Susan Lamb (historian): Difference between revisions

Susan Lamb is a Canadian historian of medicine and Associate Professor in the Department of Innovation in Medical Education at the University of Ottawa. She holds the Jason A. Hannah Chair in the History of Medicine and has a cross-appointment to the Faculty of Arts (Department of History).^[1]

Lamb earned her Ph.D. in the History of Medicine from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2010.^[2]
She previously completed a Master’s degree in History at the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Fine Arts at York University.^[3]

In 2015, Lamb was appointed to the Jason A. Hannah Chair in the History of Medicine at the University of Ottawa.^[3]
She teaches in the Department of Innovation in Medical Education (DIME) in the Faculty of Medicine and supervises graduate research through her cross-appointment with the Faculty of Arts (History).^[1]

Her academic work explores the history of medical education, psychiatry, hospital-based learning, and the relationship between medicine, society, and the humanities.^[4] She is also involved in integrating history and humanities perspectives into medical curricula at the University of Ottawa.^[3]

Lamb’s research focuses on:

• The development of medical education and clinical teaching models from Europe to North America.^[4]
• The history of psychiatry, pathology, nursing, and the institutionalization of mental health care.^[5]
• The role of history and the humanities in health professions education.^[6]

• Lamb, Susan (2014). Pathologist of the Mind: Adolf Meyer and the Origins of American Psychiatry. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 9781421411527.^[1]
• Girouard, K. & Lamb, S. (2021). “Scientific Medicine in the Time of Cholera: The Johns Hopkins Ethos and U.S. Friendly Power in North China, 1919.” European Journal for the History of Medicine and Health, 78(1): 1–23.^[5]
• Lamb, S. (2022). “History’s Toolbox in Health Professions Education: One Skill-Based Session on Social Determinants of Health.” History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 78(1): 20–33.^[5]

Lamb teaches history of medicine and medical humanities in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa.^[1] She supervises graduate students in history and contributes to the Medicine & Humanities unit. In 2024, she delivered a public lecture at McMaster University titled “Histories of Mental Illness That Help Explain Why the DSM Is Always Changing.”^[7]
She has also participated in milestone events such as the launch of the 75th anniversary of the Faculty of Medicine.^[8]

• Lamb, S. (2014). Pathologist of the Mind: Adolf Meyer and the Origins of American Psychiatry. Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Lamb, S. (2022). “History’s Toolbox in Health Professions Education: One Skill-Based Session on Social Determinants of Health.” History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 78(1): 20–33.
• Girouard, K. & Lamb, S. (2021). “Scientific Medicine in the Time of Cholera: The Johns Hopkins Ethos and U.S. Friendly Power in North China, 1919.” European Journal for the History of Medicine and Health, 78(1): 1-23.