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Matthew Smith

@healthhistory.bsky.social

6.2K followers 2.3K following 320 posts

Historian of health and medicine at the University of Strathclyde. I research mental health, food/nutrition, and immunology/allergy. Cycling, hiking, kayaking, nature, basic income, music, Gaidhlig, Scotland, Canada.

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Matthew Smith @healthhistory.bsky.social · Jan 26

This book explains why tackling social problems, including poverty, inequality, and racism, is the best way to prevent mental illness.
cup.columbia.edu/book/the-fir...

The First Resort | Columbia University Press

Social psychiatry was a mid-twentieth-century approach to mental health that stressed the prevention of mental illness rather than its treatment. Its propone... | CUP

cup.columbia.edu

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Matthew Smith @healthhistory.bsky.social · 6d

The problem is with part 2 of 2, not the one I shared (1 of 2). Someone needs to fact check me....

Matthew Smith @healthhistory.bsky.social · 6d

AI?

Matthew Smith @healthhistory.bsky.social · 6d

universityaffairs.ca/opinion/lets...
Teach students HOW to know and think, not WHAT to think

Let’s keep the “human” in the humanities - University Affairs

The case for technology-free learning spaces.

universityaffairs.ca

Matthew Smith @healthhistory.bsky.social · 6d

Oh my, there are some clanking errors in this podcast. Apparently, you could be treated with lobotomies and electroconvulsive therapy in Victorian asylums - except you couldn't because they weren't invented until the 1930s. The Noiser Network and the BBC can do better
www.noiser.com/short-histor...

The Victorians, Part 1 of 2 | Short History Of... | Noiser History Podcasts

Award-winning podcasts that bring the most thrilling events in history to life.

www.noiser.com

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Matthew Smith @healthhistory.bsky.social · 7d

Congratulations on the book! I am (2nd) supervising a student researching messaging surrounding cesarean section in parts of Nigeria today. Have recommended it to her.

Reposted by Matthew Smith

Pratik Chakrabarti @pratik-hstm.bsky.social · 7d

A great opportunity to shape, define research in n Philosophy of Science and enhance ones own research career. And it's in Vienna.

Alisa Bokulich @alisabokulich.bsky.social · 7d

#Postdoc at U. of Vienna in philosophy of science, with focus on scientific modeling, interdisciplinarity &/or philosophy of engineering, w/ Prof. Tarja Knuuttila. English & German language proficiency required.
Deadline: Oct 9th
#philsci

jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Universi...

University Assistant postdoctoral, in the research area of Philosophy of Science

jobs.univie.ac.at

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Matthew Smith @healthhistory.bsky.social · 15d

Not too surprising.
theconversation.com/the-more-in-...

The more in favour of welfare you are, the more likely you are to support cycle lanes

Findings show that the most political people have the strongest views on green transport infrastructure, potentially skewing the debate.

theconversation.com

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Matthew Smith @healthhistory.bsky.social · 15d

youtu.be/j3Q7wD4woL8?...

Disney haalt latenightshow Jimmy Kimmel van de buis | LUBACH

YouTube video by LUBACH

youtu.be

Matthew Smith @healthhistory.bsky.social · 21d

academic.oup.com/shm/article/...
The ‘Predelinquent’ and the Community: Psychiatric Surveillance and Predictive Policing in Interwar Berkeley

The ‘Predelinquent’ and the Community: Psychiatric Surveillance and Predictive Policing in Interwar Berkeley

Summary. Through the 1920s and 1930s, the Berkeley Police Department, renowned as a centre of scientific training and investigation, developed new programm

academic.oup.com

Matthew Smith @healthhistory.bsky.social · 23d

Well you know from the inside, don't you?

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Reposted by Matthew Smith

Asylum Magazine @asylummagazine.bsky.social · 23d

www.nsun.org.uk/trauma-menta...

Another poignant piece on the close links between migration/refugee status and mental health

Trauma, mental health and migration

The process of migration and experiences of immigration systems can create or exacerbate mental ill-health, distress and trauma.

www.nsun.org.uk

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Reposted by Matthew Smith

Amy Tryphena @realkernow.bsky.social · 23d

Honoured to have a poem about PTSD included in this issue. Looking forward to hearing from all the other contributers on the 26/09 online launch.

Asylum Magazine @asylummagazine.bsky.social · Sep 8

Join us for the online launch of the Autumn 2025 Asylum Magazine Issue

Friday 26th September,6-7pm British Summer Time

All welcome ❤️

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Matthew Smith @healthhistory.bsky.social · 23d

'Two-tier REF causes concerns amid rumours of radical change'
Here's a radical change: bin the whole damned thing! Save millions and really help universities out.
www.researchprofessional.com/0/rr/news/uk...

Research Professional Sign-in

www.researchprofessional.com

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Matthew Smith @healthhistory.bsky.social · Sep 9

BBC News - Should all pupils get the right to an outdoor education week?
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Yes!

Should all pupils get the right to an outdoor education week?

The Scottish government must choose to fund outdoor education or a bill aiming to give all children the experience will fail.

www.bbc.com

Matthew Smith @healthhistory.bsky.social · Sep 8

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

Pause it permanently. Such a complete and utter waste of time and resources at a time when universities are skint and demoralised. Speaking as someone who was responsible for 7 UoAs during the last contortion.

Patrick Vallance announces three-month pause in REF - Research Professional News

Minister says hiatus will ensure “we get it right”, with results still scheduled for 2029

www.researchprofessionalnews.com

Matthew Smith @healthhistory.bsky.social · Sep 6

Amazing issue of Asylum Magazine out just now. So much valuable insight within its pages. If you don't experience mental illness, reading Asylum is one way to approach understanding it a little more. The only mag I subscribe to anymore.
@asylummagazine.bsky.social

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Matthew Smith @healthhistory.bsky.social · Sep 4

Melvyn Bragg decides to step down from presenting In Our Time share.google/Np5qcGaZioQy...
End of an era.
Ok, who should replace him?

Melvyn Bragg decides to step down from presenting In Our Time

After 26 years on the programme, the legendary presenter bids farewell to the series

share.google

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Matthew Smith @healthhistory.bsky.social · Sep 2

Lovely tribute to what should be Canada's national anthem - Northwest Passage - and its creator, the late, great Stan Rogers. southernwoodenboatsailing.com/news/tracing...

Tracing One Warm Line — Southern Woodenboat Sailing

Rogers’ song refers to Sir John Franklin, one of the best known of the explorers as, having led two missions to try and find the passage, he set out on a third journey with two vessels the HMS Terror ...

southernwoodenboatsailing.com

Matthew Smith @healthhistory.bsky.social · Aug 23

BBC News - Glasgow's Citizens Theatre to reopen after seven years
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Glasgow's Citizens Theatre to reopen after 7 years

The original cost was estimated at £20m but it could end up costing double that amount.

www.bbc.com

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Matthew Smith @healthhistory.bsky.social · Aug 20

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Wonderful tribute to Canadian jazz legend Oscar Peterson in his centenary.

The Jazz Show with Jamie Cullum - Oscar Peterson at 100 - BBC Sounds

Jamie celebrates the great Canadian pianist's centenary.

www.bbc.co.uk

Matthew Smith @healthhistory.bsky.social · Aug 16

Saturday morning joke:
What did one guy in the shower at the gym say to the other guy in the shower at the gym?
"I think it's clean by now..."

Matthew Smith @healthhistory.bsky.social · Aug 14

@bbc if you're claiming to present the history of something, maybe bring in a historian? Certainly people with lived experience should present their views, but that's not history
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...