About our staff
Dr Gayle Davis
MA (Hons), MPhil, PhD
Senior Lecturer; 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
Biography
Born in Glasgow, I am a graduate of the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. I was lucky enough to then be adopted by two tremendous social historians: Professor Roger Davidson at the University of Edinburgh (2001-4) and Professor Anne Crowther at the University of Glasgow (2004-6). Amongst other skills gleaned in this period, I learned how to navigate the M8 with my eyes closed. In 2007 I had the good fortune to return to the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh upon receiving a Wellcome Trust University Award.
External appointments
- Chair of Wellcome Trust Research Resources Funding Committee
- Member of Wellcome Trust Medical Humanities Interview Committee
- Member of Editorial Board for the journals History of Psychiatry and Scottish Archives
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 am currently exploring the history of reproductive health, clinical practice and the law in post-World War II Britain. Having embarked upon previous case studies in stillbirth, abortion, contraception, and infertility, I am now engaged in a more sustained research project on the history of abortion. '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 (See https://research.kent.ac.uk/aa/) (AHRC funded)
- The Social, Medical and Political Response to Infertility in Later Twentieth-Century Scotland (Wellcome Trust funded)
- Health, Sexuality and the State in Scotland, 1950-1980 (Wellcome Trust funded)
- The Scottish Way of Birth and Death: Vital Statistics, the Medical Profession and the State, 1854-1970 (See http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/scottishwayofbirthanddeath/) (Wellcome Trust funded)
Undergraduate teaching
- The Making of the Modern Body (pre-honours)
- Archives in the History of Medicine (honours)
- Sex and Society in Britain since c.1830 (honours)
- Madness and Society in Britain since c.1830 (honours)
- Supervise MA dissertations (honours)
Postgraduate teaching
- Medicine and Society in Modern Britain (MSc)
- Directed Reading and Research (MSc)
- Supervise MSc, MScR & PhD dissertations
Current Students:
| Name | Degree | Thesis topic | Supervision type | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jessica Campbell | PhD | Alternative Therapies in British Psychiatry since c. 1840 | Primary | |
| Axelle Champion | PhD | Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in France and Scotland, c.1870-1914 | Primary | |
| Daisy Cunynghame | PhD | The Role of Dispensaries in Providing for the Sick Poor, c.1760-1810 | Secondary | |
| Barbara Haward | PhD | A History of Telegraphers' Cramp | Secondary | |
| Rian Sutton | PhD | Narrative and Agency in Women's Homicide Trials in New York City and London, 1880-1914 | Secondary | |
| Jo Fraser | MScR | The Role of Charities in Alleviating the Conditions of the Poor in Edinburgh | Primary | |
| Jo Spiller | MScR | Women's Access to Medical Education in Edinburgh from 1869 | Primary | |
| Petra Ukota | MScR | Gender History Beyond the Binary in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Britain | Secondary | |
| Giulia Accorsi | PhD visiting | General Paralysis of the Insane in Brazil and its Impact on the Psychiatric Profession, 1860-1924 | Primary |
Past Students:
| Name | Degree | Thesis topic | Supervision type | Completion year | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 primary | 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
Davis, G. and Davidson, R. (2012) The Sexual State: Sexuality and Scottish Governance 1950-80. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
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.) (forthcoming) 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 Macmillan
Articles
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. 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. (forthcoming) 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. 101-122
Davis, G. and Loughran, T. (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. 1-25
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. 359-81DOI: https://doi.org/20.500.11820/51291d31-92bc-4d29-893e-987e5c7a8cf5DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52080-7_19
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. (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. (2011) Public Information: Private Lives: Dr James Craufurd Dunlop and the Collection of Vital Statistics in Scotland, 1904-1930. In: Freeman, M., Gordon, E. and Maglen, K. (eds.) Medicine, Law and Public Policy in Scotland, c.1850-1990: Essays Presented to Anne Crowther. Dundee University Press, pp. 105-124
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