Barbara Gabeler
Thesis title: 'A conspiracy of silence: abortion, birth control and eugenics in twentieth-century Scotland'

PhD History
Year of study: 3
- School of History, Classics, and Archaeology
Contact details
- Email: Barbara.Gabeler@ed.ac.uk
PhD supervisors:
Background
Born and raised in Rotterdam. I moved to Glasgow in 2016 to pursue a joint-honours degree (MA) in History and Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow. During my undergraduate degree, I developed a keen interest in gender history and the history of medicine, and more specifically in topics at the intersection of these fields, such as reproductive healthcare and population policy. Following my MA, I pursued an MSc in Gender History in 2020 at the same institution.
In September 2022, I started my PhD at the University of Edinburgh, with cross-institutional supervision between Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow. I am immensely grateful to have been awarded a SGSAH AHRC DTP Studentship to fund this research.
Qualifications
- MSc Gender History, with Distinction (University of Glasgow, 2020 - 2021)
Dissertation: ‘The most defenceless of the British subjects of the Queen’: The prostitute and prostitution in the Scottish popular imagination between 1840 – 1892
- MA History and Economic and Social History, First Class Hons (University of Glasgow, 2016 - 2020)
Dissertation: Only Wunschkinder: A comparative study of discourses on abortion in media and state policies in East and West Germany between 1945 – 1977
Responsibilities & affiliations
- Admin and social media officer for the Histories of Gender and Sexuality Research Group
Undergraduate teaching
University of Edinburgh:
- The Historian's Toolkit (HIST08032)
- The History of Edinburgh (HIST08036)
University of Glasgow:
- Economic and Social History 2A: Britain 1770-1914 (ESH2001)
- Economic and Social History 2B: Britain since 1914 (ESH2002)