Sasha Mullally

Sasha Mullally holds a PhD from the University of Toronto, where she specialized in contemporary Canadian and American history with a focus on the social history of medicine and health. She teaches and supervises graduate students across topics and themes in the history of medicine and health, Canadian and American social history, especially the North American northeast. She is presently co editor of Acadiensis: Journal of the History of the Atlantic Region (2012–2017, 2025-present).

Dr. Mullally’s research also focuses on the social and cultural histories of health and medicine in 20th-century North America. A long-standing project, “Unpacking the Black Bag: Country Doctor Stories from the Maritimes and Northern New England, 1900–1950,” followed the shift from home based care to clinic and hospital centered services from social, economic and demographic perspectives.

Her book, Foreign Practices: Immigrant Doctors and the History of Canadian Medicare (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020), co authored with David Wright, draws in part from this research. The book uses personal narratives, demographic data, and historical geographic information systems (H-GIS) to examine policies that shaped the arrival and experiences of international medical graduates in post-war Canada, arguing that early service needs of our national universal health care system would not have succeeded without their contributions. The book received an Honourable Mention in the Wilson Book Prize 2021 competition and is featured in the Champlain Society’s podcast series (Episode 115).

More recent research advances the emerging field of interdisciplinary H GIS through a new collaborative exploration. Working with colleagues in geodesy and geomatics engineering, she works to create new ways to understand urban transformation in the province of New Brunswick, connecting spatial data in aerial photographic mosaics to key municipal and provincial records that document 20th century development. Awarded a New Frontiers in Research Fund – Exploration grant, she and Dr. Yun Zhang have worked with students and staff to create a visual archive of urban change across three cities of New Brunswick.

She is also completing a decade-long project that investigates the evolution of occupational therapy in North America. Extending her interest in the social dimensions of care, she investigates early 20th century “therapeutic craft” in the early days of professional formation, supported by an SSHRC Insight Grant and funding from Associated Medical Services. This work encompasses the history of education through a study of the transatlantic movement of Nordic craft based manual training known as “sloyd,” traces its influence on creative and restorative learning in North America.

Dr. Mullally has built her career fostering strong scholarly networks and interdisciplinary collaboration. Before joining UNB, she taught in the medical humanities at the University of Alberta, holding cross appointed between the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. She has held several visiting research positions, including an Eaton Visiting Professorship at San José State University, a McCain Visiting Professorship at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, and visiting appointments at the McGill Institute for Health and Social Policy, Mount Holyoke College, and Suffolk University. Alongside academic work, she has contributed to national scholarly leadership as president of the Canadian Society for the History of Medicine (2015–2017) and chair of the Board of Canada’s National History Society (2019–2022). She brings these connections and experiences to UNB, where she enhances the student experience through mentorship and academic leadership.

Dr. Mullally currently serves as Associate Dean in UNB’s School of Graduate Studies.

Recent and select publications

Books and edited collections

Sasha Mullally and David Wright, Foreign Practices: Physician Immigration and the History of Canadian Medicare (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020).

Geertje Boschma, Sasha Mullally, Megan J. Davies and Alison Phinney, eds., BC Studies, Special Issue: Arts, Crafts and Healing: Social Citizenship in British Columbia 202 (Summer 2019), 178 pp.

Articles and chapters

Sasha Mullally, “Kitchen-Table Surgery: Rural Risk and Accidental Care in early 20th Century General Practice,” in Davies and Hudson, eds. An Accidental History of Canada (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press, 2024): 414-446.

Sasha Mullally, Yun Zhang, Toni MacRae, William Liu, David Fraser and Sean Cox, “Development of a Deep Urban Time Series Using Historical Aerial Photos to Document the Evolution of Recreational Urban Spaces,” In Proceedings of the Joint Urban Remote Sensing Event (JURSE). IEEE, 2023.

Sasha Mullally and David Wright, “Medicine in the Muskeg Metropolis: Doctors and Practices in a Canadian Resource Town, 1960-1976,” in Jones, Hanley and Gavrus, eds. Medicare's Histories: Origins, Omissions, and Opportunities (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2022), chapter 12, 319-342.

Sasha Mullally, “Health, Social Service, and Statecraft across the Transatlantic North: Expanding the Frameworks for Atlantic Canadian History,” Acadiensis 49, 2(Autumn/automne 2020).

Sasha Mullally, “Swedish Manual Training: The Macdonald Sloyd Fund and Education Reform in the Maritimes, 1903-1917,” Acadiensis 49, 2 (Autumn/automne 2020).

Sasha Mullally and Greg Marchildon, “Striking a Chord: physician publics, citizen audiences and five decades of health care debates in Canada,” in Solveig Julich and Sven Widmalm, eds. Communicating the history of medicine: Perspectives on audiences and impact (Manchester: University of Manchester Press, 2020), pp. 107-138.

Sasha Mullally and Katherine Macdonald, “Call the Doctor?: Understanding Health Service Trends in New Brunswick, Part 1, 1918-1950,” Journal of New Brunswick Studies 8(2017): 41-68.

Sasha Mullally, “Marginally Relevant: The ‘Fathers of Confederation’ and Canadian History,” Canadian Historical Review 98, 4(2017): 727-741.

Sasha Mullally and David Wright, “Doctors on the Move: Physician Migration and Canadian Medical History,” Canadian Immigration Historical Society Bulletin 77 (2016), 1-5.

Sasha Mullally and Heidi MacDonald, “Arts, Crafts, and Rural Rehabilitation: The Sisters of Charity and Vocational Education in Terence Bay, Nova Scotia, 1938-1942,” Historia de la Educacion/History of Education 35, 1 (2016): 35-52.