Harry Yi-Jui Wu

I am a historian of medicine. I was trained in medicine in Taiwan before obtaining DPhil in modern history at the University of Oxford in 2012. My current research projects mainly focus on the transnational histories of mental health. My first book, Mad by the Millions: Mental Disorders and the Early Years of the World Health Organization, was published by MIT Press in 2021. Besides historical research, I am also interested in commenting and critiquing humanities pedagogy in medical education.​ Before becoming Associate Professor at National Cheng Kung University, I taught at Nanyang Technological University and the University of Hong Kong between 2013 and 2021, where I lead medical humanities programmes at two schools of medicine. In 2020, I was elected Early Career Fellow of Hong Kong Academy of Humanities.

At the present time, I focus on three research projects:

• Scientific and cultural origins of psychiatric epidemiology in East Asia (supported by National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan)
• Sad waters: Hong Kong and its lunatics (supported by Gerda Henkel Stiftung, Germany)
• Using verbatim theatre to explore caregiving (supported by Yushan Young Scholar Program, Ministry of Education, Taiwan)

I am currently Co-Editor of the Journal of Social History of Medicine. In addition, I am also on the board of East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal, and Taiwanese Journal for Studies of Science, Technology and Medicine.