About our staff
Professor Gayle Davis
MA (Hons), MPhil, PhD
Professor of the History of Medicine
- Tel: +44 (0)131 650 8348
- Email: Gayle.Davis@ed.ac.uk
- Room 00M.29, William Robertson Wing, Old Medical School, Teviot Place
Office hours
Roles
Deputy Head of History
Biography
Born and bred in 'the other place' - Glasgow - I graduated with MA (honours) in History (1996) and MPhil in History and Computing (1997) from the University of Glasgow. I then made the dramatic journey to Edinburgh to complete my doctorate in the then Economic & Social History department (2001). I was deeply fortunate to be adopted by two tremendous social historians, acting as Research Associate to Professor Roger Davidson at the University of Edinburgh (2001-4) and Professor Anne Crowther at the University of Glasgow (2004-6). In 2007 I had the great fortune to return to the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh in a permanent capacity, upon receiving a Wellcome Trust University Award.
Summary of research interests
Places:- Britain & Ireland
- Scotland
- Culture
- Medicine, Science & Technology
- Society
- Nineteenth Century
- Twentieth Century & After
Research interests
My general research interest is the social history of medicine over the last two centuries. I am particularly fascinated by the uplifting histories of reproductive health and sexuality, madness and psychiatry, and death.
Current research activities
I mainly explore the interface between reproductive health, clinical practice and the law in post-World War II Britain. Having embarked upon previous case studies on stillbirth, abortion, contraception, infertility and menstruation, I am currently writing up a more sustained research project on the history of abortion with the seriously magnificent Professor Sally Sheldon (University of Bristol Law School). 'The Abortion Act (1967): A Biography' offers a fundamental reevaluation of the 1967 legislation, from the fierce contestation that dogged its formative first two decades through to its current venerable position as one of the oldest extant pieces of statute to govern modern medical practice.
Research projects
- The Abortion Act (1967): A Biography (AHRC funded)
- The Social, Medical and Political Response to Infertility in Later Twentieth-Century Scotland (Wellcome Trust funded)
- The Scottish Way of Birth and Death: Vital Statistics, the Medical Profession and the State, 1854-1970 (Wellcome Trust funded)
- Health, Sexuality and the State in Scotland, 1950-1980 (Wellcome Trust funded)
Undergraduate teaching
- The Making of the Modern Body (pre-honours)
- Historical Skills and Methods I pathway (honours)
- Historical Skills and Methods II pathway (honours)
- Sex and Society in Britain since c.1830 (honours)
- Madness and Society in Britain since c.1830 (honours)
- Disease, Medicine and Society in Britain since 1750 (honours)
- Supervise MA dissertations (honours)
Postgraduate teaching
- Medicine and Society in Modern Britain (MSc)
- Historical Methodology pathway (MSc)
- Economic and Social Theory for Historical Analysis (MSc)
- Directed Reading and Research (MSc)
- Supervise MSc, MScR & PhD dissertations
Current Students:
| Name | Degree | Thesis topic | Supervision type | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abigail Fletcher | PhD | From Partition to Decriminalisation: Homosexuality in Northern Ireland, 1921-82 | Joint |
|
| Jessica Campbell | PhD | Alternative Therapies in British Psychiatry since c. 1840 | Primary | |
| Vesna Curlic | PhD | The Other on Britain's Doorstep: Medicine, Immigration and Ethnicity in Britain, 1880-1914 | Primary | |
| Moritz Kaiser | PhD | The Life Course of the Inmates of Anglican Magdalen Homes in England, c.1850-1914 | Secondary |
Past Students:
| Name | Degree | Thesis topic | Supervision type | Completion year | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joan Fraser | MScR | Elevating the Poor: The Origins, Activities and Evolution of the Edinburgh Association for Improving the Conditions of the Poor, c,1868-1919 | Primary | 2021 | |
