University of Calgary

Frank W. Stahnisch

  • Professor
  • Coordinator (History) - History and Philosophy of Science

Currently Teaching

 W2024 - HTST 493.39 - Intermediate Topics in History (Hist Medicine & Hlth Care II)
LEC 1M 12:30 - 13:20
R 17:30 - 19:20
 W2024 - HTST 493.99 - Intermediate Topics in History - Medicine (Hist Medicine & Hlth Care II)

Biography

(AMF/Hannah Professorship in the History of Medicine and Health Care)

As a historian of medicine and health care, Frank's interests span the development of experimental physiology and laboratory medicine since the late 18th century (particularly France and Germany), the historical relationship between neurology/the neurosciences and the philosophy of the mind (focus on the German-speaking countries and North America), the relationship between clinical neuroscience and public mental health (particularly Canada and the United States), the historical epistemology of the life sciences (18th to 21st centuries), and the longer history of visualization practices in medicine and health care. His current research as a Principle Investigator has been supported by research grants from SSHRC, CIHR, AvH, NSHRF, AMS, and AHRF.

Since 2015 he has succeeded Professor Malcolm Macmillan (University of Melbourne, Australia) as Editor-in-Chief of the international "Journal of the History of the Neurosciences" (with Taylor & Francis - Routledge Group).

Editor-in-Chief

Frank W. Stahnisch is an Editor-in-Chief of the international "Journal of the History of the Neurosciences", which is the official journal of the International Society for the History of the Neurosciences (ISHN) and the History Committee of the World Federation of Neurology (WFR).  This journal is a flagship journal in the wider field of the history of neuroscience, psychiatry, and public mental health.  Frank envisages his role as Editor-in-Chief, as to encourage broader scholarly uptake in the history and philosophy of neuroscience, the cultural historical exploration of neuroscientific concepts, institutions, and practices, along with the comparative aspects of neuroscientific research and clinical work in different cultural and international settings.

URL:  http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/njhn20#.VY2XPKY3Wag

Endowed Professorship

Alberta Medical Foundation / Hannah Professorship in the History of Medicine and Health Care

Associated Medical Services, Inc. (formerly known as the Hannah Foundation) in Toronto, ON, has also sought opportunities to expand its commitment to the History of Medicine across Canada.  This research professorship was created as a result of a long-term partnership between AMS and the University of Calgary.  With contributions from AMS and the Alberta Medical Foundation in the early 1990s, this professorship evolved to an endowed position in the history of medicine and health care in 2008.

Through the activities of this professorship, an increase in the understanding for the scope and limits of modern medicine shall be reached and its relations to the changing social and cultural contexts will be rendered more visible: «Understanding the Past in Creating the Future of Health».

Office

Room 3E41, TRW Building

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Postdoctoral Fellows

Dr. Stephen Pow, Ph.D.

Stephen Pow (PhD, Central European University, Budapest and Vienna, 2020) is a historian of pre-modern Europe and Asia. He has published extensively on a diverse range of related topics such as health care and disease in the Mongol Empire. He has written articles on the background role of epidemics and environmental factors in historical events, and has produced articles on nineteenth- and twentieth-century history of medicine in diverse journals (Journal of Medical Biography, Journal of Neurology, Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, etc.). He is currently adjunct professor in the history of science at St. Mary’s University in Calgary.

Stephen's postdoctoral project "The Global Challenge of Cholera in the Nineteenth Century: Standard Narratives and New Perspectives on Societal Responses and Medical Notions" brings together trends in public health, environmental, and Asian history, while strengthening new methodological insights and approaches. Cholera pandemics triggered worldwide panic in the nineteenth century. Based on historical research, the project highlights how globalization trends brought new challenges in containing cholera. Military campaigns, mass migrations, pilgrimages, and urbanization extended the pathogen’s range and devastation. Environmental disasters likewise contributed to nineteenth-century outbreaks. It also offers novel reappraisals of long-held assumptions on cholera’s history by highlighting recorded statements and policies in Europe, Persia, etc. that demonstrate some physicians believed water had a role in the transmission of cholera before John Snow's seminal publication (1854) based on the Broad Street Pump episode.

His research interests include the history of epidemics, public health, and diseases from the Medieval Period to the 19th century.

 

 

Dr. Fedir Razumenko, Ph.D.

Fedir graduated in Translation Studies and Philology (Master of Arts, Hons.) from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Ukraine), and in Culture Studies and European History (joint M.A.) from the University of Groningen (The Netherlands) and the University of Udine (Italy).  His Ph.D. in the History of Medicine and Science was awarded by the University of Saskatchewan in 2018.  Fedir's dissertation "Clinical Trials, Cancer, and the Emergence of Human Research Ethics in Canada, 1921-1980," received a University of Saskatchewan Graduate Dissertation Award (Doctoral) in the Fine Arts & Humanities.

