History of Psychiatry podcast series launched

This is the first of two series of weekly podcasts beginning in July 2016. The podcaster is Professor Rab Houston of the School of History, a social historian of Britain who has published extensively on the history of mental disorders and their cultural, political, legal, and economic context, especially during the period 1500-1850.

The first series of 44 podcasts covers England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland during the last 500 years, looking at continuities and changes in how mental illness was understood and treated, and at the radical shifts in systems of caring for those who were either mad or mentally handicapped during the last two centuries. The analysis aims to be balanced and fair.

The coverage is broad, ranging from how mental problems were identified and described in the past through changing ideas about their causes and developing therapeutic practices to important themes such as the reasons behind the emergence of psychiatry as a profession and the rise and fall of asylums as a location of care.

The series explores:

• the history of suicide, 
• madness in the media, 
• psychiatry and the law, 
• relations between medical practitioners and patients, 

and it assesses evidence that the incidence of mental illness has changed over time. It begins and ends with discussion of the value of history and the vital lessons that can be learned by studying the past, not only for psychiatrists, but for all healthcare professionals, welfare policy makers, and indeed anyone with an interest in mental health.

Go to: https://soundcloud.com/user-516743905
Website: https://arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/psychhist 
For research relating to the podcasts, please visit http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/staff/rabhouston.html









Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PsychHist/ 
Twitter: @HistPsychiatry

New research centre at St Andrews: CATCH

The Centre for Archaeology, Technology and Cultural Heritage (CATCH) is a multi-disciplinary centre that brings together researchers from across the University of St Andrews. The Centre promotes research into all aspects of past human activity from across the globe, with the aim of making our research accessible to the widest audience as possible. The Centre brings together arts and sciences in order to investigate how humans have been influenced by, and changed, their environment.

The Schools, Departments and Units involved in CATCH are: Art History, Classics, Computer Science, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Geography & Sustainable Development, History, Museum Collections Unit and Social Anthropology.

"Digitising cave art will prevent it being lost forever"
New Scientist, April 2014

New at St Andrews: Institute for Data-Intensive Research

The St Andrews Institute for Data-Intensive Research (IDIR) is a new institute set up to provide a focus for research and teaching activities across the University driven by access to “big data”. 

IDIR will bring the University’s strengths in humanities and social sciences with those in computer, mathematical, life, and physical scientists to share insights and techniques. IDIR results from the enormous volume of activity taking place across the University that could broadly be described as data-driven – from data science, through digital humanities and digital social science, to digital medicine, which all share common characteristics. They are exploring new techniques and opportunities brought about by the availability of large volumes of data and the processing power needed to manipulate them.

Some of the Schools included are Computer Science, Mathematics & Statistics, Physics & Astronomy, Medicine, Chemistry, Biology, International Relations, Earth and Environmental Sciences and History.

Sweeping success at British Archaeological Awards

Projects run by Jo Hambly, Ellie Graham and Tom Dawson of the School of History have won in two of the five categories at the prestigious, biennial British Archaeological Awards 2014, with a third project being Highly Commended. Tom picked up the awards at a ceremony in the British Museum on Monday 14th July, collecting the award for Best Archaeological Innovation for their ShoreUPDATE app from TV presenter and gastronome, Loyd Grossman; and the award for Best Community Engagement Archaeology Project for the Scotland's Coastal Heritage at Risk Project from Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Culture, Ed Vaizey. Their Wemyss Caves 4D website (http://4dwemysscaves.org/), developed with the Save Wemyss Ancient Caves Society and the York Archaeological Trust, was Highly Commended in the Best Public Presentation of Archaeology category.

ShoreUPDATE app:  An app and interactive website that presents the results of 15 years of survey and research at the coast, allowing individuals to access and correct data on the coastal heritage in their area and add additional information that updates the project database. Visit the interactive map of sites at risk: http://www.scharp.co.uk/sites-at-risk.

Scotland's Coastal Heritage at Risk Project (www.scharp.co.uk): SCAPE developed the Scotland Coastal Heritage at Risk Project so that researchers could involvethe public to more effectively tackle the important national issue of coastal erosion. The team's philosophy is that eroding coastal heritage provides opportunities for everyone to enjoy and benefit from taking part in archaeological and historical exploration and discovery. 

