I joined the University of Strathclyde and the Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare (CSHHH) in 2011, after completing a PhD and post-doctoral work at the University of Exeter's Centre for Medical History.  My research and teaching have focussed on three primary areas within the history of health and medicine: mental health and psychiatry; allergy and immunology; and food and nutrition. 

My books and co-edited volumes include The First Resort: The History of Social Psychiatry in the United States (Columbia UP, 2023); Proteins, Pathologies and Politics: Dietary Innovation and Disease from the Nineteenth Century (Bloomsbury, 2019, co-edited by David Gentilcore);  Preventing Mental Illness: Past, Present and Future (Palgrave, 2018, co-edited by Despo Kritsotaki and Vicky Long); Another Person's Poison: A History of Food Allergy (Columbia UP, 2015); Deinstitutionalisation and After: Post-War Psychiatry in the Western World (Palgrave, 2016, co-edited by Despo Kritsotaki and Vicky Long); Hyperactive: The Controversial History of ADHD (Reaktion, 2012) and An Alternative History of Hyperactivity: Food Additives and the Feingold Diet (Rutgers UP, 2011) as well as a special issue of Humanities and Social Sciences Communications on Socioeconomic Factors and Mental Health (co-edited by Lucas Richert).  With Cathy Coleborne, I co-edit the Palgrave book series Mental Health in Historical Perspective, which has published over 30 books since 2015.

I am currently writing a book about the ongoing relevance of the history of health and medicine (Polity) and working on an co-edited volume with Alexander Dunst, Nikolas Henckes, Despo Kritsotaki and Chantal Marazia on the history of social movements and health.  My work on the history of social psychiatry project has spurred an interest in Universal Basic Income (UBI) as a preventive mental health policy.  During the pandemic, I co-led (with Mike Danton) a Scottish Universities Insight Initiative project called Peace of Mind: Exploring Universal Basic Income's Potential to Improve Mental Health.   I am currently working on a Royal Society of Edinburgh-funded project about the history of hydrotherapy and mental health, which I would like to develop into a larger project.

I believe strongly that historical research can have a significant impact on public policy and decision making.  As such, I have tried to engage with the public as much as I can through broadcasting, public lecturing, blogging and speaking to health and education professionals and policy makers.  My efforts in these areas were enhanced in 2012 when I was named an AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker.  I have written for medical publications, such as The Lancet and the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), presented my research to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, to hundreds of employees of the mental health charity Mind and to the Scottish Mental Health Arts Fesitival.   My blogs for The Conversation,  PsychologyToday.com and other other outlets have been read by 500k people.  I host a podcast called History in Action, where I interview other historians who want to make a difference.

I previously served as Vice-Dean of Research for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS), following stints as Co-Director of the Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare, the Director of Research for History and Deputy Head of the School of Humanities.  I have also served on the Executive Committee of the Society for the Social History of Medicine and the Royal Society of Edinburgh's Young Academy of Scotland.  I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

I am happy to supervise a variety of MRes and PhD projects in the history of health and medicine. These include mental health and psychiatry, food and nutrition, allergy and immunology and child health.  I am also happy to consider supervision of other topics examining the history of health and medicine in Canada, the United States and Scotland. Please get in touch if you have a research idea!

I teach on a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate classes, focussing primarily on the history of health and medicine, but also North American history.  My specialist courses include Madness and Society from Ancient Times to the Present; The Price of Health: The UK, US and Canada since 1800; and Food and Health in the West in the Twentieth Century.  In addition, I have taught on Disease and Society, USA History, Historiography, Cultures of Empire, Glasgow: History, Culture and Identity and other classes.

When do certain behavioural characteristics become a psychiatric disorder? How do we know what foods are healthy for us? Why have rates of food allergy and intolerance escalated in recent years? What are the root causes of mental illness?  My research involves analysing questions such as these from a historical perspective not only in the interest of charting our past, but also in the hopes of informing our future.