Johnstone-Need Medical History Unit
The Johnstone-Need Medical History Unit (JNMHU) is the locus at the University of Melbourne for the study of the history of health, disease, medicine, nursing, and other areas of health care. It co-ordinates teaching and research for undergraduate and postgraduate students in the history of health and medicine. It includes a Medical History Museum and, via its Gateway to the History of Medicine, guides to the medical and dental museum collections, to the university’s rich library holdings and rare books in medical history, and to digital historical compendia of medical, dental, nursing and allied health history.
The Unit consists of two teaching staff who share cross-faculty appointments in the history of medicine Professor Janet McCalman and Dr James Bradley. It also has a number of research and teaching associates from the departments of History and Philosophy of Science and of History, the Centre for Health and Society and the School of Nursing.
Undergraduate medical history teaching is conducted through the Department of History and Philosophy of Science in the Faculty of Arts, and is integrated into the undergraduate curricula of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences. Unit staff also teach into the Medical Humanities program in the Advanced Medical Science intercalated year in the MBBS.
Postgraduate study can be undertaken either in the Faculty of Arts or in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences through the Centre for Health and Society and the School of Nursing. Contact Professor Janet McCalman for initial inquiries.
The JNMHU also has a close association with the Australian and New Zealand Society of the History of Medicine, which publishes the biannual refereed journal Health & History. The Johnstone-Need Unit also supports the presentation of the Witness to the History of Australian Medicine forums, a series of seminars on aimed at contributing to the public understanding of science and medicine.
The University of Melbourne’s medical history collection of books and journals covers every stage in the development of Western medicine and its professions over the past 150 years. In conjunction with the Melbourne University Archives and the State Library of Victoria Medical Collection, the University of Melbourne’s Johnstone-Need Medical History Unit provides a vast resource for those interested in the history of medicine, from antiquity to the present day.