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Department of History and Philosophy of Science

 

PhD student

College: Fitzwilliam

Supervisor: Mary Brazelton

Advisor: Helen Curry

Thesis topic: The history of dengue fever in Singapore after 1965

Thesis summary: From 1965 to 1985, Singapore experienced dramatic success in reducing both mosquito density and the incidence of dengue fever, prompting the World Health Organization to herald it as a model for vector control worldwide. However, after 1985 the country suffered from a rapid resurgence of dengue fever, with annual epidemics occurring even as mosquito density remained low. My thesis looks at this success and resurgence using approaches drawn from the history of medicine and public health, environmental history, and postcolonial and global histories of Southeast Asia. Specific chapters will look at the transition from an anti-malaria to an anti-dengue approach to mosquito control, laboratory techniques involved in diagnosis and monitoring of the disease, public health education and legislation, and regional and international networks involved in dengue control.

Please feel free to contact me at tsss2 [at] cam.ac.uk!

 

Research interests:

  • History of medicine and the environment after 1800
  • History of public health and health education
  • History of STM in East and Southeast Asia
  • Global, postcolonial, and decolonial approaches to history

 

Publications

  • Sim, Timothy. "The Citizen as a Public Health Actor: Complaints as public engagement with Aedes mosquito control in Singapore, 1965 – 1985." Bulletin of the History of Medicine. (Forthcoming)
  • Sim, Timothy. "The Reception of Robert M. Young's Mind, Brain and Adaptation in the Nineteenth Century." In Psychoanalysis, Science and Power: Essays in Honour of Robert Maxwell Young, edited by Kurt Jacobsen and R. D. Hinshelwood, 60 - 83. Routledge. 

 

Awards 

  • Commission on Science, Technology and Diplomacy (STAND) Early Career Prize 2023 - Honourable Mention 
  • Fitzwilliam College Kuok Family – Lee Kuan Yew PhD Studentship, University of Cambridge (2021 - present)

 

Conferences and Talks

  • "Global Recognition without Regional Relevance: Singapore’s international engagements in vector control in the 1970s and 1980s", Commission on Science, Technology and Diplomacy (STAND) Early Career Prize roundtable seminar, online, 8 Jun 2023. 
  • "Finding the Public in Public Health: Complaints as public engagement with mosquito control in Singapore, 1965 - 1985", American Association for the History of Medicine (AAHM) 96th annual meeting, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 11-14 May 2023. 
  • "Global Recognition without Regional Relevance: Singapore’s international engagements in vector control in the 1970s and 1980s", The British Society for History of Science (BSHS) Postgraduate Conference, University of Oxford, 30 Mar - 1 Apr 2023. 

 

Supervisions and seminars

  • HPS Part II Paper 3: History of Modern Medicine and Life Sciences
  • HPS Part II Paper 2: Sciences and Empires - Science, Technology and Society in East Asia 
  • Decolonise HPS seminar (2021-23) 

Contact Details

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