Born in Melbourne in 1948, Janet McCalman attended Methodist Ladies College in Kew on a scholarship. She completed a BA (Hons) degree at the University of Melbourne in 1970 and went on to fulfil her PhD at the Australian National University in 1976.
From 1993 until 1997 she held an Australian Research Council Fellowship at the University of Melbourne before taking up a Senior Lectureship based in the Centre for Health and Society, split between the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences and the History and Philosophy Programs.
In 1999 McCalman and Ruth Morley, then with the Menzies Research Institute, began the 'Life Courses in Times Past Program' at the Centre for Health and Society funded by the Australian Research Council. Since then she has been engaged in constructing longitudinal cradle-to-grave datasets for historical population health. These include the Lying-In Hospital Cohort Study.
In 2000 McCalman was appointed Reader in the History and Philosophy of Science and the Centre for Health and Society. From 2001-2003 she served as the Head of the History and Philosophy of Science and was appointed Professor in Public Health by the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences in 2003. Since 2011 she has been based at the Centre for Health Equity in the Melbourne School of Population & Global Health, Faculty of Medical, Dentistry and Health Sciences. She is also co-director of the Johnstone-Need Medical History Unit.
A noted historian specialising in historic population health, McCalman published her first book, 'Struggletown: Public and Private Life in Richmond 1900-1965', in 1984. Continuing her work on local history, McCalman published 'A Hundred Years at Bank Street: A Centenary History of Ascot Vale State School 1885-1985' in 1985.
The 1993 publication 'Journeyings: the biography of a middle-class generation 1920-1990', was accompanied by the co-authored statistical survey 'Journeyings survey: a statistical portrait of a middle-class generation'. In 1998 McCalman published 'Sex and suffering: women's health and a women's hospital: the Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne, 1856 - 1996'.
| 2015.0080 | Mccalman, Professor Janet | 1856-c.1996 | 24 boxes (4.08m) | Research notes, index cards covering a range of medical literature and references relating to women’s health and childbirth, copies of raw data relating to writing of the history of the Royal Women’s Hospital, “Sex and Suffering: women's health and a women's hospital: the Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne 1856 - 1996” (1998). Research notes are arranged by index cards grouped by subject matter, with some units identified with their corresponding book chapters. Units 1 – 14 contain index cards, various publications, photographs and negatives, copies of publications by the Midwives Board, Victoria 1915 – 1921, seminar papers 1977, and transcripts of the Delivery books held at the RWH Archives. Units 15 – 24 contain collated sets of data used in “Sex and Suffering”. Data on the Lying-In Hospital Birth Cohort 1856 – 1904 | Yes box level list ONLINE | Access: Open |
Renate Klein, PHD, was Associate Professor in Women's Studies at Deakin University, Victoria, until her retirement in 2006, and is the author and co-author of 14 books. She is a biologist and social scientist who has taught courses on Reproductive Medicine and Feminist Ethics. Since the 1980s she has conducted critical feminist research into the new and old reproductive technologies including international population control, IVF (fertility drugs), hormonal and immunological contraceptives, surrogacy, RU 486 and Gardasil. With Susan Hawthorne, she is the co-owner of Spinifex Press.
| 2014.0034 | Klein, Dr Renate | 1980-2010 | 53 Units (9.00m) | The earliest records from the 1980s document her involvement in the emerging discipline of women's studies in Europe, America and eventually in Australia. These years also document her involvement with the feminist response to trends in reproductive technology and its physical and ethical implications for women. There are extensive records of the activities of FINRRAGE, the Feminist International Network of Resistance to Reproductive and Genetic Engineering in which Dr Klein participated, and the records demonstrate the strength of the international feminist and academic networks which debated these issues from the 1980s on. The records also contain correspondence, course materials and Dr Klein's writings. The papers were arranged by Susan Hawthorne and the contents of each box are listed, rather than the contents of each file. | Yes listed ONLINE | Access: Open |