Contributor Biographies The UKAHN Bulletin
Volume 9 (1) 2021

 

Our Guest editor: Karen Flynn

Karen Flynn is an Associate professor in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies and the Department of African American Studies Program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Flynn is also the associate chair for the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies.  She received her Ph.D. in Women’s Studies from York University, Toronto, Ontario, in 2003. Her research interests include migration and travel, Black Canada, health, popular culture, feminist, Diasporic and post-colonial studies. Dr. Flynn’s book: Moving Beyond Borders: Black Canadian and Caribbean women in the African Canadian Diaspora published by University of Toronto won the Lavinia L. Dock Award from the American Association of the History of Nursing. She is currently working on a second book project tentatively titled, The Black Pacific: The African Diaspora in East Asia that maps the travel itineraries of young Black EFL teachers across borders.

In addition to her academic work, Dr. Flynn has published numerous editorials in Share, Canada’s largest ethnic newspaper, which serves the Black & Caribbean communities in the Greater Metropolitan Toronto area. area. Dr. Flynn has had op-ed articles in Now Magazine, the Toronto Star, and Rabble.ca. She was also a free-lance writer for Canada Extra, Swaymag.ca and most recently for Origins. As a public scholar, she writes passionately about contemporary issues considering issues of race, gender, class, sexuality, age, and nation. In addition to her own writings, Dr. Flynn has been tapped for expertise for the Toronto Star, U.S.A, Today, and ESPN’s, Undefeated.

Dr. Flynn was appointed a Dean’s Fellow for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS), a program geared towards strengthening and expanding the cadre of leaders in the College. In 2015, Dr. Flynn was selected as the Conrad Humanities Fellow for LAS for excellence in scholarship.

Most recently, Dr. Flynn was awarded the Unit for Criticism Senior Fellowship, 2020-2022, was named as the Aaron and Laurel Clark Professorial Scholar, 2020-2023, and selected as a Public Voice Fellow. In 2019, she was awarded the Hilda Neatby Prize in Canadian Women’s and Gender History, awarded by the Canadian Committee in Women’s History of the Canadian Historical Association and the AAHN Mary Adelaide Nutting Award for Exemplary Historical Research and Writing in a Manuscript or Article for the article, “Hotel Refuses Negro Nurse”: Gloria Clarke Baylis and the Queen Elizabeth Hotel” published in the Canadian Bulletin of Medical History. Email: kcflynn@illinois.edu.

Her UKAHN Bulletin Vol 9 (1) 2021 article can be found here:
‘I’m not your typical nurse’: Caribbean nurses in Britain and Canada


Author Portraits

 Catherine Ceniza Choy

Catherine Ceniza Choy is Professor of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley. She is the author of the books, Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History and Global Families: A History of Asian International Adoption in America, and the co-editor of the anthology Gendering the Trans-Pacific World. An engaged public scholar, she has been interviewed in many media outlets, including ABC 2020, The Atlantic, CNN, Los Angeles Times, NBC News, New York Times, ProPublica, San Francisco Chronicle, Time Magazine, and Vox. The daughter of Filipino immigrants, she was born and raised in New York City. She lives in Berkeley with her husband and their two children. Connect with her on twitter at @CCenizaChoy

Her UKAHN Bulletin Vol 9 (1) 2021 article can be found here: To the Point of No Return: From Exchange Visitor to Permanent Resident, And, a review of her book is here: Catherine Ceniza Choy (2003) Empire of Care: Nursing and migration in Filipino America


Charissa Threat

Dr Charissa Threat is an Associate Professor of History at Chapman University where she teaches courses in U.S. and African American history. Her research interests are in race and gender in twentieth century U.S. history, civil rights, community activism, and civil-military relations.

Her first book, Nursing Civil Rights: Gender and Race in the Army Nurse Corps (University of Illinois Press, 2015), won the 2017 Lavinia L. Dock Book Award from the American Association for the History of Nursing. She is currently at work on an article about the American Nurses’ Association, social justice, and Cold War activism in Post-World War II America. And at work on her second book, “Sweethearts and Pin-Ups,” an examination of home-front activities, wartime participation, and intimate relations among African Americans during Second World War. Email: threat@chapman.edu

Her UKAHN Bulletin Vol 9 (1) 2021 article can be found here: “The Negro Nurse – A Citizen Fighting for Democracy” African Americans and Army Nurse Corps. And, a review of her book is here: Charissa J Threat (2015) Nursing Civil Rights: Gender & Race in the Army Nurse Corps


Heather Norris Nicholson

Heather Norris Nicholson has honorary research positions at the University of Huddersfield and elsewhere. She has taught and written extensively on film history, visual memory, identity, culture and social change and also worked in different settings, particularly with African Caribbean descent communities in and beyond West Yorkshire. Contact: h.nicholson@hud.ac.uk

