Australian historian appointed honorary doctor at Umeå University
NEWS
Professor Janet McCalman, born 1948 and one of Australia's foremost historians, has been appointed honorary doctor at Umeå University, Sweden. She has led and continues to lead a number of large national and international interdisciplinary studies between history, health, population, indigenous people and sociology.
Janet McCalman's academic work has received well deserved attention, and on many occasions have her writings been lauded. She has also launched three social-historical databases, which have had great significance for many research projects. She has also won awards for her journalistic achievements and for her esteemed educational efforts.
Since the mid-2000s, McCalman has helped to establish collaborations between the University of Melbourne and researchers at the Faculty of Arts at Umeå University, especially historians at Vaartoe / Centre for Sami Research and the Centre for Demography and Aeging Research (Cedar). The social-historical databases McCalman earned in Australia has also led to collaborations with the Demographic Data Base in Umeå.
Janet McCalman is a particularly innovative humanist. The international research field has been both influenced and inspired by her way of incorporating both qualitative and quantitative historical sources of knowledge to meet current issues.
The affiliation of McCalman to the faculty as a honorary doctor will help several profiled research areas to be considerably strengthened.
Among her works include: Struggletown: Public and Private Life in Richmond 1900-1965 (1984), Journey Billings: The Biography of a middle-class generation 1920-1990 (1993), Sex and Suffering: Women's Health and a Women's Hospital: The Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne, 1856-1996 (1998).
