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…
Read MoreMagic 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…
Read MoreExperiences 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…
Read MoreChildhood 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…
Read More‘Healing’ through harm: Examining affect in North American conversion therapies from 1910 to 2000
Andrea’s project examines Canadian and American patients’ and survivors’ lived experiences of the harmful practice of conversion therapy through the twentieth century. It asks how secular medical practitioners utilized and manipulated patients’ emotions as therapeutic tools in clinical contexts. Her analysis focuses on how practitioners in two different national contexts understood and responded to their…
Read More“Volunteers Don’t Wear Price Tags”: Compensation Discourses and the Hospital Volunteer in 20th Century Health Care
The COVID-19 pandemic is only the most recent global health crisis to highlight that even those workers who are deemed to be “essential” to health care may not all receive compensation consistent with this proclaimed value. Within this vital workforce are those who receive no compensation at all, volunteers. Despite the inclusion of “hospital volunteer”…
Read MoreThe Great White Plague: Canada’s War on Tuberculosis, 1939–52
At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Canadian officials employed X-ray screening to ensure a healthy fighting force and, later, to decrease state liability for those who might have enlisted with pre-existing tuberculosis disease. Despite these preventative measures, the Canadian government discovered that members of the Canadian armed forces suffered far greater…
Read MoreVisualizing the Invisible Wound: Graphic Medicine and the History of War Trauma
Matthew’s project titled “Visualizing the Invisible Wound”examines the historical representations of war trauma using a methodology that combines graphic history and graphic medicine. As an historian and an artist, Matthew is interested in exploring graphic and illustrated storytelling as creative forms of historical interpretation and analysis.The idea of an invisible wound in contrast to a…
Read MoreEpidemiology Ad Nauseum: Risk, Reasoning, and Hyperemesis Gravidarum
Jennifer’s project highlights the highly contingent nature of HG risk and draws attention to the specific science-society configurations that have impacted how women’s symptoms have been both understood and managed by Canadian healthcare professionals over time.
Read MoreThe Global Challenge of Cholera in the Nineteenth Century: Standard Narratives and New Perspectives on Societal Responses and Medical Notions
Stephen’s project brings together trends in public health, environmental, and Asian history, while strengthening new methodological insights and approaches. Based on historical research, the project highlights how globalization trends brought new challenges in containing cholera.
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