About the BioHistory Group

The BioHistory Group studies the historicity of the body: how human bodies have changed in relation to health, stature, weight and other body features which have not been constant over space and time.

We study the history of the interactions between body, health and society through a combination of approaches: by analyzing individual historical life courses collected from historical sources in a large scale but also analyzing all other types of material (legislation, press, personal accounts, etc) that can contribute to understand how politics, perceptions, knowledge etc. have shaped bodies, lives and deaths.

The group is led by Anne Løkke, Professor in Social, cultural and health history and comprises a number of historians across different institutions with common interests and methodologies with a close collaborations with researchers from the social and medical sciences.

The interests of the group can be summarized in three areas:

• Health and mortality
• Bodies: size, scope, politics
• Reproduction: sex, birth, infancy