trials.

Research interests:
William Lauder Lindsay (1829-1880) was a naturalist-physician and alienist who published over 250 papers and books covering natural history, disease transmission and mental health, among other topics. At the end of his career he set out a version of comparative psychology based on the expression of emotion by animals as symptoms of mental disease and disorder. Liz’s research investigates the origins of Lindsay’s approach and how it relates to the comparative psychologies of Romanes, Lloyd-Morgan and subsequent animal-based psychologies of the twentieth century, assessing the place of emotions within comparative and evolutionary psychological and psychiatric disciplines. She is also exploring the use of both humans and animals as research subjects for the the diagnosis and treatment of mental disease within certain nineteenth-century institutional settings – the laboratory and the asylum.