Witness Seminars

At the biennial conferences and at some associated history of medicine conferences the society has supported the organisation of a Witness Seminar on an important topic relevant to history of medicine in Australia and/or New Zealand. The idea of the 'Witness Seminar' was pioneered by the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at the University College London. Witnesses of particular events or developments meet to reminisce, discuss and debate among themselves, in a chairman-led meeting and with a participating audience of historian, scientists, clinicians and others. Questions such as 'What was it like at the time?' and 'Why did things happen the way they did?' form the backbone of such discussions.The proceedings are recorded, transcribed and prepared for possible publication.

Recent Witness seminars include:

2019   'Experiences of deinstitutionalisation', Auckland

2017   'Adventures in Immunology and Inflammation since the 1960s:

           Curiosity-driven Research, Discovery, New Treatments’, Melbourne

2015   'Levers of Power: Managing Health Services', Sydney

2013   'The Menzies School of Health Research', Darwin

2011   'Apoptosis: Its Discovery, Development and Significance in Medicine

           and Biology', Brisbane​

2009   'Asbestos Related Disease', Perth

2007   'Global Eradication of Human Infectious Diseases', Canberra

2006   'History of Iodine Deficiency in Tasmania 1806-2006', Launceston

​2005   'The History of Fetal Medicine', Auckland

           A full transcript of the seminar can be accessed here.

2003   'Venomous Country', Melbourne