History of Medicine: People and projects
Get to know our endowed Hannah Chairs and other
funding recipients. Be inspired by their work.
Hannah Chairs
Through permanent endowment these eight professors teach the history of healthcare in education. Learn about their exceptional backgrounds and research interests.
Dr. Darrel Manitowabi
Post-Doctoral Fellows
Dasha Guliak
Care and constraint: Healthcare worker and policy responses to Winnipeg’s AIDS crisis, 1983-1995
The AIDS pandemic that began in the early 1980s challenged Canada’s healthcare responses as the disease quickly emerged as a leading cause of premature mortality. Dasha’s project investigates healthcare professionals’ contributions in the city of Winnipeg by exploring doctors’ and nurses’ work during the crisis, and the delivery of care in clinics and hospitals. Healthcare…
Andrew Jones
Coerced encounters: A critical history of the social therapy unit at Oak Ridge maximum security psychiatric hospital, 1965-1979
Andrew’s project interrogates the history of the Social Therapy Unit at the Oak Ridge Maximum Security Psychiatric Hospital in Penetanguishene, Ontario. The Canadian psychiatrist Elliot Barker designed the Social Therapy Unit in 1965 to treat patients diagnosed with psychopathy. To break through psychological defenses and generate experiences of empathy, Barker employed techniques from humanistic psychology,…
Jessica Sealey
Curating the anatomical sciences: Historical perspectives and contemporary concerns in the Queen’s University anatomy lab and museum
As one of the oldest faculties of medicine in Canada, Queen’s University has a rich history of medical research and education. Today, the university possesses a state-of-the-art anatomical laboratory for the dissection of human cadavers received through their Human Body Donor Program. Adjacent to the lab is the university’s collection of wet specimens and skeletal…
Jody Hodgins
Magic bullet or threat to humanity: Antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance in animal agriculture in Canada, 1940-1990
With the widespread adoption of antibiotics after the 1940s, farmers, veterinarians, and industry leaders came to rely on antimicrobials as a cost-effective way to fight disease and promote growth in livestock. Though specialists were aware that antibiotics could have a long-term influence on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), little was done to prevent AMR from becoming one…
Derek Cameron
Experiences of the children of anti-vaccine activists in Canada, 1982-2004
This project explores the impact of anti-vaccine activism on activists’ children, c.1982-2004. Derek’s doctoral research on late twentieth-century Canadian anti-vaccine activism revealed a surprising fact: a number of anti-vaccine activists’ now-adult children had chosen to receive vaccinations in adulthood. By interviewing the adult children of anti-vaccine activists, Derek aims to understand how they adopted or resisted parental beliefs…
Kira Smith
Childhood madness: Compassionate portraits of children in Canadian insane asylums, 1880-1930
Childhood Madness is a digital exhibit about the experiences of children in Canadian asylums across five provinces. Kira’s project includes a map and timeline to develop a larger sense of time and the impact of colonialism. From there, viewers engage with province-based sections that include stories about institutionalized children. The goal of her project exhibit…
Doctoral Research
Daniel Arauz-Nunez
Numbing the pains of modernity: Sensory deprivation, and post-war psychology in Canada (1948-1974)
Daniel’s dissertation is an interdisciplinary history of how “numbness” came to be studied and disciplined to model the effects of modernity on the human body in Canada and the United States during the 20th century. Through studies of sensory deprivation, overstimulation, isolation, and addiction, this project traces how numbness became an object of scientific and…
Hannah Sparwasser-Soroka
Delivering the universal reformation: Letters, networks, and intellectual exchange in the Hartlib Circle, 1658-1662
Hannah’s project, “Delivering the Universal Reformation: Letters, Networks, and Intellectual Exchange in the Hartlib Circle, 1658–1662,” examines the final years of the Hartlib Circle, one of the seventeenth century’s largest intellectual networks. Historians have explained the group’s decline by pointing to political change, the increasing specialization of science and medicine, and changing religious ideas. Hannah’s…
Danielle Landry
‘In the business of changing lives’: Activist knowledge-practices and the founding of consumer/survivor businesses in southwest Ontario (1980-2005)
Danielle’s doctoral research draws on extensive interview (n=42) and archival data to consider the significance of collectively remembering, preserving and sharing mad people’s activist histories. The central question guiding her work is: What is the significance of the historical emergence of consumer/survivor businesses to the consumer/survivor/ex-patient movement? She explores that question by examining how in…
Matthew McLaughlin
When life loses its zest: The origins of self-help literature for mental health, 1918-1939
Matthew’s project examines the origin, evolution, and impact of self-help literature written by American mental health practitioners during the interwar period. It focuses on the work of three authors: the psychologist H. Addington Bruce, the psychiatrist Abraham Myerson, and the psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Karl Menninger. These experts published multiple self-help books and articles that communicated…
Matthew Edwards
On the table, in the books: Conversion therapy in Canadian healthcare education, 1941-1991
On the Table, In the Books traces the place of “conversion therapy” (CT) in Canada’s medical education system during the mid-twentieth century. Medical professionals in North America historically framed non-conformity to cisgender/heterosexual behaviour as a health issue, legitimizing psychiatric and psychological attempts at “curing” 2S/LGBTQIA+ sexualities, genders and bodies across time. These treatments were not,…
Alex Myrick
Infrastructures of Canadian psychiatry under the Meyerian diaspora
Alex’s project examines the proliferation and impact of new reform ideas in psychiatry developed by the Johns Hopkins psychiatrist Adolf Meyer, and the spread of his ideas by trainees who adapted his reforms both inside and outside of psychiatry in Canada throughout the twentieth century in ways that are relevant today. Scholars still do not…
Project Grantees
These grantees received small budget support for projects in history of healthcare/disease and medicine.
