Virginia Berridge is Professor of History and Director of the Centre for History in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London. She has a B.A.(Hons) and a PhD in History, both from the University of London.
Her personal research interests are in the history of twentieth century health policy with a special focus on the 'contemporary history' of health in the last thirty years. Her recent work includes HIV/AIDS policy, illicit drug policy, the development of ideas and concepts of public health in the post war period, and the relationship between research and policy.
Current funded research
- Post war British public health, exemplified through the smoking issue
- Temperance history and current and future alcohol policy
- User groups in drug policy since the 1970s
- Medical cannabis and policy
- The role of history in health policy making
Current research funding
- The Wellcome Trust – including an enhancement award for the work of the Centre and for work on medical cannabis
- The Economic and Social Research Council for work on drug user groups
- The Joseph Rowntree Foundation for temperance history
- The Alcohol Education and Research Council for study of binge drinking
Recent books
- AIDS in the UK: The Making of Policy 1981-1994
Oxford University Press 1996 - Opium and the People: Opiate use and drug control policy in nineteenth and early twentieth century England
Expanded second edition: Free Association Books, London 1999 - Health and Society in Britain since 1939
CUP/The Economic History Society: New Studies in Economic and Social History, 1999 - Poor Health: Social inequality before and after the Black report
Frank Cass, London 2003 - Medicine, the Market and the Mass Media: Producing health in the twentieth century
Routledge, London 2005, jointly edited with Kelly Loughlin - Making Health Policy: Networks in research and policy after 1945
Rodopi, Amsterdam 2005
Special issue
- Special historical issue Science Speaks to Policy
Social Science and Medicine #49(9), 1999, with Jennifer Stanton
Recent articles
- History in Public Health: who needs it?
The Lancet #356 2000 pp1923-1925 - Post war smoking policy in the UK and the redefinition of public health
Twentieth Century British History #14(1) 2003 pp61-82 - Public or policy understanding of history?
Social History of Medicine #16(3) 2003 pp511-523