Dr. Lucy Vorobej's dissertation, "'By Their Own Efforts': First Nations Health Policy in Canada, 1940s-1970s," explores the early years of Ottawa’s post-war integration policy with a focus on the impact of settler-colonial power and priorities on First Nations’ access to Canadian health care systems under it. Lucy argues that Ottawa’s policy of integration, despite settler pronouncements of its break from the past, represented a profound continuity of settler desires for Indigenous erasure and White settler power. This stance left Ottawa’s Indian Health Service unprioritized and underfunded, its mandate unwanted by provincial governments, and its policies the target of resistance from many First Nations individuals and communities.
After successfully defending her thesis on September 8, 2023, Lucy is now a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Wilson Centre for Research in Education at University Health Network and Temerty Faculty of Medicine. There, she will continue her research in the history of health care as well as explore ways that history can be used as a pedagogical tool in medical education.
Lucy is also in the process of adapting her dissertation into a book.
Dr. Heather MacDougall (now retired) was Lucy's supervisor. Her committee included Dr. Susan Roy, Dr. Susan Neylan, and Dr. Lianne Leddy, faculty from Waterloo and Laurier. Her dissertation examining committee also included Dr. Jasmin Habib as internal-external examiner and external examiner, Dr. Ian Mosby, from Toronto Metropolitan University.
Lucy reflects,
I am very grateful for the wide range of faculty, staff, and students I was able to engage with throughout my years in the Tri-U program. I will forever remember the conversations, coffee runs, and comradery. I also want to express gratitude to the members of my supervising committee for their long-standing support of my academic journey.
