Professor Alison Downham Moore

I am an internationally award-winning medical humanities scholar and conceptual historian of health, gender and sexuality, of mixed European and First Nations ancestry, working on unceeded Gundungurra, Tharawal and Dharug lands. My work at Western is split between research, teaching, postgraduate supervision, mentoring, leadership and governance. I am a core member of the Translational Health Institute (THRI) and a member of the Sexualities and Genders Research group (SAGR).

Current Research

My forthcoming monograph, The Gendering of Ageing in the Emergence of Biomedicine is contracted to Cambridge University Press. My new research is focused on three projects:

1) ARC DP260202010 on A Global History of Hysterectomy, the lived experience of surgery patients and their contributions to medical knowledge;

2) ARC DP260203016: A Cultural History of Workplace Fatigue, in collaboration with cultural studies scholar Elizabeth Stephens, phillosopher Christopher O'Neill, and ethnographer/digital sustainability consultant Melissa Gregg; and

3)  Global History and Culture of Preventative Health, in collaboration with UK literary studies medical humanities scholar Manon Mathias.

4) EMPOWER-ID: Engaging Meaningful Policy with Evidence-based Research-Inclusive Data, in collaboration with Profs Jacqueline Ulhman, Kate Huppatz and Nida Denson (VC's Gender Equity Fund; Ethics Approval H16631).

Teaching and T&L Leadership

I am a Senior Fellow of AdvanceHE (HEA), a certified Quality Matters (QM) international peer-reviewer of online teaching design (USA).

My current teaching focuses on History of Genders and Sexualities (HUMN 3048) and I hope soon to introduce innovative multi-disciplinary new curriculum in the Medical and Health Humanities.

I hold 5 Quality Matters (USA) certificates in AI-powered T&L design, and 3 in Indigenous teaching, HDR supervision and research ethics (2022-2025). I integrate AI-literacy and skills development and Indigneous methods and content into all my teaching.

Governance

I am the current academic elected member of the University's Board of Trustees (2024-2027). I have previously served as Chair of the Professoriate Leadership Group (2024-25), as Associate Dean of Research for the School of  Arts (2022-25), as a School Disability Coordinator (2015-20), and as a Convenor of the History and Politics group (2015-18).

External Research Leadership

I am an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities,  of the UK Royal Historical Society, and I am an Editor-in-Chief of the interdisciplinary journal Australian Feminist Studies published by Taylor & Francis. From 2026-2028, I  serve on the Australian Research Council's College of Experts.

Publications and Public Contributions

Most of my publications, including my 2022 award-winning OUP monograph, can be freely downloaded from my academia page.

Some recent podcast interviews and recorded talks include:

- 2024 Audio Podcast Interview with Jana Byars about my internationally award-winning, open-acess book The French Invention of Menopause and the Medicalisation of Women's Ageing: History. Part of the New Books in History podcast. 

- 2022 Annual Keynote Lecture of the Australasian Health and Medical Humanities Network, University of Queensland, 'Gender in Medicine and Health'. 

Personal

In my private life, I am a volunteer firefighter, bushcare regenerator, wildlife rescuer and avian rehabilitator.