PhD scholarship available

[Guest guest]

For those interested, there is a fully funded PhD scholarship available

working with Volker Scheid at the University of Westminster entitled:

Physicians & Healers in Late-Imperial China: The Pursuit of Clinical

Excellence. There is scope to define the project more specifically in

relation to the successful candidate's own interests.

 

 

 

See below for more information

 

 

 

For further information about the project:

 

http://www.wmin.ac.uk/sih/page-1004

 

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed/people/academics/lo

 

For an informal discussion email Volker Scheid at scheidv

 

Apply for this project: http://www.wmin.ac.uk/page-17527

 

 

 

Good Luck,

 

 

 

-

 

 

 

University of Westminster Research Studentships 2009

 

Project Code: BIH 1

 

Physicians & Healers in Late-Imperial China: The Pursuit of Clinical

 

Excellence

 

School of Integrated Health

 

Supervisors: Volker Scheid, Damien Ridge

 

EASTmedicine at UoW has been established as interdisciplinary research

centre whose role it is to guide

 

the rational and effective translation of East Asian medical traditions into

modern health care systems. In

 

order to succeed this undertaking must proceed from an in-depth

understanding of the historical

 

development of these traditions to which the proposed project will make a

unique and innovative

 

contribution. Specifically, it will provide us with an understanding of the

strategies in the pursuit of clinical

 

excellence deployed by physicians in late imperial China, i.e. prior to the

modern reconfiguration of

 

Chinese medicine in the course of the 20th century, allowing us to compare

the two. It is this comparative

 

dimension – and its integration into the wider EASTmedicine project - that

makes this study so pertinent

 

both to the UoW and a very wide research community. We therefore expect this

study to have

 

considerable impact beyond the humanities on clinical research, practice,

and the integration of Chinese

 

medicine into Western health care systems. As a consequence, the project

will also showcase

 

EASTmedicine’s commitment to world-class interdisciplinary research in the

field of East Asian medicine.

 

Synopsis of research project

 

This project will furnish a historical ethnography of physicians and healers

in late imperial China

 

(ca. 15th -19th centuries). Its purpose is to examine how physicians and

healers in the Chinese

 

medical tradition prior to its encounter with western medicine defined and

pursued clinical

 

excellence and how this pursuit was realised within the context of their

professional, personal

 

and social lives. This implies answering questions such as: What did they

imagine good medical

 

practice to consist of? How did they evaluate effectiveness? How did they

create and facilitate

 

effective practice? How was effective practice displayed and evaluated by

others?

 

Methodologically the study will examine case records, diaries, medical

jotting, and life histories

 

in order to understand what the world of these physicians, externally and

internally, looked like.

 

The time frame of the investigation has been chosen to allow for a

systematic investigation of

 

foundational aspects of Chinese medical practice during a time when the

self-image of

 

physicians and their integration into society did not undergo radical

change. No systematic

 

investigation of this kind has been carried out to date making this an

absolute urgent priority in

 

the field. Furthermore, because asking such questions implies making

comparisons with present

 

efforts to define and create effective practice in this domain both in China

and the West, such

 

comparisons will form an explicit aspect of the study.

 

Supervisors

 

Dr. Volker Scheid is a world-leading authority in the field of Chinese

medicine with a unique track record

 

of innovative and interdisciplinary research encompassing medical history,

anthropology, science and

 

technology studies, clinical practice, and research. He has attracted almost

£ 500k of funding to the UoW

 

and his vision is the driving force behind the establishment of

EASTmedicine.

 

Dr. Damien Ridge is Reader in Complementary Medicine at the School of

Integrated Health responsible

 

for developing the School’s research development. He is an experienced PhD

supervisor as well as

 

researcher, whose background in qualitative research and focus on patient

experience will add an

 

important dimension to the proposed project.

 

Relevant Publications

 

Scheid, V. 2002. in Contemporary China: Plurality &

Synthesis. Durham: Duke

 

University Press. 2007. Currents of Tradition in ,

1626-2006. Seattle, Eastland Press;

 

2008. Authenticity, best practice, and the evidence mosaic. The challenge of

integrating traditional East

 

Asian medicines into Western Health Care. Complementary Therapies in

Medicine, 16(2), 107-108;

 

2009. From hierarchies to process: integrating Chinese medicine into modern

health care systems.

 

Social Science & Medicine (under review).

 

Ridge, Damien. 2008. Recovery from Depression: the new patient narrative

narrative & tool approach.

 

Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London, UK. Ridge, D., Williams, I., Anderson,

J., & Elford, J. 2008. Like

 

a prayer: The role of spirituality and religion for people living with HIV

in the UK. Sociology of Health &

 

Illness, (in press).

 

 

 

 

Acupuncture

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

www.ChineseMedicinedoc.com