Dr Roderick Bailey
Research Fellow
Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities
I specialise in the history of medicine, where my research focuses currently on blood transfusion, infectious disease and medicine’s relationship to war and conflict.
Based at the Oxford Centre for the History of Science, Medicine and Technology, I am a Research Fellow at Oxford’s Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities. I am also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and past member of Council of the British School at Athens.
Research Interests
I am currently engaged in a major research project examining developments in blood transfusion during the Second World War. This is based within Oxford's Centre for the History of Science, Medicine and Technology and made possible thanks to a generous donation from the Royal Army Medical Corps Charity.
Parallel to this work, I maintain active research interests in the history of international interventions in major health crises in conflict zones and other challenging environments, looking especially at issues around disease control and the movement, management and mental health of displaced human populations.
In addition, I have an established and ongoing research interest in the history of wartime and political movements of protest and resistance. My books include studies of British dealings with wartime resistance movements in Axis-occupied Albania (Wildest Province, Jonathan Cape, 2008) and Fascist Italy (Target: Italy, Faber & Faber, 2014) - the first being based on my doctoral research and largely written while I was an Alistair Horne Fellow at St Antony’s College, and the second an official commission from the Cabinet Office. Latterly, with the support of a Wellcome Trust research fellowship, I have studied the mental health impacts of resistance and asymmetric warfare. My current research in this area overlaps with my interest in the challenges of healthcare provision in austere environments.
I also maintain an active research interest in the history of international practices of cultural heritage protection in conflict and post-conflict zones, chiefly in Southern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. This work was recently supported by a generous award from Oxford's Fell Fund.
