The founding of the Institute for the International History of Medicine is a moment worth celebrating.
Our mission is simple: to support quality research in the history of medicine wherever it may be found and to foster a community of researchers around the world. To fulfill this mission, the Institute will focus on four key objectives: building partnerships with cultural, educational, and medical institutions globally; soliciting proposals for multi-institutional programming intended to reach a wide audience; establishing fellowship and grant schemes aimed at undergraduate pre-medical students, graduate students, medical students, and junior and senior scholars; and coordinating international conferences and events. Our success will be measured by the future accomplishments of our fellows, grantees, and scholars, who we expect to become the next generation of humanists, social scientists, clinician-scholars, and public intellectuals leading academic and broader discussions about the history of medicine, healthcare, and biomedical science.
I am honored to serve as the Institute’s Founding Director, responsible for strategy and programming. Prior to coming to the Institute, I enjoyed a twenty-year career on the faculty at the California Institute of Technology and the College of William and Mary, and, most recently, as Director of the Cedars-Sinai Program in the History of Medicine, which I built into the most active history of medicine program in the Western United States. While these collective experiences prepare me for what comes next, I have already benefited immensely from conversations with our Board of Directors and a growing Director’s Advisory Board that will guide my efforts moving forward.
Even now, I can share two successes for the Institute. First, we have benefited from a generous gift from Jeremy L. Norman, who has entrusted us with the Garrison-Morton Medical Bibliography, henceforth to be known as the Garrison-Morton-Norman Medical Bibliography. This newly reimagined online bibliography will launch in 2026. Second, the Institute is playing a central role in organizing and supporting a multi-institutional effort to bring the history of medicine and health humanities to a wider public through Harvey 2028, with two international conferences set to commemorate the quadricentennial celebration of William Harvey’s 1628 demonstration of the circulation of the blood.
The Institute’s priorities for the coming year will be to establish itself as a recognized funding body through two grant schemes. The first involves partnering with history of medicine graduate programs to fund student research. The second is to offer discovery fellowships to undergraduates preparing for medical school, allowing them to visit archives and invest time in historical study before embarking on their clinical and research training and careers.
Of course, one of my key roles as Founding Director will be to secure the long-term stability of the Institute through fundraising, but that concern is for a later day.
Today, please join me in celebrating the Institute’s founding.
Gideon Manning
Founding Director
July 5, 2026