Disease and the modern self: becoming autoimmune. This will be the first historical analysis of concepts of autoimmunity. A conceptual history of a disease category, the book will also incorporate patient experience, scientific ideas about the immunological 'self', and an examination of the connections and articulations of research laboratories and hospital clinics in the twentieth century.
The development of Australian community psychiatry. This project aims to analyse recent developments in Australian psychiatry by considering their broader social, cultural, and political contexts. In the 1970s, Australian psychiatry, primarily based in mental hospital care, came under sustained critique by psychologists, psychiatrists interested in developing alternative treatment methods, and broader social movements. This project will investigate how psychiatrists, psychologists, and other men ....The development of Australian community psychiatry. This project aims to analyse recent developments in Australian psychiatry by considering their broader social, cultural, and political contexts. In the 1970s, Australian psychiatry, primarily based in mental hospital care, came under sustained critique by psychologists, psychiatrists interested in developing alternative treatment methods, and broader social movements. This project will investigate how psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health professionals aimed to change mental hospital care and develop community psychiatry to provide alternatives. The project will examine the initiatives of the pioneers in Australian community psychiatry and its relationship to the broader deinstitutionalisation movement. The project will also analyse the resulting changes in research and practice.Read moreRead less
Planetary Health Histories: Developing Concepts. This historical research project aims to explain the conceptual development of the new planetary health, the principal means of assessing impacts of climate change and global environmental degradation on human health. Using a novel combination of history of science and medicine, environmental history, international history and Indigenous studies, this research is expected to show how environmental health and disease ecology have been re-framed and ....Planetary Health Histories: Developing Concepts. This historical research project aims to explain the conceptual development of the new planetary health, the principal means of assessing impacts of climate change and global environmental degradation on human health. Using a novel combination of history of science and medicine, environmental history, international history and Indigenous studies, this research is expected to show how environmental health and disease ecology have been re-framed and scaled up in the past century to address the effects of global warming. The project will examine critically this intellectual formation, exploring its potential in global health and revealing its blind spots and omissions, especially in relation to Indigenous knowledge and structural inequalities.Read moreRead less
How infectious diseases became ecological: a global history. This project aims to investigate the conceptual history of disease ecology. During the twentieth century, infectious diseases researchers, many of them Australian, drew on animal ecology and evolutionary theory so our knowledge of how germs and parasites interact with human hosts might become more dynamic and broadly biological. The goal of this transnational historical research is to clarify the connections of animal ecology and evolu ....How infectious diseases became ecological: a global history. This project aims to investigate the conceptual history of disease ecology. During the twentieth century, infectious diseases researchers, many of them Australian, drew on animal ecology and evolutionary theory so our knowledge of how germs and parasites interact with human hosts might become more dynamic and broadly biological. The goal of this transnational historical research is to clarify the connections of animal ecology and evolutionary biology with biomedicine, and show how contemporary understandings of biosecurity and disease preparedness emerged from this conjunction.Read moreRead less
The Cold War Obesity Crisis: Fatness, Public Health, and Medical Science in the United States, 1940-1970. In 1951 the US Public Health Service declared obesity, newly reinterpreted as an addictive disorder, to be the nation’s leading health problem. This project will be the first to study the course of this early obesity crisis, analysing the interaction between popular perception, biomedical science and health policy, all in the political and cultural context of postwar America. Research will e ....The Cold War Obesity Crisis: Fatness, Public Health, and Medical Science in the United States, 1940-1970. In 1951 the US Public Health Service declared obesity, newly reinterpreted as an addictive disorder, to be the nation’s leading health problem. This project will be the first to study the course of this early obesity crisis, analysing the interaction between popular perception, biomedical science and health policy, all in the political and cultural context of postwar America. Research will especially focus on the competing efforts of several biomedical disciplines and their scientific leaders to define the problem and shape responses to it. The goal is to understand the ways science and medicine related to social forces in the episode, and to derive lessons for today’s global obesity crisis.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100550
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$356,808.00
Summary
