Dr Caroline Rusterholz
College Research Associate
Research interestsMy research interests include the fields of comparative gender history, historical demography and social history of medicine and sexuality. My current research project supported by the Wellcome Trust 'Youth, gender and teenage sexual counselling in Britain: The making of the Brook Advisory Centre, 1964-2000' uses the history of Brook Advisory Centres (BAC) as a case study through which to reassess the history of teenage sexuality and of the anxieties it caused in postwar Britain. From the first Centre opened in 1964 in London to the present, BAC has been an important provider of contraceptive advice and sexual counselling for unmarried people and teenagers. Although the centres have provoked fierce opposition and triggered recurrent public debates on teenage sexuality, little is known of their history. As a non-governmental organisation which however had clear connections with the Family Planning Association and the National Health Service, BAC provides an insightful locus to explore the way teenage sexuality was handled and debated publicly.
Beyond my interest in youth sexuality, I have published on the history of reproductive politics in Switzerland and on the role played by women doctors in the medicalization of birth control in twentieth century Britain and France.
Beyond my interest in youth sexuality, I have published on the history of reproductive politics in Switzerland and on the role played by women doctors in the medicalization of birth control in twentieth century Britain and France.