Research Fellow x2 (109856-1125)

The Department of History seeks to appoint two Research Fellows for a fixed-term period of 24 months each, one post from 1 April 2026 and one from 1 September 2026 to work with Dr Anna Toropova on the Wellcome Trust funded Career Development Award: ‘Traumatised Minds, Neurosis and Hysteria in Soviet Medicine and Culture, 1917-1953’. 

This project examines scientific, medical and cultural approaches to psychological trauma in the Soviet Union between 1917 and 1953. It has often been assumed that Soviet authorities forced conformity to a Pavlovian model that severely neglected the mental realm and silenced the question of traumatised consciousness. ‘Traumatised Minds’ seeks to complicate this narrative by bringing to light a vibrant tradition of research on psychological trauma, neurosis and hysteria that persisted throughout this period.

Examining a diverse body of research and practice across the Soviet republics, the project aims to reveal a unique tradition of understanding trauma which was neither ‘Freudian’ nor straightforwardly ‘Pavlovian’. Spotlighting the scientific and medical work that took place in Soviet Ukraine, the Baltic states, Central Asia and the Caucasus, ‘Traumatised Minds’ will examine how specific local contexts impacted research, diagnosis and strategies of care. The wider cultural resonance of medical understandings of traumatic neurosis will be explored through attention to artistic, literary, and cinematic engagements with the topic of trauma. Uncovering the new meanings that mental distress acquired in popular culture and in first person accounts, the project will examine how ideas about trauma travelled outside the clinic.

You will be part of one of the largest History departments in the UK with a thriving community of teachers and researchers covering a range of disciplines and geographical areas.