Kate Hiepko

Email: kathrin.hiepko@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk

Previous Education

BA History, University of Bristol (First Class)
MPhil History, University of Bristol

Thesis Title

Managing the ‘Pissing Evil’ in a Welfare Dictatorship: the history of diabetes prevention, care and research in the German Democratic Republic, c. 1949-1990

Supervisors

Dr. Carsten Timmermann, Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (Supervisor) and Professor Stephen Parker, German Studies (co-Supervisor)

Research summary

My research uncovers the history of the chronic disease diabetes mellitus in the centralised healthcare system of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). It explores how the state socialist and Cold War era politics of the GDR shaped diabetes prevention, care and research, and how the lives of diabetics were influenced by decisions that medical professionals had to make in a heavily planned economic system.

Research interests

• Modern German history
• Political, cultural and economic history of the GDR
• Chronic disease management strategies
• (History of) public health