Harvard Medical School

Job Announcement

Director, Center for the History of Medicine, Francis A. Countway Library 
of Medicine &
Assistant/Associate Professor of the History of Medicine, Department of 
Social Medicine

Harvard Medical School

This position is a joint appointment in the Francis A. Countway Library of 
Medicine and the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. 
An adjunct appointment in the Department of the History of Science at 
Harvard University may also be possible.

The Countway Library, one of the world’s largest medical libraries, serves 
the Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard School 
of Dental Medicine, Boston Medical Library and the Massachusetts Medical 
Society. The Library holds more than 630,000 volumes, subscribes to 3,500 
current journal titles and houses over 10,000 non-current biomedical 
journal titles. The library also houses one of the world's leading medical 
history collections, and provides access to many electronic information 
resources. It hosts an archives and records management program for the 
schools of the Harvard medical area, and the Warren Anatomical Museum. 

This position will have essential responsibility for directing the Center 
for the History of Medicine at the Countway Library.  The goal of the 
Center for the History of Medicine at the Countway Library is to promote 
historical scholarship in the history of the health sciences through the 
collection, preservation, and scholarly use of books, manuscripts, and 
other historical artifacts of medical science.  The Center supports 
Harvard’s active medical, undergraduate, and graduate academic programs in 
the history of medicine. 

Additionally, this position will have research and teaching 
responsibilities at Harvard Medical School through the Program in the 
History of Medicine in the Department of Social Medicine. The Department of 
Social Medicine is an interdisciplinary basic science department of Harvard 
Medical School. Its faculty of anthropologists, sociologists, historians, 
ethicists, social policy specialists, and clinicians teach and conduct 
research about the social, cultural and moral aspects of illness and health 
care, with a special emphasis on reducing health disparities and improving 
the quality of medical care. The Department has strong academic programs of 
research and training in the social sciences basic to medicine - medical 
anthropology, the history of medicine, and medical ethics. The goal of the 
Social Medicine curriculum at HMS is to provide students with the 
intellectual and analytic resources to recognize and respond to key social, 
cultural and 
ethical dilemmas in contemporary medicine. Faculty members develop basic 
social science concepts and conduct research to advance our understanding 
of social, cultural and historical dimensions of health, illness, and 
medical care.  

Candidates are expected to hold an MD or PhD degree in a relevant field and 
are expected to have demonstrated teaching and research experience. The 
successful candidate will have the ability to conduct significant 
independent scientific inquiry, have broad knowledge of the history of 
medicine, and have experience in the collection, preservation, and use of 
primary published and archival materials in the history of medicine.  
Experience in administrative planning, fund-raising, and public programming 
is highly desirable.  

Letters of interest, curriculum vitae, and the names of three references 
should be sent by April 1, 2006 to:

[log in to unmask]

Harvard University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. 
Candidates from all backgrounds are encouraged to apply.