EDUCATION
Ph.D., History
University of Saskatchewan, April 2018
Dissertation: “Military and Naval Nursing in the British Empire c. 1763-1830”
Advisors: Dr. Lisa Smith and Dr. Matthew Neufeld
M.A., History
University of New Brunswick, October 2011
B.A. (Hons), History
University of New Brunswick, May 2010
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
2021-2022 Assistant Professor (Term), University of New Brunswick (Saint John)
2020-Present Sessional Lecturer, University of Lethbridge
2019-2020 Assistant Professor (Term), Mount Allison University
2018-2019 AMS Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Oxford
“A System of Care and Control: British Naval Medicine 1790-1815”
HONOURS AND AWARDS
2018
American Association for the History of Nursing, Teresa Christy Research Award: for PhD Dissertation “Naval and Military Nursing c. 1763-1830”
2017
Graduate Instructor Award, Department of History, University of Saskatchewan
2010
IODE Provincial Chapter Prize in History, NB IODE
PUBLICATIONS
Journal Articles
2018
Erin Spinney. “Servants to the hospital and the state: nurses in Plymouth and Haslar Naval Hospitals, 1775-1815.” Journal for Maritime Research 20(1) (2018): 1-17. DOI: 10.1080/21533369.2018.1513394
Book Chapters
2021
Erin Spinney. “Environment,” in A Cultural History of Medicine: The Enlightenment edited by Lisa Smith, 13-28. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021
Other Publications
2018
Viktor Pál, Roberta Biasillo, Elena Kochetkova, Tayler Meredith, Simone Schleper, and Erin Spinney. “Emerging Scholars in the Age of Uncertainty: Goals and Plans of ESEH Next Generation Action Team in 2018-19. Environment and History 24 (2018): 579-581.
Book Reviews
2021
Erin Spinney. “Beyond Nightingale: Nursing on the Crimean War battlefields, by Carol Helmstadter,” Nursing History Review. In press.
2020
Erin Spinney. “Recipes and Everyday Knowledge: Medicine, Science, and the Household in Early Modern England by Elaine Leong.” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History. In progress.
Erin Spinney. “Eloquence Embodied: Nonverbal Communication among French and Indigenous Peoples in the Americas by Céline Carayon.” Canadian Journal of Native Studies. In progress.
2019
Erin Spinney. “Discipling the Empire: Politics, Governance, and the Rise of the British Navy, by Sarah Kinkel.” Global Maritime History Online.
2018
Erin Spinney. “Coal & Empire: The Birth of Energy Security in Industrial America by Peter A. Shulman.” Canadian Journal of History/Annales Canadiennes D’Histoire 53(3) (2018): 521-522.
Erin Spinney. “Bacteria & Bayonets: The Impact of Disease in American Military History by David Petrillo.” Nursing History Review 26(1) (2018): 222-223.
Erin Spinney. “Disease, War, and the Imperial State: The Welfare of the British Armed Forces During the Seven Year’s War by Erica Charters.” Nursing History Review 26(1) (2018): 214-215.
2017
Erin Spinney. “Colonial Caring: A history of colonial and post-colonial nursing, Edited by Helen Sweet and Sue Hawkins.” Nursing History Review 25(1) (2017): 170-172.
2015
Erin Spinney. Review of Forrest, Alan, Waterloo. H-War, H-Net Reviews (October).
Media Reviews
2021
Erin Spinney. “Medical Services and Warfare, 1850-1949. Adam Matthew Digital.”Nursing History Review 30(1) (2021).
Manuscripts in Submission
2020
Erin Spinney. “‘The Hardships he labours under for want of an Allowance of Fuel in that severe Climate’: Environment and Military and Naval Hospitals in Canada 1756-1814.” Papers in Canadian History and Environment. Revise and resubmit.
