History of Medicine Special Issue

Abstract

In September 2013 the University of Saskatchewan hosted the bi-annual postgraduate conference for the Society for the Social History of Medicine in combination with the Manitoba-Ontario-Minnesota-Saskatchewan history of medicine meeting. This joint symposium was the first of its kind, and the only time the Social History of Medicine meeting has been held outside of Europe. We received financial support from the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation, the University of Saskatchewan, the Society for the Social History of Medicine, and the Canada Research Chair in medical history to support a three-day long meeting involving thirty-two speakers, both historians and physicians, from five countries: Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Mexico. Topics ranged widely from early modern military nursing; to an analysis of advertisements for diet pills; to a study of victims of Nazi war crimes; accounts of life in asylums; and a panel on the historical and contemporary AIDS crises. Keynote addresses from Hannah Professor at Queen's University, Jacalyn Duffin, and Margaret Pelling, Professor of History at Oxford University, highlighted the intersections of medical education, medical humanities, and professionalization, with an overarching demonstration of the power of historical analysis to elucidate contemporary challenges in medicine. We are pleased the Canadian Journal of History agreed to showcase some of the excellent work that was presented at this meeting, and hope that CJH readers enjoy this special issue. The issue contains three articles of exceptional quality, which represent a small portion of the work that was on display at the meeting. In addition to the articles, we have eight book reviews of recent work in medical history, which help draw attention to the rich array of geographical, temporal, and methodological studies underway in this dynamic field. Duffin's keynote address, Historian as Activist: Tales from the Medical Trench, has been posted on ActiveHistory.ca, and can be viewed on their site at: http://activehistory.ca. Her article in this special issue is a separate examination of anti-Semitism and quotas within medical education at Queen's University. In her characteristically thorough exploration of archival evidence, Duffin looked at student records and administrative materials to expose the conflicts between stated quotas and more subtle elements of anti-Semitism that shaped the student body in the medical school at Queen's University. …