Sarah developed an interest in the history of medicine whilst studying Contemporary History and Politics at the University of Sussex as an Undergraduate. After graduating with First Class honours, she undertook AHRC-funded Masters research at the University of Oxford into medical women and their understandings of mental illness in the mid-twentieth century. She gained a Distinction from Oxford and her doctoral research into maternal distress in the mid to late twentieth century in Britain is funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Research interests:
Sarah is a co-convener of the History of Feminism Network, and co-organized a conference on the history of Second Wave feminism held in October 2013 at the British Library. She is also co-convener of the Queen Mary Historical Research Forum, and has taught high-performing pupils modern History in low participation schools in north and south London with The Brilliant Club. She is a team member of the Raphael Samuel History Centre. Sarah is interested in the history of psychiatry, gender history, the history of feminism, and engaging the public with research in the medical humanities.

Sarah’s thesis explores the medical and cultural place of postnatal distress from 1948 to the nineties in Britain. In doing so, it reflects on how the emotional landscape of motherhood has been shaped by the cultural tides of the mid to late twentieth century. Maternal distress has been a site over which psychiatry, biomedicine, and feminism have all sought to assert the legitimacy of their values. This thesis uses the diagnosis of postnatal distress as a lens through which wider issues relating to women’s social role and emotional health can be understood.