GRANTS AND SCHOLARSHIPS
2020
Emergency Research Bursary, Society for the Social History of Medicine
2018
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Associated Medical Services (AMS)
Travel Grant, Canadian History and Environment Summer School
Travel Grant, Canadian Association for the History of Nursing
2016
Doctoral Graduate Scholarship, University of Saskatchewan
Departmental Travel Funding, University of Saskatchewan
Travel Grant, American Society for Environmental History
Travel Grant, American Association for the History of Medicine
Travel Grant, Canadian Writing Centres Association
Registration Grant, European Association for Urban History
2015
Senior Teaching Fellowship, University of Saskatchewan
H-31Pre-doctoral Research Grant, American Association for the History of Nursing
Postgraduate National Scholarship, Girl Guides of Canada
Departmental Travel Funding, University of Saskatchewan
Travel Grant, Canadian History and Environment Summer School
Stern Grant, North American Conference of British Studies
2014
Senior Teaching Fellowship, University of Saskatchewan
Ivo Lambi Memorial Scholarship, University of Saskatchewan
Travel Grant, United Kingdom Assoc. for the History of Nursing
2013
Doctoral Graduate Scholarship, University of Saskatchewan
2012
Doctoral Graduate Scholarship, University of Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan Innovation and Opportunity Scholarship, Provincial Government
Interdisciplinary Centre for Culture and Creativity Travel Stipend, University of Saskatchewan
2011
Doctoral Graduate Scholarship, University of Saskatchewan
2010
Research Assistantship, University of New Brunswick
INVITED TALKS
2021
Black Nurses, Enslaved Labour, and the Royal Navy, 1790-1820
Royal College of Nursing, Annual History of Nursing Forum Lecture
March 25, London, UK (virtually)
Black Nurses and the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Period
Royal College of Nursing, Race and Culture Staff Network
March 4, London, UK (virtually)
2020
“Hospital Ships and Female Labour”
Centre for Maritime Historical Studies Seminar Series (virtual due to Covid-19), University of Exeter
October 21
“British Naval Nursing in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars”
WGST Marie Hammond-Callaghan Memorial Lecture, Mount Allison University
March 9
2019
“Women’s Labour and British Naval Hospitals and Hospital Ships 1775-1815”
History of Science, Medicine, and Technology Seminar, University of Oxford
May 13
“Soldiers and Military Hospitals: Orderlies, Patients, and Experiences in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars”
Life in the Red Coat: The British Soldier 1721-1815, Derby, UK
27 April
“Seniority, Experience, and On-the-job Training at British Naval Hospitals 1775-1815”
‘A Species of Knowledge’: Women and Medicine 1750-1850, Birkbeck, London, UK
5 April
2017
“British Naval Nursing 1760-1830.”
The Past, Present, and Future of Naval Nursing, Royal College of Nursing, Plymouth UK
7 June
CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION
Papers Presented
2021
Where Have All the Books Gone? Research and Writing Without Physical Library Access
Pandemic Methodologies Twitter Conference
24-25 June #PandemicMethodologies
Air, Ventilation, and Fumigation: Creating Healthy Environments in British Naval Hospitals and Hospital Ships
Canadian Society for the History of Medicine/Canadian Association for the History of Nursing Joint Virtual Conference
1-2 June, Edmonton, AB (virtually)
Women’s Labour, British Naval Hospital Ships, and a System of Medical Care, 1775-1815
Society for Military History
20-23 May, Norfolk, VA (virtually)
2020
Problems of Place: A Conversation on Representation, Engagement, and Community
American Society for Environmental History (Cancelled due to Covid-19)
25-29 March, Ottawa, ON
2019
“Ventilation, Fumigation, and the Creation of Healthy Air in British Naval Hospitals c. 1775-1815”
History of Science Society Conference, Utrecht, NL
23-27 July
“Nurses and Literacy at Haslar and Plymouth Naval Hospitals c. 1770-1800”
Canadian Society for the History of Medicine/Canadian Association for the History of Nursing Joint Conference, Vancouver, BC
1-3 June
“Sites of Care and Control: Healthy Environments and Royal Navy Hospital Ships 1790-1815”
American Society for Environmental History, Columbus, OH
10-13 April
“Sites of Care and Control: Healthy Environments and Royal Navy Hosptial Ships 1790-1815” #ASEH2019Tweets, 4 April
“Nursing on British Naval Hospital Ships 1790-1815”
Agnes Dillon Randolph International Nursing History/Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Sciences Conferences, Charlottesville, VA
14-16 March
2018
“Sadie and Isaac Stringer, Herschel Island, and Northern Missionary Healthcare in the Late-19th Century” with Glenn Iceton
American Association for the History of Nursing, San Diego, CA
13-15 September
“Hospital Ships, HGIS, and the Interconnectivity of British Naval Medicine in the Napoleonic Wars”
Digital Humanities Congress, Sheffield, UK
6-8 September
“Nursing the Built Environment: Environmental Medicine in British Naval Hospitals 1790-1815”
