The American Association for the History of Nursing (AAHN) has awarded Dr. Kylie Smith, BA, PhD, the Lavina L. Dock Award for her book, Talking Therapy: Knowledge and Power in American Psychiatric Nursing. This award honors outstanding research and writing produced by an experienced scholar in nursing history.
Dr. Smith is an associate professor in the Emory School of Nursing and teaches history, ethics, and critical theory in both the graduate and undergraduate programs, with an emphasis on the role of nurses in health care activism and social justice. Her book explores the rise of modern psychiatric nursing in the U.S. from the 1930s to the 1970s with a focus on nursing scholarship.
After earning a Bachelor of Arts with honors in English and History and a PhD in History from the University of Wollongong in Australia, Dr. Smith continued her research on the history of psychiatry, the role of nurses and the impact of the Civil Rights Act on psychiatric practices. Her work with the Emory Centre for Ethics, the Emory Centre for Human Health, and the Emory College of Arts and Sciences to build collaborations between nursing and the liberal arts earned her the Andrew W. Mellon Faculty Fellow for Nursing and the Humanities.
The Lavina L. Dock Award for exemplary historical research and writing is decided by a panel of three nursing history scholar peers and the selection criteria is based on the rigor of the historical research and the quality of the writing demonstrated. Talking Therapy has received high praise from esteemed peers and colleagues from Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Smith will be honored at the AAHN virtual ceremony on October 3rd.
To learn more about the American Association for the History of Nursing and their awards, visit the website. For more information on Dr. Kylie Smith, visit her faculty profile. To purchase and read more about Talking Therapy: Knowledge and Power in American Psychiatric Nursing, visit Rutger’s University Press.