| Axelle Champion | PhD | Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in France and Scotland, c.1870-1914 | Primary | 2021 | |
| Giulia Accorsi | PhD visiting | General Paralysis of the Insane in Brazil and its Impact on the Psychiatric Profession, 1860-1924 | Secondary | 2020 | |
| Rian Sutton | PhD | The Narrative Agency of Women Accused of Homicide: New York City and London, 1880-1914 | Secondary | 2020 | |
| Petra Ukota | MScR | Queering Gender in Eighteenth-Century Britain: The Construction of Non-Binary Gender | Secondary | 2020 | |
| Daisy Cunynghame | PhD | The Role of the Edinburgh, Kelso, and Newcastle Dispensaries in Charitable Relief, 1776-1810 | Secondary | 2020 | |
| Campbell, Jessica | MScR | A Hidden History? Exploring and Evaluating the Use of Oral History to Uncover Staff Perspectives of Dingleton Hospital's Therapeutic Community from c.1962 | Primary | 2019 | |
| Haward, Barbara | PhD | Telegraphists' Cramp: The Emergence and Disappearance of an Occupational Disease between 1875 and 1930 | Secondary | 2019 | |
| Campbell, Jessica | MScR | Exploring Space and Identity Through an Examination of Scottish Asylum Magazines Since c.1845 | Primary | 2018 | |
| O'Neill, Jane | PhD | Youth, Sexuality and Courtship in Scotland, 1945-80 | Primary | 2017 | |
| Woods, Kathryn | PhD | The Display of the Body in Eighteenth-Century Britain | Joint | 2015 | |
| Palacz, Michal | PhD | The Polish School of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, 1941-1949 | Secondary | 2015 | |
| Settle, Louise | PhD | Policing the ‘Social Evil’: Prostitution in Edinburgh and Glasgow, 1892-1939 | Secondary | 2013 | |
| Wood, James | PhD | Alcohol, Degeneracy, and Racial Poisoning in Scottish Psychiatry, 1860-1920 | Secondary | 2011 | |
| Woods, Kathryn | MScR | The Development of the Authority of Science and the Body, 1700-1900: The Naturalisation of Difference. | Secondary | 2010 | |
| Settle, Louise | MScR | Confronting the Social Evil | Secondary | 2009 |
Books - Authored
Sheldon, S., Davis, G., O'Neill, J. and Parker, C. (2022) The Abortion Act 1967: A Biography of a UK Law. Cambridge University PressDOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108677295
Davidson, R. and Davis, G. (2012) The Sexual State: Sexuality and Scottish Governance 1950-80. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University PressDOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780748649433
Davis, G. (2008) 'The Cruel Madness of Love': Sex, Syphilis and Psychiatry in Scotland, 1880-1930. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi
Books - Edited
Sethna, C. and Davis, G. (eds.) (2019) Abortion Across Borders: Transnational Travel and Access to Abortion Services. Johns Hopkins University Press
Davis, G. and Loughran, T. (eds.) (2017) The Palgrave Handbook of Infertility in History: Approaches, Contexts and Perspectives. London: Palgrave MacmillanDOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52080-7
Articles
Campbell, J. and Davis, G. (2022) “A Crisis of Transition”: Menstruation and the psychiatrisation of the female lifecycle in nineteenth-century Edinburgh. Open Library of Humanities, 8(1)DOI: https://doi.org/10.16995/olh.6350
Sheldon, S., O'Neill, J., Parker, C. and Davis, G. (2020) 'Too much, too indigestible, too fast'?: The decades of struggle for abortion law reform in Northern Ireland. Modern Law Review, 83(4), pp. 761-796DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12521
Sheldon, S., Davis, G., O'Neill, J. and Parker, C. (2019) The Abortion Act (1967): A biography. Legal Studies, 39(1), pp. 18-35DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/lst.2018.28
Davis, G. (2013) Concluding Thoughts: Abortion, Reproductive 'Health', and the History of Female Sexuality. Women's History Magazine, 73, pp. 38-40
Davis, G. (2012) The most deadly disease of asylumdom: General paralysis of the insane and Scottish psychiatry, c.1840–1940. Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, 42(3), pp. 266-273DOI: https://doi.org/10.4997/JRCPE.2012.3
