Penelope Gouk

B.A. (Hons.) Modern History University of Oxford
M.A. (Oxon)
PhD Combined studies (History and Music) Warburg Institute, University of London: ‘Music in the Natural Philosophy of the Early Royal Society’
Trinity College of Music, London Teacher’s diploma (L.T.C.L.), viola

Penelope Gouk first came to Manchester in 1994 as a Wellcome Research Fellow at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM). Before this, she had been the Director of The Achievement Project (1990-95), a collaborative and interdisciplinary research programme focused on early modern scientific and technological innovation, funded by the Renaissance Trust. In 2004 she moved to Manchester’s History Department as a Senior Lecturer until she retired in 2008. Since then she has held an Honorary Research Fellowship in intellectual history, and has continued to publish independent and collaborative works.

Dr Gouk’s research into early modern European culture has consistently explored the interface between the technologies of instrumental practice (especially music-making) and the creation of new scientific knowledge. Early work concentrated on music's role in the emergence of experimental science and related studies of mathematical and precision instruments. Since being at Manchester she has chiefly focused on Western medical explanations for music’s effects on the body and psyche, musical healing, and the use of musical models in scientific thought. This agenda has led to pathbreaking research within the interrelated sub-disciplines of sensory history, sound studies, and the history of emotions.