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Emeritus Professor of History, University of Cape Town

Having gained a PhD on the history of the Spanish flu epidemic in South Africa, I began to work in the then little-known field of the social history of medicine. This interest I was able to develop into courses to both humanities and medical students at UCT, while my own research was increasingly in this field at a time when HIV/AIDS was beginning to take root in South Africa. Among the books I have written, co-written or edited are: ' "Black October": The Impact of the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918 on South Africa' (1990); 'The Cape Doctor in the 19th Century: A Social History' (2004); 'The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918-19: New Perspectives' (2003); 'Plague, Pox and Pandemics: A Pocket History of Epidemics in South Africa' (2012); 'At the Heart Of Healing: Groote Schuur Hospital 1938-2008' (2008); and 'In a Time of Plague: Memories of the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918 in South Africa' (2018).

Experience

  • –present
    Emeritus Professor of History, University of Cape Town

Education

  • 1984 
    UCT, History