Her UKAHN Bulletin Vol 9 (1) 2021 article can be found here: Huddersfield and the NHS: The Caribbean Connection (2020) A Reflection on Public History and Ways of Knowing about the Past

 

 

 

 


 Jocelyn Hezekiah

Born and educated in Trinidad, West Indies, Jocelyn Hezekiah studied nursing (1954) and midwifery in England (1956). She returned to Trinidad where she practiced for two years before emigrating to Canada in 1959. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Nursing from McGill University in 1965, a M.Ed, OISE, University of Toronto in 1968 and a Ph.D. Educational Administration, University of Alberta in 1987. Her nursing career involved nursing practice, education and administration. Jocelyn was Director of the first school of nursing in a Community College in Ontario and was instrumental in creating a common semester for registered nurses and registered nursing assistants. In addition, she pioneered the first post-diploma courses for registered nurses in the community college. She was elected President of the Registered Nurses Association and was active on provincial and federal committees concerned with nursing education and nursing ethics. After receiving her Master’s degree she was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Western Ontario where she taught in the basic degree program and was coordinator of the post diploma program. On completion of her doctorate in Alberta, Jocelyn returned to Ontario where she was appointed Associate Professor at McMaster University. During her tenure there she was a Faculty Advisor in a nursing project in conjunction with the Aga Khan University, Pakistan, designed to prepare nursing leaders for their hospital. As part of the project, she spent three years in Pakistan teaching registered nurses and ‘lady health visitors’. She has published articles, conducted workshops, been a guest speaker at conferences, and is consulted internationally. Her book Breaking the Glass Ceiling (2001) examined the development of nursing leaders in the Caribbean. Since her retirement she divides her time between Canada and Trinidad. Email:hezekiahjocelyn@gmail.com

Her UKAHN Bulletin Vol 9 (1) 2021 article can be found here: Dame Nita Barrow and the development of black nursing leaders in the West Indies


 Milton Brown

Milton Brown is CEO of Kirklees Local TV and currently completing a PhD. He has longstanding commitments to civic engagement and social responsibilities, and has worked internationally on equality and inclusion. In 2011 he received a fellowship from the United Nations for People of African Descent. Contact: info@kirkleeslocaltv.com

His UKAHN Bulletin Vol 9 (1) 2021 article can be found here: Huddersfield and the NHS: The Caribbean Connection (2020) A Reflection on Public History and Ways of Knowing about the Past

 

 

 

 


Odette Best:

Dr Odette Best is a multi-blood lined First Nations Australian and Registered nurse of 30 years. Odette has worked within First Nation health for 27 years across clinical, policy and tertiary sector within Queensland Australia.

In 2014, she was lead editor and author to the inaugural and only, First Nations nursing and midwifery led textbook on Indigenous health entitled Yatdjuligin: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nursing and Midwifery Care (Cambridge University Press). Odette’s other passion is the historiography of First Nations Australian women as nurses and midwives pre-1950.

Odette is recognised both nationally and internationally for her contributions to successful First Nation teaching and research which saw her inducted in 2018 into the American Academy of Nursing for outstanding contribution to Aboriginal health in nursing and midwifery service within Australia. Further, she is also a Churchill Fellow and a Fellow of the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives.

Currently Odette is Professor (Indigenous Community Engagement and Research) in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Southern Queensland, Ipswich Campus.              Email:odette.best@usq.edu.au

Her UKAHN Bulletin Vol 9 (1) 2021 article can be found here: Disrupting dominant discourse: Indigenous women as trained nurses and midwives 1900s–1950s 


 Shokahle R. Dlamini

Shokahle R. Dlamini, a lecturer at the University of Eswatini (UNESWA), believes in producing versatile graduates who are equipped to face the world and conquer.  Dlamini is a graduate of the University of Johannesburg where she was awarded with the Distinctive Researcher Award in 2016. Her research focus of her PhD in this university was on medical missions and the evolution and development of nursing education in Swaziland.  That is how she picked her research interest in medical missions, nursing history, health and healing in Swaziland. She has published articles on the Church of the Nazarene medical missions, nursing education, HIV/AIDS and malaria. Her most recent publications include, ‘The Introduction of Western Medicine in Southern Africa: The Case of Ainsworth Dickson Nursing Training School in Bremersdorp, Swaziland, 1927 to 1949’ in South African Historical Journal, and a chapter (‘A Colony or Protectorate: The Ambiguities of Swaziland’s Colonial Relations with Britain and their implications, 1903-1968’) in a recently published book, Africa: Economic, Political and Social Issues  (2020, edited by David Murphy and Ethan Morris). Shokahle is currently a member of the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) of the Global Fund, Eswatini where she is serving as an Executive Committee member and a representative of the Academic constituency.  Email: shokahle@gmail.com

