The participants in the research group are historians, cultural scientist and physicians; the majority belong to AHKR, others coming from the Rokkan Centre and the Faculty of Medicine. We investigate the history and culture of health, welfare and science, be it as politics, social relations, science or economics. Welfare research has a focus upon child care policies and family welfare and on voluntary work in a gender perspective.

The research group contributes to comparative studies, to studies on international knowledge and science production and transfers, to historiography, and to the debates over theories and methods concerning historical and cultural studies within the field.

Members of the group deal with a wide specter of questions: the scientific, cultural and political history of certain diseases; preventive and health-promoting activities; the history of medical and scientific institutions; the relationship between knowledge production and political agency; nutrition; legal medicine; popular understanding of health and medicine and the relationship between folk medicine and scientific medicine.

The research group runs a seminar series (the health, welfare and science-seminar - HVV): a research seminar for doctoral candidates and academic staff that is also open to other interested persons. In collaboration with the Rokkan Center the group organizes the annual international "Bergen workshop on the history of health and medicine", and participates in the PhD-summer schools organized by the Nordic network in the history of health and medicine. Members of the group are connected to the NordWell-network (Nordic Centre of Excellence: The Nordic Welfare State - Historical Foundations and Future Challenges).

(Photo: Medical students practicing an operation, Ullevål Hospital, Kristiania (Oslo), around 1900. Foto: Magnus Haaland. Photo borrowed from Gades Institute.)