Ressa McMullen

Ressa McMullen is an MA student in the History of Science and Medicine and a Graduate Fellow at the Solomon Center for Health Law & Policy. Supported by the Fulbright Honouring Nations Scholarship, her work investigates the history of medical and scientific knowledge, and how this information has been exchanged and transmitted in sites such as hospitals, universities, and medical schools. Her current work focuses on histories of indigenous-Western interaction within these contexts, but her interests also extend to wider histories of medical pluralism and scientific interaction across North America, Europe, and Asia.

Another aspect of her current work focuses on contemporary Indigenous healthcare and medical education. She has been recognized nationally for her work as the principal designer/architect of the ‘As We Have Always Been’ project for Métis communities in Alberta, which seeks to connect urban and rural Métis youth to the resources and mentorship necessary to access appropriate training and education for
careers in healthcare.

She holds a B.A. in History from McGill University. Her undergraduate capstone project, 'Donatio mortis causa: Body-Snatching and Legacies of Medical Education at McGill University,' was awarded first place at McGill's undergraduate historical research symposium, and revealed the underlying racial dynamics of student body-snatching and dissection practices at McGill University from 1870 to 1883.