Bioethics in the Antipodes: A history of Australian bioethics since 1980. This project aims to provide a comprehensive account of bioethics in Australia. Since the 1980s, bioethics sought to address the medical, legal and social implications of Australian research in reproductive medicine. Australian bioethics is often assumed to share a similar history to American bioethics, but the debate about reproduction, euthanasia and the nature of moral authority in secular liberal democracy is distinctl ....Bioethics in the Antipodes: A history of Australian bioethics since 1980. This project aims to provide a comprehensive account of bioethics in Australia. Since the 1980s, bioethics sought to address the medical, legal and social implications of Australian research in reproductive medicine. Australian bioethics is often assumed to share a similar history to American bioethics, but the debate about reproduction, euthanasia and the nature of moral authority in secular liberal democracy is distinctly Australian. To date, the history of these developments has not been examined. The project will use archival sources, interviews, and theoretical analysis. Potential benefits include a deeper understanding of the distinctive local and global contributions of Australian bioethics.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160100623
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$354,000.00
Summary
Unquiet Minds: Psychiatry in World War Two and its aftermaths. This project aims to provide the first comprehensive account of psychiatry in World War Two and its consequences in American, British and Australian contexts. World War Two was a watershed in the theory and practice of psychiatry in the western world, yet it figures less in the literature than the shell shock of World War One and the post-traumatic stress disorder of the Vietnam War. The projects aims to investigate the diverse patie ....Unquiet Minds: Psychiatry in World War Two and its aftermaths. This project aims to provide the first comprehensive account of psychiatry in World War Two and its consequences in American, British and Australian contexts. World War Two was a watershed in the theory and practice of psychiatry in the western world, yet it figures less in the literature than the shell shock of World War One and the post-traumatic stress disorder of the Vietnam War. The projects aims to investigate the diverse patient cohorts – such as prisoners of war, veterans and children separated from caregivers – encountered by psychiatrists and the impact of the theories and practices that resulted from these interactions. It expects to provide historical context for current psychiatric concepts and practices.Read moreRead less
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL170100160
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,568,846.00
Summary
A philosophy of medicine for the 21st century. This project aims to develop a new theory of health and disease to accommodate developments in contemporary biology such as the ‘developmental origins of health and disease’, the role of the microbiome in physiology, and the fact that our bodies are sites of evolutionary conflict between multiple genomes, particularly in early life. Present science does not fit with common-sense ideas about the identity and the goals of living systems and the projec ....A philosophy of medicine for the 21st century. This project aims to develop a new theory of health and disease to accommodate developments in contemporary biology such as the ‘developmental origins of health and disease’, the role of the microbiome in physiology, and the fact that our bodies are sites of evolutionary conflict between multiple genomes, particularly in early life. Present science does not fit with common-sense ideas about the identity and the goals of living systems and the project expects to generate a close collaboration between philosophers and biomedical scientists so that new ideas about health and disease can be fed back into proof-of-principle projects for innovative new approaches to the study of health and disease. The project will conduct methodologically innovative research in the philosophy of medicine, working in close collaboration with biomedical scientists to confront the transformational discoveries about the nature of living systems that have been made in the first years of the current century and to actively shape new forms of enquiry into health that reflect those discoveries. It will make the discipline of philosophy an active participant in the creation of integrative biomedical research.Read moreRead less
Manufacturing consensus: Independence in consensus statements in health. The project plans to conduct the first international systematic inquiry into the value, use and protection of public interest in consensus statements in health. Consensus statements based on scientific evidence are a useful platform to progress policy and practice in an environment of uncertainty. Consensus statements acknowledge both the importance of evidence but also the imperatives for action. However, there is concern ....Manufacturing consensus: Independence in consensus statements in health. The project plans to conduct the first international systematic inquiry into the value, use and protection of public interest in consensus statements in health. Consensus statements based on scientific evidence are a useful platform to progress policy and practice in an environment of uncertainty. Consensus statements acknowledge both the importance of evidence but also the imperatives for action. However, there is concern that they are inefficient, easily co-opted by interest groups and have changed the way the enterprise of science is perceived. The project aims to help inform future processes for improving the incorporation of evidence in policy and practice in a way that balances pragmatic, scientific and public concerns.Read moreRead less
Tuberculosis in Southern Africa: the history of a pandemic. South Africa and the states which supply workers to the gold mines of Johannesburg today have the highest rates of pulmonary tuberculosis in the world. This project will explore the role of the gold mines in creating a pandemic of a disease which was not so long ago considered to be in permanent retreat.