Joseph Foster

Research Topic

A State of Frustration: The History of Fluoridation in Great Britain, 1960-2003.

Fluoridation, the practice of adding fluoride compounds to the water in order to reduce the incidence of dental caries, is only practiced in approximately 11% of Great Britain. My project explores the reasons for this lack of coverage.

I engage with questions surrounding the role of trust in public health, the use and misuse of "scientific fact", and the impact of privatisation on water fluoridation. 

I graduated with a first-class BA in History at Oxford (2023), and I was awarded an MSc in the History of Science, Medicine and Technology (2024), during which I wrote my dissertation on the role played by dental mechanics in the development of post-war dental services, and the role of the British Army in promoting dental care amongst the British people.

Winner of the 2024 Jane Willis Kirkaldy Senior Prize: ‘An Abnormal Monopoly: Dentures, Dental Mechanics and Dental Consciousness in Peace and War, 1929-1952'

Junior Dean at Kellogg College

Supervisor: Mark Harrison and Matthew Landrus