Lecture | Colonialism and Decolonization seminar
The 'public' in colonial public medicine: emerging medical practices in colonial Malaya
- Date
- Monday 19 October 2026
- Time
- Serie
- Colonialism en Decolonization Seminar Series 2026-2027
- Address
-
Johan Huizinga
Doelensteeg 16
2311 VL Leiden - Room
- 2.60 (conference room)
Abstract
In this talk, I will discuss some overarching issues in conceptualizing my book project, “Medicine in Malaya, 1856-1941”. My aim is to get a clearer idea of how to position the book in relation to Malaysian studies, Southeast Asian studies and the history of medicine. The overarching aim is to broaden existing histories of medicine, and to show “how medicine in Malaya developed alongside, and in cooperation with, racialized colonial and imperial hierarchies”. I had developed this idea initially in an article on a Japanese doctor trained in Singapore pre-World War II, and planned to extend this more broadly to the way medical staff and services were structured around racial identities and hierarchies. While this is a more historical argument about the ways in which the history of medicine and medical institutions have been understood, and the role of medicine in self- and imperial fashioning, I have found myself being drawn to an argument that has more to do with postcolonial Malaysia. I would like to explore more the idea of “public” as used in British colonial documents discussing “public health”, the imaginary of a “public” among trained doctors of different ethnicities, and to consider J.S. Furnivall’s ideas of “plural societies” in relation to the history of medicine in Malaya.
Colonialism & Decolonization Network Seminars
This seminar is part of the research network Colonialism & Decolonization: Histories and Legacies. Those interested in attending or presenting the seminar are very welcome to contact Larissa Schulte Nordholt for more details.