The embodied experience of wartime nursing

Nurses experienced war in different ways and wrote about this in their letters home. This project explores nurses’ embodiment of this experience, particularly relating to taste, sound, sight, smell and touch. As an example, see:

Wood, P.J., & Knight, S. (2015). The taste of war: The meaning of food to New Zealand and Australian nurses far from home in World War One, 1915-18, in G. Fealy, C. Smith & S. Dietz (eds), Histories of Clinical Practice (pp.35-51). Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Associate Professor Pamela Wood and Dr Michelle Duffy (Federation University Australia) are now focusing on nurses’ embodied experiences through sound.

Inscribing war – bodies, land, lives and letters

This project is in development as an interdisciplinary collaboration.

Recovery: Women’s overseas service in WWI

At the invitation of Tairāwhiti Museum in Gisborne, Professor Kay Morris Matthews is researching and curating an exhibition tracing 37 women from the East Coast region who served overseas as army nurses or as volunteers during World War One. Her research places the women’s wartime work within the context of their lives both before and after the war.

Suffering war – nurses’ health

Nurses serving overseas in World War One were at risk of diseases and physical injury as well as the emotional and mental impact of war. Many suffered in health. This project, led by Associate Professor Pamela Wood in collaboration with Research Programme affiliates, examines the health impact of the war on nurses, principally through their letters and health records.