Fedir's postdoctoral project "Cancer Clinical Trials in Canada and the Ethics of the Human Dignity Framework, 1971-1998" will examine to what degree the elaboration of ethical standards pertinent to clinical trials correlated with the increasing number of controlled clinical trials: from the promulgation of "Ethical Considerations in Research Involving Human Subjects" by the Medical Research Council of Canada to the adoption of clinical trials from a biomedical research paradigm to a patient-centred comprehensive investigation model.  Fedir has presented his research at different venues in Canada (University of British Columbia, University of Toronto, University of Calgary) and internationally (University of Uppsala, University of Cincinnati, University of California at Los Angeles).  His publications have appeared in the Canadian Bulletin of Medical History and the Canadian Journal of History.

His research interests include the history of medicine and science and its several sub-fields: human subject research and clinical trials, cancer treatment and investigation, medical and research ethics, technology in oncology, organization of institutions for treatment and investigation, governance of medical research and its legal foundations. Geographically and temporally, Fedir's research focuses on Europe and North America since the eighteenth century.

Past Postdoctoral Fellows

Dr LoewenauDr. Aleksandra Loewenau, Ph.D.

Aleksandra graduated with a PhD in History of Medicine from Oxford Brookes University in 2012. After the successful completion of her thesis entitled: “The Impact of Nazi Medical Experiments on Polish Inmates at Dachau, Auschwitz and Ravensbrück”, Aleksandra worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Assistant on the Wellcome Trust funded Programme Grant investigating “Disputed Bodies: Subject's Narratives of Medical Research in Europe, 1940-2001” lead by Professor Paul Weindling at Oxford Brookes University. Her input involved analyzing narratives of victims of medical crimes under National Socialism, particularly Jewish men who were subjected to X-ray sterilization experiments and surgical castration at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Aleksandra presented findings of her research at various conferences and held research fellowships at Library of Congress in Washington DC, Immigration History Research Center at University of Minnesota, Institute for Contemporary History in Munich and German Historical Institute in Warsaw. Her historical research has been published widely in journals, such as Endeavour, the Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, and the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences.

Her research interests include History of Medicine, Holocaust Studies, Migration Studies, War Studies, European Studies and Gender Studies.

Dr. Matthew Oram, Ph.D.

Matt graduated with a PhD in History of Medicine from the University of Sydney, Australia, in 2014, and has previously studied history at the Universities of New South Wales, Australia, and Canterbury, New Zealand.  His thesis was entitled "The Trials of Psychedelic Medicine: LSD Psyychotherapy, Clinical Science, and Pharmaceutical Regulation in the United States, 1949-1976" and had been supervised by Professor Stephen Robertson at the University of Sydney.  Matt's research has investigated the history of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) psychotherapy in the United States between 1949 and 1976.  He has been particularly interested in contextualizing clinical research on LSD within the changing scientific standards and regulatory frameworks for pharmaceutical research and development in the period, in order to better explain LSD's downfall as a therapeutic tool.

Matt gave papers on his research in the Research Seminar Series, Department of History, University of Canterbury, New Zealand, the 6th Biennial Meeting of the Alcohol and Drug History Society, Buffalo, New York, USA, and the History Postgraduate Conference, University of Sydney, Australia, as well as the American Association for the History of Medicine and the Canadian Society for the History of Medicine.

Preliminary findings of his research appeared as a peer-reviewed journal article: “Efficacy and Enlightenment: LSD Psychotherapy and the Drug Amendments of 1962,” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 69, no. 2 (2014), pp. 221-250, and a book manuscript based on his Calgary AMS-funded PostDoc is under contract with Johns Hopkins University Press in Baltimore, MD, USA.

His research interests include History of Medicine, History of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Pharmaceutical History, History of Fascism, European History, and the History of the British Empire.

Dr. William J. Pratt, PhD

Dr. William J. PrattWill graduated with a PhD from the University of Calgary with a thesis looking at "Medicine and Obedience: Canadian Army Morale, and Surveillance in the Second World War, 1939-1945."  Before he joined UofC's graduate history program, he had been granted his Maters of Arts from the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, and in 2008 he received his B.A. in History for the University of Victoria in British Columbia.  Since 2014, he has worked as a Sessional Instructor in History at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta.

Dr. Pratt's research interests include Canadian History, Military History, and the History of Psychiatry.  As an AMS PostDoctoral Fellow, he has undertaken a research project on "Veterans' Mental Health in Alberta, 1914-1945."  

