Megan Graham

Profile

I began studying at the University of Leeds in 2017. After graduating with First Class Honours in BA History, I continued my historical studies and achieved a Distinction in MA in Race and Resistance in 2021. During this time I worked for the European Research Council Funded Men, Women and Care Project developing the internationally significant PIN 26 section of the National Archives, and mentored final year undergraduate students.

Returning to the University in 2022, I began a full-time PhD with the School of History, generously funded by the White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities (WRoCAH). My research explores how politics of health and identity were intimately entwined in late Twentieth Century Indigenous Australia, documenting the ways in which community-controlled health activism was bound to transnational discourses of racial empowerment. I work closely with peers and colleagues across the White-Rose consortium, and welcome opportunities for collaboration with others researching in spheres where the interfaces between humanities and social sciences can be innovatively realised.

I have over three years of teaching experience in the School of History and have taught on modules including HIST1510: Global Empires, HIST1520 Global Decolonization and HIST1000: Exploring History. In recognition of my contributions to student learning and in alignment with the Professional Standards Framework for Higher Education, I was awarded Associate Fellowship to the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA) in March 2026. Outside of the academy I have worked on knowledge exchange and public history projects with the National Archives of Australia, Samuel J. Wood Library and Myra Mahon Patient Resource Centre in New York.

At present, I am also Early Career Researcher Lead and an Organising Committee member for the Society for the Social History of Medicine Biennial Conference 2026: In and Out. In the past, I held posts as the Postgraduate Lead for the Health Histories Research Cluster, School of History Postgraduate Representative, Director of the AHRC-funded Oral History Collective and WRoCAH Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Ambassador.

Research interests

My specialist interests are in twentieth century histories of race, resistance and health activism. At present, my work explores Indigenous activism in Australia through the critically understudied lens of health by analysing the rise and operation of community-controlled Aboriginal Medical Services in urban, rural and remote areas. This work considers the radical ways activists working in disparate local contexts renegotiated western understandings of health, confronted wide scale health inequity, and drove efforts for Black self-determination. Bridging the politics of health and identity, I examine how health activists engaged with concurrent transnational discourses of Black Power, Pan-Africanism and liberatory care to instigate micro-local and macro-global changes to the way new and Indigenous nations conceptualised health, healing and justice.

Recent publications:

For the Australian Historical Studies Special Issue: Fifty Years On: Graham, M. (2026). Remapping Black Women’s Health Activism Within and Beyond Australia’s International Women’s Year. Australian Historical Studies, 57(2), 271–290. https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2026.2636995

Internationalisation:

• Visiting Researcher, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Australia (2024-2025)
• Visiting Fellow in Health Histories, Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University, USA (2024)

Recent Awards:

• National Archives of Australia – Australian Historical Association Postgraduate Scholarship (2024)
• Australian Women’s History Network Conference Award (2024)
• Society for Social History of Medicine Conference Award (2024)
• American Association for the History of Medicine Conference Award (2024)

Conference papers:

• Society for the Social History of Medicine Biennial Conference, University of Leeds (2026)
• Centre for Public Health Seminar Series, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (2025)
• Society for the Social History of Medicine Conference, Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare, Glasgow (2024)
• Australian Historical Association Conference, Flinders University (2024)
• American Association for the History of Medicine Conference, Kansas City (2024)
• AHRC Festival of Research, University of York (2023)
• PGR Seminar, University of Leeds (2023)

Qualifications

• Associate Fellowship to the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA), 2026
• MA Race and Resistance (Distinction), 2021
• BA (Hons) History (First Class), 2020