Wemyss Caves 4D (http://4dwemysscaves.org/):  The Wemyss Caves in Fife contain the highest number of Pictish carvings in the world. Cutting edge digital recording and interpretation of the caves and carvings has made them accessible to all. Start your journey of discovery here.

Royal Society of Edinburgh Prizes - St Andrews honoured

The Royal Society of Edinburgh has announced their Prize Winners for 2014 and the University of St Andrews is honoured to have received four! Sincere congratulations are in order to Professor Andrew Whiten FRSE FBA, Dr Katie Stevenson, Dr Per Ola Kristensson and Dr Catherine Cazin on their fantastic achievements.
  
Senior Prize for Public Engagement to Professor Andrew Whiten FRSE FBA, Wardlaw Professor of Psychology and Professor of Evolutionary and Developmental Psychology, School of Psychology and Neurosciences, for his extensive, creative and unique forms of public engagement particularly as founding Director of the “Living Links to Human Evolution” Research Centre at Edinburgh Zoo.
 

Thomas Reid Medal (Early Career Prize) to Dr Katie Stevenson, Senior Lecturer in Late Medieval History, School of History, for her outstanding scholarly work on the cultural and political history of late medieval Scotland which has established her as a leading international expert in the field and for her commitment to knowledge exchange. 
                     
RSE/Makdougall Brisbane Medal (Early Career Prize) to Dr Per Ola Kristensson, Lecturer in Human Computer Interaction, School of Computer Science, for his outstanding research work and entrepreneurialism that intersects human-computer interaction, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Dr. Kristensson is also a Member of the RSE Young Academy of Scotland.

RSE/Makdougall Brisbane Medal (Early Career Prize) to Dr Catherine Cazin, Royal Society University Research Fellow and Lecturer, School of Chemistry, for her outstanding research work and breadth and depth of experience in her chosen field of homogeneous catalysis. Dr. Cazin is also a Member of the RSE Young Academy of Scotland.

BA Fellowship awarded to Dr Bridget Heal

Dresden’s Frauenkirche

Dr Bridget Heal, Director of the Reformation Studies Institute, has been awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship for her project on “Lutheran Visual Culture during the Age of the Renaissance and Baroque”. Protestantism was all about the pure preaching of God’s Word. In order to focus parishioners’ attention on the Word, and in order to eliminate idolatry, reformers often destroyed religious images, as the University’s own St Salvator’s chapel shows. Yet unlike Scottish Calvinists, Germany’s Lutherans developed an astonishingly rich visual culture, which reached its highpoint during the early eighteenth century with the construction of monuments such as Dresden’s Frauenkirche. Dr Heal’s project asks why this word-based confession came to value images so highly. Through the example of Lutheran Germany, it will illuminate the ways in which religious identity was constituted and expressed during the early modern period.

Story of world's oldest surviving scientific journals to be told

Dr Aileen Fyfe, an international expert on the history of publishing in the sciences, based in the School of History, will lead a new project to investigate the story of the world’s oldest surviving scientific journal. The Philosophical Transactions has been published by the Royal Society since 1665 and will be celebrating its 350th anniversary in 2015.

The Royal Society’s archives are an unrivalled resource for investigating this long-running journal. Through the history of this world-leading journal, the project will investigate issues, such as the origins of peer review, and the relationship between profitability and the publication of scholarly knowledge, that are at the heart of the knowledge-based economy.

The four-year project has received £790,000 from the Arts & Humanities Research Council.

Community involvement project to monitor archaeological sites

Tom Dawson (School of History), managing director of SCAPE (Scottish Archaeology and the Problem of Erosion), is working on the prioritisation of action at archaeological sites threatened by coastal erosion. Funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Historic Scotland and the Crown Estate will enable project staff to work with the public to record and monitor sites using a specially designed smart phone app and an interactive website. The three-year project will involve communities from around the entire coast of Scotland. As well as monitoring known sites and recording new discoveries, local groups will also tell the project team which sites they feel are most deserving of further work. At least twelve of the sites selected by the public will be subjected to more detailed study. A range of follow-up projects will record the threatened remains in both conventional and new ways. This could include archaeological excavation, making films about sites, laser scanning, constructing 3D models from aerial photographs or recording sites through photography and art.