Environmental History Workshop, London, UK
3 September
“Nursing Careers at Haslar and Plymouth Naval Hospitals, 1769-1800”
Society for the Social History of Medicine, Liverpool, UK
11-13 July
“‘An awkward clumsy man’: Perceptions of female nurses and male orderlies in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars”
Redcoats, Tommies, and Dusty Warriors: Britain’s Soldiers c.1650 to present, Leeds UK
11 July
“‘And if they are to be Men or Women’: Nursing on late-18th Century British Hospital Ships”
United Kingdom Association for the History of Nursing, Chester, UK
10 July
“The Nursing Workforce at British Naval Hospitals at Haslar and Plymouth 1770-1800”
Canadian Association for the History of Nursing, Halifax NS
15-17 June
“Forgotten Carers: How digital methodology illuminates female nursing in 18th century British Naval Hospitals”
Canadian Historical Association, Regina SK
28-30 May
“Nursing the Nurses: Medical Care for Nurses in British Naval Hospitals 1790-1815”
Canadian Society for the History of Medicine, Regina, SK
26-28 May
“Hospital Ships within a System of Care and Control: British Naval Medicine 1790-1815”
American Association for the History of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA
10-14 May
“Fear and Loathing in Jamaica: Climate, Yellow Fever, and Thanatophobia among 18th-Century British Military and Naval Personnel”
#ASEH2018Tweets, 8 March
“Innovating the History of Nursing in Canadian Undergraduate Nursing Education”
Co-Presenters: Helen Vandenberg and Lydia Wytenbroek
Western North-western Region Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing, Calgary, AB
21-23 February
2017
“Beyond Nightingale: Inspiring a New Generation to Utilize History to Inform Policy and Practice”
Co-Presenters: Helen Vandenberg and Lydia Wytenbroek
Manitoba-(Northern) Ontario-Minnesota-Saskatchewan History of Medicine Conference, Winnipeg, MB
22-24 September
“‘Not less than one proper nurse for every ten men’: Regulating 18th-Century British Military and Naval Nurses.”
American Association for the History of Nursing, Rochester, NY
7-9 September
2016
“‘The Hospital Nurses Have Been Frequently Drunk’: Drunken Nurses, The Sairey Gamp Stereotype, and 18th-Century British Naval Hospitals”
American Association for the History of Nursing, Chicago, IL
22-24 September
“Urban Workers, Household Women: Nurses at Plymouth Naval Hospital 1778-1800”
European Association for Urban History, Helsinki, Finland
24-27 August
“Regulating care during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Nurses and perceptions of Nursing in the Royal Navy and the British Army”
United Kingdom Association for the History of Nursing, Camberley, England
11 July
“Inside the Ward: Everyday Experiences at the Intersection of Medicine and Domesticity in Eighteenth-Century British Naval Hospitals”
Society for the Social History of Medicine, Canterbury, England
7-10 July
“Carers for the Sick or Drunken Accessories to Desertion? Nursing at Plymouth and Haslar Naval Hospitals 1790-1815”
Canadian Society for the History of Medicine, Calgary, AB
28-30 May
“Regulators of an Internal Environment: British Naval Nursing in Late-Eighteenth Century Hospitals”
American Society for Environmental History, Seattle, WA
30 March – 2 April
2015
“‘The Most Affectionate and Unremitted Care and Attention’: Black Nurses, Racial Immunity, and British West Indian Naval Hospitals, 1790-1825”
North American Conference on British Studies, Little Rock, AR
13-15 November
“Hospital and Household: Plymouth Naval Hospital 1775-1815”
Manitoba-(Northern) Ontario-Minnesota-Saskatchewan History of Medicine Conference, Thunder Bay, ON
2-3 October
“‘The Best Sick Nurses in the World’: Race and British West Indian Military and Naval Nursing c. 1780-1830”
American Association for the History of Nursing, Dublin, Ireland
17-20 September
“‘Neither females nor negroes of either sex were liable to it’: Concepts of racial immunity in British West Indian Military and Naval Nursing c. 1780-1825”
American Association for the History of Medicine, New Haven, CT
30 April – 3 May
2014
“Health Through Hygiene: British Military Nursing 1775-1815”
American Association for the History of Nursing, Storrs and Hartford, CT
18-21 September
“Care and Cleanliness: The Importance of Nursing in British Military Hospitals c. 1790- 1815”
United Kingdom Association for the History of Nursing Colloquium, Kingston-Upon-Thames, England
9 July
2013
“Nurses and the Professionalization of British Medical Officers in the Napoleonic Wars”
SSHM-MOMS Connections and Communities in Health and Medicine, Saskatoon, SK
12-14 September
“From ‘Silly Nurses’ to ‘Indispensably Necessary’: The Evolution of British Military Nursing 1763-1815”
Canadian Society for the History of Medicine/Canadian Association for the History of Nursing, Victoria, BC
1-3 June
Workshops
2018
“‘The Hardships he labours under for want of an Allowance of Fuel in that severe
Climate’: Environment and Military and Naval Hospitals in Canada 1756-1814”
Canadian History and Environment Summer School, Saskatoon SK
30 May-2 June
2015
“British Military and Naval Nursing c. 1750-1825: A Transnational Perspective?”
