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Harry Wu

posts .icon { width: 20px; height: 20px; float: right; position: absolute; right: 30px; bottom: 30px; }Harry Wu

I am Associate Professor jointly appointed between Department of Medical Humanities & Social Medicine, and Cross College Elite Program at National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. I was medically trained in Taiwan before obtaining DPhil in modern history at the University of Oxford in 2012. My research projects mainly focus on the transnational histories of medicine, especially on topics related to psychiatry, mental health and public 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.

While at Oxford, I was Clifford Norton student in the History of Science at The Queen’s College. Before relocating to Taiwan, I taught at Nanyang Technological University and the University of Hong Kong between 2013 and 2021, where I was lead medical humanities programs of two schools of medicine. In 2020, I was elected Early Career Fellow of Hong Kong Academy of Humanities. I am currently Co-Editor of the Journal of Social History of Medicine. In addition, I am also on the board of Taiwanese Journal for Studies of Science, Technology and Medicine.

Selected publications

Wu, Harry Yi-Jui (2021). Mad by the Millions: Mental Disorders and the Early Years of the World Health Organization (Cambridge: MIT Press).

Wu, Harry Yi-Jui (2021). What can the study of ‘lunatics’ in Hong Kong contribute to the historiography of mental health in East Asia? In Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. 57(3): 281-287.

Wu, Harry Yi-Jui (2021). From Optical Unconscious to Mental Imagery: How Scientists Have Been Catching up with Filmmakers’ Agendas on Trauma. Journal of Trauma and Dissociation. 22(4): 439-451.

Wu, Harry Yi-Jui (2020). Psychiatrists’ Agency and their Distance from the Authoritarian State in Post World-War II Taiwan. History of Psychology. 23(4): 351-370.