Her UKAHN Bulletin Vol 9 (1) 2021 article can be found here: Colonialism and Race in Nursing Education at Ainsworth Dickson Nursing Training School, Swaziland, 1927-1980


 Sneha Sanyal

Sneha Sanyal is a PhD Scholar in the Department of History at the University of Calcutta, India. Her research explores history of gender and medicine in the context of the 19th– and 20th-century South Asia. The title of her doctoral thesis is ‘Women in Public Health Administration in Colonial Bengal, 1880-1947’. She obtained her M Phil degree (2014) from University of Calcutta for the dissertation on ‘The Growth and Development of Nursing as a Profession in Bengal, 1858-1947’. Her work can be found in numerous scholarly journals including Indian Journal of History of Science, Quarterly Review of Historical Studies, and Social Scientist. Before joining the doctoral programme of the University of Calcutta, she taught at the Post-Graduate Department of History, Malda College, West Bengal, India. E-mail:snehasanyal.2008@gmail.com

Her UKAHN Bulletin Vol 9 (1) 2021 article can be found here: Institutionalization of Nursing as Profession in Early Twentieth Century Bengal


Stephen Bourne

Stephen Bourne has been writing Black British history books since 1991. His best-known works are Black Poppies: Britain’s Black Community and the Great War (The History Press, 2019) and Under Fire: Black Britain in Wartime 1939-45 (The History Press, 2020). He is also the author of Fighting Proud: The Untold Story of the Gay Men who Served in Two World Wars (I B Tauris/Bloomsbury, 2017) and Deep Are the Roots: Trailblazers Who Changed Black British Theatre (The History Press, 2021). In 2017 Stephen received an Honorary Fellowship from London South Bank University for his contribution to diversity.  For further information go to www.stephenbourne.co.uk

His UKAHN Bulletin Vol 9 (1) 2021 article can be found here: https://bulletin.ukahn.org/brewster-annie-catherine-1858-1902/


 Tracey Bunda

Professor Tracey Bunda is a Ngugi/Wakka Wakka woman and the Director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies at the University of Queensland, Australia. She has national and international reputations in the fields of Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Education with her work in these fields acknowledged with Life Membership to the Australian Association for Research in Education.

Professor Bunda, with Professor Odette Best as lead researcher, holds a current Australian Research Council grant to investigate the  Historiography of Aboriginal Queensland Nurses & Midwives 1890s-1950s.She is co-author of Research Through With and As Storying with Louise Phillips. The focus of her work has been to ensure that education is a mechanism through which liberation can be achieved. Email:t.bunda@uq.edu.au

Her UKAHN Bulletin Vol 9 (1) 2021 article can be found here: Disrupting dominant discourse: Indigenous women as trained nurses and midwives 1900s–1950s


 Young Historians Project

YHP is a non-profit organisation formed by young people to encourage the development of young historians of African and Caribbean heritage in Britain. The team, aged 16-25 are working on dynamic projects, documenting pivotal and often overlooked historical moments.  Their hope and aim is, through this and future projects, to encourage more young people of African and Caribbean heritage to rediscover history and develop the skills to become the historians of the future. ‘Each one, Teach one’ is the group’s watch word.

Website: https://www.younghistoriansproject.org/

Email: younghistoriansproject@gmail.com

Twitter: @yhp_uk

Their UKAHN Bulletin Vol 9 (1) 2021 article can be found here: Oral History from Within: African Women and The National Health Service  

Alex Douglas-Bailey

Alex Douglas-Bailey is a History and Social Anthropology graduate from the University of Kent, now based in Bristol and currently working in Information Services. She joined YHP in 2017 after working with the Project Co-ordinator at Historic Dockyard Chatham on an exhibition titled ‘Untold Stories a Celebration of the Black History of Kent’. At YHP all members are involved with every activity and share their skills across the team; Alex is currently working on YHP’s online exhibition and producing an episode on ‘Fostering’ within the project.

Her UKAHN Bulletin Vol 9 (1) 2021 article can be found here: Oral History from Within: African Women and The National Health Service

Josephine Small

Josephine Small is a final year History student at the University of Leeds. She recently completed her dissertation on Claudia Jones and Black British radicalism in the 1950s and early 60s. Josie joined YHP in September 2020 after interviewing two YHP members for the University of Leeds paper, The Gryphon. She has been working with Alex Douglas-Bailey on the ‘Fostering’ documentary episode, as well as producing content for the website and helping to plan our next project.

Her UKAHN Bulletin Vol 9 (1) 2021 article can be found here: Oral History from Within: African Women and The National Health Service