Exploring the interplay between healthcare, economic development and social change
Matthew Purcell, recipient of the inaugural Alumni and Friends of Economic History PhD Scholarship, shares his journey into academia and the focus of his research.
Many experiences led to me to start my PhD studies, but the most important one was the time I spent working as a Peace Corps volunteer. After finishing my undergraduate degree, I joined the Peace Corps and worked as a Rural Family Health Educator in the village of Cowpen, Belize. There, I got involved into a wide array of community development projects including teaching health classes to primary school children, conducting home visits with the village’s community health worker to monitor and educate villagers with chronic ‘lifestyle’ diseases, and assisting the nearby satellite clinic with maternal and child health education and outreach.
Living and working in this environment made me reflect on the connection between economic development and health. I grew interested in how child development had evolved since the industrial revolution, and my curiosity about this line of research led me to the work of Professor Eric Schneider at LSE. His research on maternal and child health outcomes placed the work I was doing in Belize into a larger historical social and economic narrative. Inspired by this work, I decided to pursue an MSc in Economic History at LSE.
During the course, I gained immense respect for the open and rigorous academic environment that LSE prides itself on. The lively and engaging faculty alongside an intellectual group of peers convinced me that the Department of Economic History at LSE would be an ideal place to pursue a PhD.
I consider myself very fortunate to be the recipient of the Department’s inaugural Alumni and Friends PhD Scholarship. The funding enabled me to undertake my PhD and engage further with the history of health and its critical role in shaping economic and social history.
My research focuses on maternal and child health in the US South during the early- and mid-20th century. I study how effective state and local health departments were at disseminating medical knowledge to communities. Biomedical advancements drove improvements in health outcomes for mothers and children during this period, but spatial and racial disparities persisted in large part due to social and economic factors. This makes for fertile ground for many social science type questions about the interplay of race, trust, and institutions.
I am delighted to have the privilege of researching these topics with minimal financial burden thanks to the generous scholarship from alumni and friends of LSE's Department of Economic History.
Matthew Purcell
PhD student, Department of Economic History