Whitfield Book Prize winner

Congratulations to Dr Jacqueline Rose of the School of History who is the 2011 winner of the Royal Historical Society Whitfield Prize. The prize is offered annually for an author's first book on British or Irish history. Dr Rose was awarded the prize for her book, Godly Kingship in Restoration England: The Politics of the Royal Supremacy, 1660-1688.

The judges praised the book, saying,  Godly Kingship is an outstanding book. It is based on deeply impressive research, which establishes the different lines of argument in what are often difficult theological, ecclesiastical, legal and political tracts. Time and again, her readings are rich and sensitive. It has a long (and appropriate) chronological span, and it offers new interpretations of central historical problems. As well as the main argument about the large implications of the royal supremacy and its flexible and disputed qualities, it has numerous particular interpretations that will variously engage historians of the Reformation, the Elizabethan and early Stuart periods, the Interregnum, the Restoration and 1688, and historians of religion, the churches, politics, ideas and the law. It offers the most compelling account yet of the 'long Reformation'. This is a book which is already influencing historical discussions. More importantly, it has the breadth, assurance and insight to ensure that it will be a book of substantial and enduring significance.
Dr Rose said, "I am deeply honoured by the award of the Whitfield Prize.  The Royal Historical Society’s support of the profession, and of early career historians in particular, is invaluable.  I feel very touched by their particular recognition of my work, and by the kind comments of the judges."

Inaugural Lecture: Prof. Frances Andrews

Professor Frances Andrews, of the School of History, will deliver her Inaugural Lecture ‘Building Trust in the Italian Middle Ages’ in School III, St Salvator’s Quadrangle on Wednesday, 15 February 2012 at 5.15 p.m. All are welcome.

Professor Andrews’ research centres on the history of Italy and on religious, social and urban history in the middle ages more widely. She is currently working on relations between men of the church and the booming cities of the later middle ages. Driven in part by a search for modernity, historians long viewed these interactions as fundamentally hostile, but much recent work has tended instead to emphasise harmony, portraying the Italian cities as single, living, religious entities. The lecture will test some of the implications of this shift, focusing on ideas and practices of trust. 

Universal Short Title Catalogue launched

The University of St Andrews Book Project Group has launched The Universal Short Title Catalogue, an online catalogue of books published in Europe between the invention of printing and the end of the 16^th century. The Catalogue brings together over 350,000 rare editions and around 1.5 million surviving copies, 30% of which have been found to be the only surviving copy of their title, distributed across 5,000 archives and libraries worldwide. It is the result of 10 years of meticulous work. [press link]

The director of the project is Prof. Andrew Pettegree, of the School of History, and was funded by the AHRC, with additional funding for 2012-2016.

8 REF St Andrews Sub-Panel members announced

The recent announcement of REF 2014 sub-panel members included eight members from the University of St Andrews. 

• Panel A, Sub-panel 4: Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience
  Professor Verity Brown
• Panel B, Sub-panel 8: Chemistry
  Professor David O'Hagan
• Panel C, Sub-panel 18: Economics and Econometrics
  Professor Alan Sutherland
  Panel C, Sub-panel 19: Business and Management Studies
  Professor Jan Bebbington
  Panel C, Sub-panel 21: Politics and International Studies
  Professor Richard English
• Panel D, Sub-panel 30: History
  Professor Andrew Pettegree
  Panel D, Sub-panel 32: Philosophy
  Professor Katherine Hawley
  Panel D, Sub-panel 34: Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
  Professor Brendan Cassidy
  

During 2011, the teams will work on developing the criteria and working methods specific to each panel. The full lists can be found on the HEFCE REF 2014 website. 

Battle of Bannockburn discussed on BBC Radio 4

Dr Michael Brown was one of a panel of experts discussing the Battle of Bannockburn with Melvin Bragg on BBC Radio 4's 'In Our Time', which aired on 3 February 2011. Details about the programme and a link to it can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00y2srx.