Seminar Five

As part of the ongoing Royal Society of Edinburgh Scottish Health Humanities Masterclass and Seminar Series, we are pleased to welcome Prof Christine Hallett to Edinburgh University to share her work on Nursing during World War I.

She will be offering a hands-on opportunity for graduate students and early career researchers to work with archival material in the afternoon and a public seminar in the evening.

Masterclass
4 December 2013, Edinburgh University (room TBA) 2pm-3:30pm.
Students and Early Career Researchers Welcome (registration required a.willis@ed.ac.uk).

Working with Personal Testimony: The Diary and Papers of Jentie Paterson, First World War Nurse

This masterclass will focus on the use of nurses' diaries, letters and autobiographical accounts as historian sources, and will offer the opportunity for participants to work with some examples of original material from the files held on Jentie Paterson, a Reserve Nurse of the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service at the National Archives and the Imperial War Museum.

Public Seminar
4 December 2013, Edinburgh University, Mcewan Hall Reception Room, Doors open at 5:30 for a 6pm start.
Everyone Welcome

Containing Trauma: Nursing Work in the First World War

This lecture explores the nature of the practices developed by nurses and their volunteer-assistants during the First World War. It argues that nurses found meaning in their complex and stressful work by identifying it as a process of 'containing trauma'. It draws on highly personal writings, using letters and diaries in archives and libraries throughout the world.