Wessel de Cock, M.A.
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Wessel de Cock
- Name
- Wessel de Cock M.A.
- wessel.de.cock (at) student.hu-berlin.de
Vita
Wessel de Cock studied History at the University of Amsterdam from 2015-2018 (Cum Laude) and obtained a Research Master in History: Politics, Culture, and National Identities, 1789 to the Present at Leiden University (2018-2020). Subsequently, he worked in science communication of clinical trials for two years before starting his PhD funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung and supervised by Cornelius Borck (Lübeck) Mathias Grote (Berlin) in March 2023. From May 2023 to January 2024 he will be part of the Comparing at the Interface of the Physical and Life Sciences, 1960 to 2000 project at Bielefeld University.[1]
Research Interests
- Historical Epistemology
- History of the neurosciences
- History of the Life Sciences
- Science and Politics in Big Science
Current Project
"It's all in the head." A comparative historical-epistemological history of neuroscience in the Decade of the Brain (1990-2000)
"It's all in the Head" comparatively examines the local entanglements of neuroscientific knowledge production on mental illness and political mental health reform projects in the Decade of the Brain of the 1990s. It focuses on the projects of the United States, the Netherlands, and Germany, but does so explicitly against the larger global context, particularly in Japan and the larger European framework of the European Commission.
The proclamation of the "Decade of the Brain" by the U.S. Congress in July 1990 was followed by increases in funding and public attention for neuroscientific research worldwide. Although historians of science and science studies scholars have almost unanimously argued that an unprecedented global "neuro-turn" occurred in the 1990s, the local historical differences inherent in these national projects have thus far been mostly ignored.
By comparatively examining these local developments within the global trend toward neuroscientific explanations of mental illness in the 1990s, the project aims to uncover the black box of the Decade of the Brain. It thereby connects historical research on three scientific and policy developments that accumulated in the 1990s but have mainly been studied in isolation: the rise of evidence-based medicine (EBM), market-oriented health reform projects, and big science projects in the life and human sciences such as the Human Genome Project, the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD), and the Decade of the Brain.
By examining how the production of neuroscientific knowledge about mental illness has been shaped by entanglements with particular policy reform projects in different historical contexts, the project aims to help rethink the relationship between scientific research on mental health and policy today.
Abbildung: Campaign of the Dutch Hersenstichtingen (Brain Foundation) ''je hersenen ben jezelf'' ("You are your brains"), Copyright: Hans de Bakker, Haagsche Courant, 10.04.1995.
Publications
- 2022: Achieving diversity, equity, and inclusion in clinical trials. An in-depth look at understanding and overcoming historical barriers to patient participation, in: Pharmaphorum, co-publication with Dr. Doris Wu.
- 2020: De discussie over de solidariteit met gewelddadig verzet tegen apartheid in de eerste Nederlandse anti-apartheidsbeweging: het Comité Zuid-Afrika (1960-1971), Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 132:4 581-607. [peer reviewed]
- 2019: Book review: Robbert Jan Wille, Mannen van de microscoop. De laboratoriumbiologie op veldtocht in Nederland en Indië, 1840-1910, De Moderne Tijd, 3.
- 2017: Hoe Iran sjiitisch werd. De bekering van Iran door de Safaviden en de creatie van een Iraanse identiteit’, Zem Zem. Tijdschrift over het Midden-Oosten, Noord-Afrika en islam 13, 102-111
- 2016: ‘Sultan Versus Sharia. Seculiere wetgeving in het vroege Ottomaanse Rijk’, Skript historisch tijdschrift 38:2, 41-49.
[1] https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/sfb/sfb1288/projektbereiche/d06/