Last week I spoke with Professor Joan McMeeken about her recent book Science in Our Hands: Physiotherapy at the University of Melbourne, 1895–2010.
Joan is the Foundation Professor and was Foundation Head of the School of Physiotherapy and Associate Dean Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne from 1991 to 2006. She is a Professorial Fellow of the University. Her previous research and clinical interests included physiotherapy education and accreditation, health promotion and health management through education, injury prevention and rehabilitation. She continues to play a major role in the recognition, registration and accreditation of university and tertiary academic programs in Australia and internationally, now with the World Confederation of Physical Therapy. Since retiring from her substantive position she completed a PhD in the School of History and Philosophy of Science in the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Arts. Her current historical interests include work on a current Australian Research Council grant, Diggers to Veterans: Risk, Resilience and Recovery in the First Australian Imperial Force and the history of the physiotherapy profession. In 2018 her book Science in Our Hands Physiotherapy at the University of Melbourne, 1895–2010 was published.
You can listen to the interview in full here.
Reference
McMeeken Joan M 2018 Science in Our Hands: Physiotherapy at the University of Melbourne, 1895–2010. Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Posted by Dave Nicholls
Dave Nicholls is a Professor of Critical Physiotherapy in the School of Clinical Sciences at AUT University in Auckland, New Zealand. He is a physiotherapist, lecturer, researcher and writer, with a passion for critical thinking in and around the physical therapies. David is the founder of the Critical Physiotherapy Network, an organisation that promotes the use of cultural studies, education, history, philosophy, sociology, and a range of other disciplines in the study of the profession’s past, present and future. He is also co-founder and chair of the International Physiotherapy History Association Executive, and founding Executive member of the Environmental Physiotherapy Association. David’s own research work focuses on the philosophy, sociology, and critical history of physiotherapy, and considers how physiotherapy might need to adapt to the changing economy of health care in the 21st century. He has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, many as first author. His first book – The End of Physiotherapy (Routledge, 2017) – was the first book-length critical history of the profession. A second sole-authored book – Physiotherapy Otherwise – was published in early 2022 as a free pdf/eBook (available from https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/tuwhera-open-monographs/catalog/book/8). He was co-editor on the first collection of critical physiotherapy writings – Manipulating Practices (Cappelen Damm, 2018) – and was the lead editor for the follow-up – Mobilising Knowledge (Routledge, 2020). He is also very active on social media, writing weekly on contemporary critical physiotherapy issues (criticalphysio.substack.com). He has taught in physiotherapy programmes in the UK and New Zealand for over 30 years and has presented his work around the world.
