A warm welcome to Alison Downham Moore, who joins us as a Visiting Scholar from 24 September to 30 September 2026.
Alison Downham Moore is Professor of History & Medical Humanities at Western Sydney University, where they lead a research node on Humanities, Science and Health. Author of the award-winning book, The French Invention of Menopause and the Medicalisation of Women’s Ageing: A History (OUP 2022), Alison is currently working on their fifth book – The Mother of All Surgeries: A Global History of Hysterectomy. They are also collaborating with Elizabeth Stephens, Melissa Gregg and Christopher O’Neill on the Australian Research Council Discovery Grant-funded, A Cultural History of Workplace Fatigue, which is being supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant.
While visiting Durham, Alison will be progressing their research on historical and humanities methods for tracing the lived experience of surgery patients and their role in shaping the global history of surgeries, particularly within gynaecology. They will also be developing new medical humanities teaching curricula.
Welcome, Alison – we’re so very excited to have you with us!