Davis, G. (2012) Sexual snapshots: Departmental committees and their value to the historian of sexuality. Scottish Archives, 18, pp. 25-37
Davis, G. (2009) Stillbirth Registration and Perceptions of Infant Death, 1900-60: The Scottish Case in National Context. The Economic History Review, 62(3), pp. 629-654DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00478.x
Davidson, R. and Davis, G. (2007) Sexuality and the State: The campaign for Scottish Homosexual Law Reform, 1967-80. Contemporary British History, 20 (4), pp. 533 - 558DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13619460600612495
Davis, G. and Davidson, R. (2006) 'A Fifth Freedom' or 'Hideous, Atheistic Expediency'? The Medical Profession and Abortion Law Reform in Scotland, c. 1960 - 1975. Medical History, 50(1), pp. 29 - 48
Davidson, R. and Davis, G. (2005) 'This Thorniest of Problems': School Sex Education Policy in Scotland, 1939-80. The Scottish Historical Review, 84(2), pp. 221-46DOI: https://doi.org/10.3366/shr.2005.84.2.221
Davis, G. and Davidson, R. (2005) 'Big White Chief', 'Pontius Pilate', and the 'Plumber': The impact of the 1967 Abortion Act on the Scottish Medical Community, c. 1967 - 80. Social History of Medicine, 18(2), pp. 283 - 306DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/sochis/hki026
Davidson, R. and Davis, G. (2005) A festering sore on the body of society: The Wolfenden Committee and female prostitution in mid-20th century Scotland. Journal of Scottish Historical Studies, 24(1), pp. 80-98DOI: https://doi.org/10.3366/jshs.2004.24.1.80
Davis, G. (2005) Some Historical Uses of Clincial Psychiatric Records. Scottish Archives, 11, pp. 26-36
Davidson, R. and Davis, G. (2004) "A field for Private Members": The Wolfenden Committee & Scottish Homosexual Law Reform, 1950-67. Twentieth Century British History, 15(2), pp. 174-201DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/tcbh/15.2.174
Chapters
Davis, G., O'Neill, J., Parker, C. and Sheldon, S. (2019) All aboard the Abortion Express: A historical geography of the 1967 Abortion Act. In: Sethna, C. and Davis, G. (eds.) Abortion Across Borders: Transnational Travel and Access to Abortion Services. Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 118-145
Davis, G. (2017) 'A tragedy as old as history': Medical responses to infertility and artificial insemination by donor in 1950s Britain. In: Davis, G. and Loughran, T. (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Infertility in History: Approaches, Contexts and Perspectives. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 359-382DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52080-7_19
Loughran, T. and Davis, G. (2017) Introduction: Infertility in history: Approaches, contexts and perspectives. In: Davis, G. and Loughran, T. (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Infertility in History: Approaches, Contexts and Perspectives . London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1-25DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52080-7_1
Davis, G. (2013) Test Tubes and Turpitude: Medical Responses to the Infertile Patient in Mid-Twentieth-Century Scotland. In: Greenlees, J. and Bryder, L. (eds.) Western Maternity and Medicine, 1880-1990. Pickering & Chatto, pp. 113-128
Davis, G. and Elliot, R. (2011) Public Information, private lives: Dr James Craufurd Dunlop and the collection of vital statistics in Scotland, 1904–30. In: Freeman, M., Gordon, E. and Maglen, K. (eds.) Medicine, Law and Public Policy in Scotland, c.1850-1990: Essays Presented to Anne Crowther. Edinburgh University Press, pp. 105-124DOI: https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781845861162.003.0007
Davis, G. (2011) Health and Sexuality. In: Jackson, M. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of the History of Medicine. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 503-523
Davis, G. (2009) The Medical Community and Abortion Law Reform: Scotland in National Context, c. 1960-80. In: Goold, I. and Kelly, C. (eds.) Lawyers' Medicine: The Legislature,The Courts and Medical Practice, 1760-2000. Hart Publishing, pp. 143-165