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Biography
Dr Oisín Wall is a historian of marginalised communities in 20th Century Ireland and Britain. He is a Lecturer at University College Cork’s Radical Humanities Laboratory and the School of History, and also holds a Wellcome Fellowship for the project ‘We are the Heroin Capital of Europe:’ Marginal Communities, Health, Identity, and the Opioid Epidemic in Twentieth-Century Ireland.Wall has written two monographs. His book on the prisoners' rights movement in late-20th century Ireland, Prisoners’ Bodies: Activism, Health, and the Prisoners’ Rights Movement in Ireland, 1972-85, will be published by McGill-Queens University Press in 2024. His first monograph explored the intersection of institutional psychiatry and the counter-culture in 1960’s London (The British Anti-Psychiatrists, Routledge: 2017). He has published articles on the histories of prison activism, drug-use, and psychiatry; as well as museum studies and education. Beyond his academic publications he has curated three major international exhibitions on prison and medical history at the Science Museum (London) and Kilmainham Gaol Museum (Dublin). Wall is also a member of the Society for the Social History of Medicine’s executive committee and the editor of the society’s Gazette.
Research Grants
| | Project | Funding
Body | Start Date | End Date | Award |
|---|
| ‘We are the heroin capital of Europe’: Marginal Communities, Health, Identity, and the Opioid Epidemic in Twentieth-Century Ireland | Wellcome Trust | 15-NOV-21 | 15-NOV-23 | €221,665.00 |
| Living Inside: Six voices from the history of Irish prison reform | | 01-APR-19 | 20-SEP-20 | €900.00 |
| Medicine Galleries Research Strategy | Wellcome Trust | 01-DEC-16 | 01-JAN-20 | €350,000.00 |
| Anti-University of London | Art & Humanities Research Council | 01-SEP-14 | 01-SEP-15 | €1,150.00 |
Publications
Books
| | Year | Publication |
|---|
| (2017) | The British Anti-Psychiatrists: From Institutional Psychiatry to the Counter-Culture, 1960-1971.
Oisín Wall (2017) The British Anti-Psychiatrists: From Institutional Psychiatry to the Counter-Culture, 1960-1971. London and New York: Routledge. [Details] |
Book Chapters
| | Year | Publication |
|---|
| (2020) | 'Obscuring Psychiatry: Basaglia and the British Anti-Psychiatrists'
Oisín Wall (2020) 'Obscuring Psychiatry: Basaglia and the British Anti-Psychiatrists' In: John Foot and Tom Burns (eds). Basaglia: From asylum to community, international experiences. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [DOI] [Details] |
| (2019) | 'Hearing Distant Voices: Psychiatry, Asylums and the Limits of History'
Oisín Wall (2019) 'Hearing Distant Voices: Psychiatry, Asylums and the Limits of History' In: Natasha McEnroe (eds). Medicine: An Imperfect Science. London: Scala. [Details] |
Peer Reviewed Journals
| | Year | Publication |
|---|
| (2021) | 'From ‘Opium Smoking Orgies’ to ‘Junkie Babies’: Representations of Heroin-Use in Ireland, 1915-90'
Oisín Wall and James Grannell (2021) 'From ‘Opium Smoking Orgies’ to ‘Junkie Babies’: Representations of Heroin-Use in Ireland, 1915-90'. Cultural and Social History: The Journal of the Social History Society, [Details] |
| (2019) | 'Living Inside: Displaying difficult subjects and working with academic institutions'
Oisín Wall and Brian Crowley (2019) 'Living Inside: Displaying difficult subjects and working with academic institutions'. 26 :22-26 [Details] |
| (2019) | '‘Embarrassing the State’: The ‘Ordinary’ Prisoner Rights Movement in Ireland, 1972–6'
Oisín Wall (2019) '‘Embarrassing the State’: The ‘Ordinary’ Prisoner Rights Movement in Ireland, 1972–6'. Journal of Contemporary History, 55 (2):388-410 [DOI] [Details] |
| (2017) | 'The birth and death of Villa 21'
Oisín Wall (2017) 'The birth and death of Villa 21'. History Of Psychiatry, 24 (3):326-340 [Details] |
Professional Activities
Professional Associations
| | Association | Function | From / To |
|---|
| Royal Historical Society | Fellow | 30-SEP-21 / |
| Society for the SocialHistory of Medicine | Gazette Editor | 01-SEP-22 / |
Committees
| | Committee | Function | From / To |
|---|
| Society for the Social History of Medicine | Executive committee member | 2022 / 2026 |
Employment
| | Employer | Position | From / To |
|---|
| Science Museum | Research Curator of Medicine | 01-MAR-15 / 26-JAN-18 |
| University College Dublin | Postdoctoral Research Fellow | 29-JAN-18 / 30-SEP-21 |
| University College Dublin | Wellcome Research Fellow | 01-NOV-21 / |
| University College Cork | Lecturer in Radical Humanities | 01-SEP-22 / |
Education
| | Year | Institution | Qualification | Subject |
|---|
| 2008 | University College Cork | BA | History and Philosophy |
| 2014 | King's College London | PhD | History |
| 2009 | Birkbeck College London/ London Consortium | MRes | Humanities and Cultural Studies |
Outreach Activities
| | Description |
|---|
|
This gallery explored stories from the history of medicine through objects from the Wellcome and Science Museum's medicine collections. |
|
This exhibition told the stories of six ordinary people whose lives were entwined with the history of prison reform in Ireland. |
|
I co-curated this permanent gallery which explores how medicine shapes, and is shaped by, communities. |
Teaching Activities
Teaching Interests
I teach contemporary Irish history and the histories of marginalised communities, particularly people who have been incarcerated.
Research supervision:
- I am interested in supervising research related to marginalised communities in 20th century Ireland, for instance:
- People who are, or have been, incarcerated
- People who use drugs
- Communities of sex workers
- LGBTQI+ communities
- The Traveller community
- I am also interested in supervising histories of medicine, including psychiatry.
