Rate My Professor Alison Watts

Dr. Alison Watts is an Adjunct Lecturer in the Faculty of Health at Southern Cross University. She holds a Bachelor’s degree (Bach, SCU), BA with Honours (BA Hons, SCU), Graduate Certificate in Teaching (GradCertTeach, Curtin University), and PhD (SCU). Her PhD thesis, "Maternal Insanity in Victoria, Australia: 1920-1973," drew upon mental patient files to investigate mothers committed to Victorian mental institutions for puerperal insanity in the early twentieth century.

Dr. Watts is currently engaged in a cross-university research collaboration with Charles Sturt University, focusing on the historic Mayday Hills Mental Hospital and Beechworth Cemetery. As a co-investigator, she contributes to a project funded by a $40,000 Telematics Trust Grant, which explores past mental health practices and the social history of these sites. In addition, she serves as Project Officer for the Southern Cross Postgraduate Association (SCPA), coordinating the Advanced Skills Training program that delivers workshops by experts to postgraduate students across disciplines, and maintaining the SCPA's online and social media presence. Her research specializations include various aspects of past mental health practices in Australia, such as family secrets, genealogy, oral histories, heritage sites, and artifacts. Key publications encompass the book chapter "Fractured Motherhood: The Insanity of Reproduction in Australia in the 1930s" (2012), the article "Friday essay: my father was always told his mother was dead – but tracing her name unlocked a painful family secret" in The Conversation (2023, 160,000 reads), and the co-authored journal article "Stigma, shame and family secrets as consequences of maternal insanity: Intergenerational impacts" (2024). Dr. Watts received an Award for Excellence for a recent article in the International Journal for the Inclusive Museum. She also maintains the Mayday Hills Blog, sharing research findings, stories, and community contributions on mental health history.