Rate My Professor Judith Holloway

Holloway contributed to New Zealand's historiography of mental health as a postgraduate student in the University of Otago's History Department. Her work is featured in the 2001 University of Otago Press volume 'Unfortunate Folk: Essays on Mental Health Treatment, 1863-1992', edited by Barbara Brookes and Jane Thomson. This collection comprises essays by Otago History postgraduate students exploring topics such as electro-convulsive therapy, epilepsy, criminal lunacy, community care, staffing, and medical training in mental health institutions, with a particular focus on Otago's developments since the 1863 founding of the Dunedin Lunatic Asylum. Holloway's essay derives from her 1991 dissertation, 'Unfortunate Folk: A Study of the Social Context of Committal to Seacliff Asylum, 1928-37'. In it, she analyzes admissions patterns to Seacliff in the 1930s, critiquing overly simplistic social control models. Her scholarly assistance is widely recognized, as she is thanked in numerous University of Otago theses for support provided through the Hocken Collections.