Center for Healthcare History and Policy

Current Projects:

• The development of resources and modules for the integration of history into nursing and health care curricula in collaboration with the SON Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
• An examination of the history of segregation and Civil rights in psychiatric hospitals across the South‍
• An analysis of community mental health policy and the overlay with policing in Atlanta
• A Public History seminar series on the legacy of Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia
• Documenting the experiences of young people with disability in juvenile detention
• The history of drug use and implications for policy in Little Five Points, Atlanta
• Analyzing the history of approaches to Black women’s health from the transatlantic slave trade to current disparities

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Book Talk!
Dr. Christopher Willoughby joined us on February 1, 2023 to talk about his new book "Masters of Health: Racial Science and Slavery in US Medical Schools." You can watch his lecture and the Q&A below!

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You can also buy Chris' book from the University of North Carolina Press here.

Founding Director - Dr. Kylie Smith

Dr. Smith is an internationally recognized historian of psychiatry and nursing and has made contributions to both historical and nursing scholarship. She obtained her PhD in History from the University of Wollongong in Australia and undertook postdoctoral research at the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania. Her book “Talking Therapy: Knowledge and Power in American Psychiatric Nursing” (Rutgers University Press, 2020) received the 2020 Lavinia L. Dock award from the American Association for the History of Nursing and First Place, History and Policy from the American Journal of Nursing Book Awards. Her new book, Jim Crow in the Asylum: Psychiatry and Civil Rights in the American South, is under contract with UNC Press and supported by the G13 Award from the National Library of Medicine (NIH). Dr. Smith’s work has been supported by grants from the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study, the Rockefeller Foundation, the American Association for the History of Nursing, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Emory University Research Council.

At Emory Dr. Smith teaches classes on the history of race in US health care, the history of psychiatry, and on the theory and philosophy of nursing science. She frequently guest lectures on the history of race and racism in health care, the theory and history of psychiatric nursing, and the history of medical civil rights. She has been an invited guest speaker at the National Library of Medicine, the University of Minnesota, the University of Pennsylvania, and Johns Hopkins University, and delivered Grand Rounds at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York Presbyterian Hospital at White Plains, and Emory Psychiatry.

For information about the Center or to enquire about membership please contact Dr. Kylie Smith at kylie.m.smith@emory.edu

Steering Committee

Claire Sterk, PhD, President Emerita, Charles Howard Candler Professor, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University

Kimberly Jacob Arriola, PhD, Dean, Laney Graduate School, Emory University

Joseph Crespino, PhD, Jimmy Carter Professor of History, Department of History, Emory University

Hughes Evans, MD, PhD, Emory University School of Medicine

Julie Fairman, PhD, Nightingale Professor in Honor of Nursing Veterans, Emeritas; Director Emeritas, Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania.

Jeremy Greene, MD, PhD, Director, Institute for the History of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University.

Dominique Tobell, PhD, Centennial Distinguished Professor of Nursing and director of the Eleanor Crowder Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry at the University of Virginia.

Fayron Epps, PhD, Assistant Professor , Director of Community Engagement & Research, Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University

Jasmine Clark, PhD, Senior Instructor, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University, Georgia State Representative – House District 108

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Gaea A. Daniel, Ph.D., RN, is an Assistant Professor at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University. Her program of research focuses on sociocultural and environmental influences on sexual health behaviors and outcomes. She is particularly interested in sexual health outcomes of Black women that present as race-based disparities, from intravaginal practices to sexually transmitted infections. Dr. Daniel is a Gilead Sciences Research Scholar, an Emory BIRCWH Scholar, and co-editor of Taking Action: Top 10 Priorities to Promote Health Equity and Well-Being in Nursing.

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