Beyond Borders: A Workshop on Transnationalism, Saskatoon, SK
11 September
Canadian History and Environment Summer School, Ottawa, ON
29-31 May
2014
“Military Nursing in the 18th-Century West Indies: Race, Environment, and Identity”
NiCHE Prairie Environmental History Workshop, Saskatoon, SK
26 April
DEPARTMENTAL TALKS
2019
“Applying for Graduate School”
Department of History Workshop
21 November
2016
“Seminar Leader Roundtable”
Department of History Seminar Leader Workshop
2015
“Things I Wished I’d Known Before I Started This Job”
Department of History Teaching Assistant Workshop
2 September
2013
“TAs and TA-ing: What I wish I knew when I started this job”
Department of History History T.A. Workshop
6 September
TEACHING EXPEREINCE
Assistant Professor – Mount Allison University
2019-2020
Canada to 1871 (Fall)
Colonial America in the Atlantic World (Fall)
Health and Disease in the Early Modern Atlantic World (Fall)
Old & New Nations in North America (Winter)
Women and War in the Eighteenth Century (Winter)
Medical History of Institutions, Directed Reading Course (Winter)
Honours Thesis Supervision: Jonah Leblanc “The Development of the British Empire’s Tea Culture in the Eighteenth Century.”
Instructor – University of Saskatchewan
History Matters: The British Empire at War from Napoleon to NATO (Summer 2017)
More Than Conquerors: The British Peoples and Their World 1450-1720 (Winter 2017, Summer and Fall 2015)
History Matters: Health and Disease in the Early Modern British Atlantic (Summer 2016)
Europe Since 1939: From the Second World War to the Creation of the European Union and Beyond (Winter 2015)
Teaching Assistant – University of Saskatchewan
Race, Racisms, and Anti-Racisms in the Modern World (Fall 2017)
Pre-Confederation Canada (Royal West Campus) (Winter 2014)
Europe 1789 to Present (Winter 2014, Winter 2013)
Europe’s Way to the Modern Age 1348-1789 (Fall 2014, Fall 2013, Fall 2012)
Post-Confederation Canada (Spring/Summer 2012)
Europe since the Renaissance, 1348 to the Present, (Fall/Winter 2011-2012)
SERVICE TO PROFESSION
2019-2021
Assistant Book Review Editor, Nursing History Review
2019
Book Manuscript Reviewer, Johns Hopkins University Press
2018 – Present
Member and Twitter Editor, NEXTGATe, European Society for Environmental History
Book Review Editor, Global Maritime History Online
2017
Editor, British Naval History Online
2016 – Present
Editor of H-EnviroHealth
Member, Communication Committee, American Association for the History of Nursing
Member and Website Manager, Communication Committee, Canadian Association for the History of Nursing
2016 – 2017
Social Media Editor, Early Modern Recipes Online Collective
2015 – 2016
H-EnviroHealth Working Group Member
2014 – 2019
Editor of H-Minerva, H-Net Network for Study of Women and War and Women in the Military
DEPARTMENTAL AND UNIVERSITY SERVICE
Department of History, Mount Allison University
Public History Certificate Sub-committee Member
Marie Hammond Callaghan Prize Committee Member
Public Service Alliance of Canada Local 40004
2015 – 2017 Secretary
2014 – 2015 Union Organizer
History Graduate Student’s Committee
2013 – 2015 President
2012 – 2013 Faculty Liaison
2011 – 2012 Graduate Student Association Representative
RELATED PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
Geographic Information Systems (ArcGIS)
Coding: XML, SQL, and HTML
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
American Association for the History of Medicine
American Association for the History of Nursing
American Society for Environmental History
Canadian Society for the History of Medicine
Canadian Association for the History of Nursing
European Association for Urban History
Network in Canadian History and the Environment
North American Conference of British Studies
Society for the Social History of Medicine
Navy Records Society