Writer & Historian
Dr. Agnes
Arnold-Forster
Bio
I am a writer; researcher; and historian. I have written, researched, and presented on everything from women's health in today's Britain to the history of cancer; from the 1918 flu pandemic to the well-being of surgeons in twenty-first-century America. I am an expert in the history of Europe, the USA, and Canada, and my research spans the eighteenth century to the present day. I explore societies, cultures, medicine, science, technology, emotions, and the world of work. I am currently writing a book about the history of nostalgia, due to be published by Picador in June 2024.
Education
I have an undergraduate degree in history from the University of Oxford, an MSc in the history of science, technology, and medicine from Imperial, and a PhD in modern history from King’s College London. My doctoral thesis has since been turned into a book, The Cancer Problem: Malignancy in Nineteenth-Century Britain, which was published by Oxford University Press in January 2021.
Employment
Since finishing my PhD, I have worked as a research and engagement fellow on the Wellcome Trust funded project, Surgery & Emotion; in Queen Mary, University of London's Centre for the History of the Emotions; as a research fellow at the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for Health Research at the University of Bristol; at McGill University; and at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. I am now a Chancellor's Fellow at the University of Edinburgh.