This presentation traces the development of Dr. Kylie Smith’s thinking and practice as a historian of psychiatry over the last decade. Drawing on insights from her work on psychiatric nurses, the ethics of health care history research, and her newest work on segregated institutions in the American South, Dr. Smith argues that the history of mental health policy and practice is indelibly shaped by its long intersection with white supremacy. This history calls into question our methods as historians, as Dr. Smith calls for a reparatory approach to the history of psychiatry in which truth telling is essential for state and professional accountability. At the same time, Dr. Smith demonstrates that this is a complex task that requires us to think carefully about our role and methods as historians, including what stories we choose to tell, and what we owe to our historical actors. 

Kylie M. Smith, PhD, is the recipient of the 2026 Agnes Dillion Randolph Award from the Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry for her outstanding scholarship on the history of psychiatry, nursing, and health equity. She is an adjunct associate professor at Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and an adjunct research fellow with the University of Southern Queensland. Her latest book is Jim Crow in the Asylum: Psychiatry and Civil Rights in the American South (UNC Press, 2026).  She is also the author of the award-winning Talking Therapy: Knowledge and Power in American Psychiatric Nursing After WWII (Rutgers University Press, 2020). 

We hope you'll join us!

Maura Singleton
Center manager
Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry
UVA School of Nursing

E: [email protected]
P: 434.924.0083