His historical research has been published widely, for example in the journals Western Humanities Review, Canadian Military History, and the Calgary Papers in Military and Strategic Studies.

 

Past Graduate Students (UofC)

M.Sc. (Community Health Sciences)
2024 - Joseph Bahhadi: "The History of Music Therapy's Use in Dementia Treatment in the United States, 1950-1997"

Ph.D. (History)
2019 - Erna Kurbegovic: "Eugenics in Comparative Perspective - Explaining Manitoba's and Alberta's Divergence on Eugenics Policy, 1910s to the 1930s"

M.A. (History and Philosophy of Science)
2019 - Jessica Tannenbaum, M.D.: "Pathology as a Crime - Analysis of Dissection Protocols from Flossenbuerg Concentration Camp, 1944-1945"

M.A. (History and Philosophy of Science)
2018 - Rogelio Velez-Mendoza: "Whithin the Common People's Grasp:" Colombian Medical Publications and their Authors, 1821-1851

Ph.D. (Community Health Sciences)
2017 - Kelsey Lucyk: A History of the Social Determinants of Health in Canada through the Lens of the Canadian Public Health Association, 1910-2010 

M.A. (History)
2015 - Paula Larsson: Circular Progress: Health and Healthcare within Albertan Indian Residential Schools, 1920-1950 

M.A. (History and Philosophy of Science)
2014 - Michel Shamy, M.D.: Acute Stroke Decision-Making in Historical and Philosophical Context, 1960 to 2014
[Dr Shamy, MA is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa, ON: http://med.uottawa.ca/epidemiology/en/faculty-staff/faculty]

M.Sc. (Community Health Sciences)
2013 - Kelsey Lucyk: "Growing Pains:" An Historical Analysis of Population Mental Health in Kitimat, British Columbia, 1950-2010 

M.A. (History)
2010 - Christiane Grieb: Forced Labour, War Crimes and the Nazi Conspiracy in the American Concentration Camp Trial of the Mittelbau-Dora Enterprise
 

Past Honours Students (UofC)

B.Sc. (Neuroscience)
2013 - Ramsha Almas: The Role of Neuroimaging and Genetic Techniques in the Evolving Definitions and Diagnostics of Asperger's Syndrome and Autism, 1952-2012

B.Sc. (Neuroscience)
2021 - Anzo Nguyen: The Role of German-Speaking and German-Trained Refugee Neuroscientists and Related Academic Émigrés in the Development of the Western Canadian Neuroscientific Community, 1933-1990

Research Groups

History of Neuroscience Interest Group (HONIG)
The Calgary History of Medicine Society (CHOMS)
History and Philosophy of Science Research Group (HPS)
The Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies (CMSS)
Social Studies of Science, Technology, Environment, and Medicine (C-STEMS)
History of Medicine Research Colloquium (in HOMHCP)
Mind and Brain - Public Health Perspectives (in OIPH)
Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research and Education (in HBI)
Health Care Humanities Committee (in CSM)
The Calgary Institute for the Humanities (CIH)
Alberta Medical Foundation/Hannah Professorhip in the History of Medicine and Health Care
 

Past Courses (Faculty of Arts)

HTST791.20 - Conference Course in Special Topics: "Medicine and its Intersections: Historical Origins and Foundations of Western Medicine and Health Care"
HTST691.88 - Conference Course in Special Topics: "Medicine and Health Care: Historical Intersections and Foundations of Western Medicine and Health Care"
HTST639.2 - Topics in History of Science: "History of Medicine and Science from the Wilhelminian Empire to National Socialist Germany (1870-1945)"
GRST601.62 - History of Medicine and Health Care: "A Social and Cultural History of Mental Health and Psychiatry since the Classical Period"
HTST541.2 - Topics in the History of Science: "History of Madness and Psychiatry in the Western Context"
ASHA501 - Arts and Science Honours Academy: "The Nature of Research"
HTST493.38 - Special Topics in History: "History of Medicine and Health Care I"
HTST493.39 - Special Topics in History: "History of Medicine and Health Care II"
HTST477 - History of Science: "Topics and Themes in the History of Science: From Ancient Greece and Rome to the 20th Century"
HTST476 - History of Science: "Wonderful Life - A Cultural History of the Biomedical Sciences"
NEURO421 - Neuroscience: "History, Ethics and Society"
HTST372 - History of Science: "Ways of Knowing: Science, Technology, and Medicine in Historical Perspectives"
 

Publications

Book

Edited Book

Curriculum Vitae

Degrees

  • PhD magna cum laude - History of Medicine
    Free University of Berlin, 2001
  • MSc with distinction - Philosophy of Science
    University of Edinburgh, Scotland, 1995
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