Insights 2022/ 2023

At the Thackray Museum of Medicine we tell the stories of our health heroes and inspire the next generation of big thinkers. Established by Thackray’s co-founder Professor Monty Losowsky, our annual Insights Series continues to celebrate his legacy, exploring the lives touched by medical innovations both past and present. Every session includes two lectures delving deep into eye-opening topics and those that offer a different take on current public debate.

How did women negotiate sex and birth control in 1920s Britain?

How have outbreaks on the high seas influenced approaches to modern medicine?

And what can the potato teach us about attitudes to health in the 17th Century?

Our Insights Lecture series forms a core element of our Talks and Lates programme designed to spark debate around subjects large and small whilst exploring the advances that have shaped the way we look after ourselves, and each other.

___

Medical Stories from Africa

Experts talk us through the discovery of Sickle Cell Disease, its traits and diagnosis before we explore the fascinating history of mental health treatment across the African continent.

___

Hazardous Health through History

This lecture explored the history of patient safety in the NHS, explaining why a systemic focus on the prevention of harm to patients – despite the ethical injunction for clinicians to ‘do no harm’ – only evolved surprisingly recently in the history of medicine.

___

Spirits and Disease on the High Seas

Is brandy a medicine? In this Insights Lecture, find out everything there is to know on how shipborne diseases shaped public health with ‘Spirits & Disease on the High Seas’.

___

Ancient Wisdom in Modern Medicine

Find out about Greco-Roman medicine and what it can teach us today as well as palaeopaediatrics and the importance of understanding child health in the past.

___

Health & Horticulture

Want to discover the importance of the potato in the medical culinary imagination? This lecture uncovers how horticulture links to our health.

___

Birth and Childhood Medicine

This Insight Lecture covers important questions regarding childhood – from case studies in Bradford to the SARS-CoV2 vaccinations, there is a lot to be learnt.

___

New women, old remedies

Taking you back as far as the 1920s, this talk covers medical issues faced by women throughout history. Delve into the past and see how it can still be relevant today.