Isabelle Perreault
Psychochirurgie et traitements de choc en psychiatrie: L’exemple du Canada francophone au cours de l’après-guerre
Isabelle’s project examines the practices and effects of somatic therapies in psychiatry during the postwar period, focusing on Saint-Jean-de-Dieu Hospital in Montreal between 1945 and 1960. This era was marked by the development of insulin treatments, electroconvulsive therapy, psychosurgery, and neuroleptics, reflecting the therapeutic ambitions of the medical specialty at the time. While these practices…
Amy Scott
Diarrheal disease and intestinal parasites in colonial Canada: Integrating history and bioarchaeology to study sanitation, infrastructure, and public Health
Characterized as a “foggy, desolate, deathtrap” the 18th c. Fortress of Louisbourg was a significant, yet treacherous colony in New France especially for unseen pathogens. Gastrointestinal illnesses have been present throughout history. Despite Louisbourg’s successes in New France, overcrowding, poor sanitation, and limited healthcare certainly contributed to diarrheal disease and widespread parasitic infections. The objectives…
Helen Vandenberg
The Lamont School of Nursing and Japanese Canadian nursing, 1925-1950
While most Canadian nursing schools upheld exclusionary admissions policies well into the mid-twentieth century, the Lamont Public Hospital School of Nursing in Alberta graduated at least 16 Japanese Canadian nurses between 1925 and 1950. Helen’s project examines how Lamont became a rare site of (at least partial) inclusion during a period of widespread institutional exclusion….
Thomas Schlich
The history of the Jewish quota at McGill University, 1920s-1960s
In the decades between 1920 and 1960, McGill University limited the admission of Jewish medical students through a quota system. This discriminatory measure has never been fully documented or contextualized. Thomas and his team’s project will fill this gap. They will identify the archival material that documents and discusses this policy, find printed sources, conduct…
Geoffrey Reaume
Collecting Canadian mad movement oral histories
Geoffrey’s project builds on Mad people’s history in Canada by collecting oral histories from key figures in the mad movement and supporting the development of an accessible Mad People’s History Archives. In collaboration with Efrat Gold and Anne McGuire, they are guided by the following questions: What are the implications of enriched discourses about Mad…
Mohamed Abdalla
The tides of trust: A diachronic analysis of trust and the social contract in Canadian health journals
Public trust in Canadian medical leaders and institutions has significantly declined, impacting vaccine uptake and public health crisis responses. Mohamed’s project will investigate how foundational concepts of the “clinician social contract,” such as trust, professionalism, and accountability, have evolved in Canadian and American medical literature from 1900-2025. Using large language model (LLM)-based tools, Mohamed’s team…
2020
Imperial pathways of mobility: doctoring women and the American surgical enterprise in Iran, 1888-1940
The University of British Columbia
History of vaccine resistance in Canada
University of Guelph
2019
How to save a life: Investigating gendering biomedical innovation
McGill University
“Illustrer le travail du coroner, du médecin légiste et de l’historien : défis et enjeux de l’histoire du geste suicidaire au Québec depuis 250 ans.”
University of Ottawa
Health and medicine in the Maritimes 1765-1830: Knowledge, networks, and practices in an age of revolution and loyalism
University of New Brunswick
Exploring ethics and Canadian clinical cancer trials, 1978-1998
Caring for the Commonwealth: Nurses, Doctors and the Colombo Plan of the 1950’s
University of New Brunswick
A short history of global/international health in the Americas: Canadian perspectives
University of Toronto
2018
Diversity of research traditions in the history of autism
University of Toronto
Life before medicare
Queen’s University
The history of the Hornby and Danman Community Health Care Society, 1978-2010
York University
False faces: Examining the cultural history of cosmetic surgery
Healing the body to save the soul: Jesuit medicine in 17th century Asia
Manuscripting English medical knowledge in the early age of print
2017
Creating a Centre for Science, Technology, Environment and Medicine Studies (C-STEMS) at the University of Calgary, AB
University of Calgary
The origins and uses of a verbal artifact in clinical medicine, 1920-2000
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Colonial extractions: Oral health, Indigenous Peoples and the federal government
University of Guelph
Childhood hand hygiene education and responsible motherhood in Canada, 1910-1979
Dalhousie University
Indigenous mental health workers and the challenges of cross-cultural psychiatry at the Sioux Lookout Zone Hospital, 1969-1996
Western University
Exploring the history of natural childbirth in Canada and the world
2016
Understanding the history of war trauma and psychiatric illness among Canadian veterans
Preserving public health materials in Canada
2015
Patient involvement in Canadian medical education: A historical study to inform the future
University of British Columbia
Mindfulness and emotionally healthy students in Canadian schools, 1960s to the present
St. Thomas University
Frances Oldham Kelsey, M.D., Ph. D.: From Cobble Hill to the F.D.A.
Vancouver Island University
From brains on the bench to images of mind? A critical appraisal.
University of Calgary
Exploring LSD Psychotherapy in the United States, 1949-1976
Interpreting the genetic revolution
Apply for funding
Are you doing important work in this area? Have a timely idea that needs funding? Our grants and fellowships can support your projects and help you access valuable networks.
