Dr Chris Millard (he/him)

BA, MA (York) PhD (Queen Mary, University of London)

School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities

Senior Lecturer in the History of Medicine and Medical Humanities

Senior Tutor

Chris Millard
Profile picture of Chris Millard
c.millard@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 2558
405, 9 Mappin Street

Full contact details

Dr Chris Millard
School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities
405
9 Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 4DT
Profile

I joined the ±¬ÁÏTV in 2016, having studied and taught in York, Birmingham and London.

My research has focused on the history of psychiatry and medicine in the twentieth century, particularly around self-harm, suicide, faking illness and child abuse. I have published on the history of self-harm in Britain, and most recently on historians' personal experiences in relation to the histories that they write.

I am also interested more broadly in the welfare state, the ‘helping professions’ of social work and child guidance, and the increasing influence of anthropology and sociology on medicine and psychiatry during the twentieth century. My next project will investigate the idea of 'vicarious trauma', and its relation to ideas of 'burnout', especially as this has come to affect historians dealing with 'difficult' or potentially 'traumatic' source material.

I also worked in the UK Parliament in 2014, researching and writing a briefing on ‘parity of esteem between mental and physical health’.

Qualifications
BA, MA (York) PhD (Queen Mary, University of London)
 
Research interests

I have just finished a history of illness deception in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This book charts the chronic faking of illness (Munchausen syndrome) and deliberately making one’s children ill (Munchausen syndrome by proxy). The book also investigates how historians' personal experiences might influence or drive their research. It is called _The Politics of Personal Experience: Writing a History of Munchausen Syndromes_ (2026). The book both contextualises personal experience in histories, and writes a history that reflects upon my personal experience with these categories.

I still write about self-harm and attempted suicide, the subject of my PhD thesis and later my book: A History of Self-Harm in Britain: A Genealogy of Cutting and Overdosing (2015). My next project is a history of the idea of ‘vicarious trauma’ - especially as this relates to historians who research 'challenging' or 'sensitive' topics.

I have supervised PhD projects on the history disease categories: one, on Encephalitis Lethargica (sleeping sickness) which showed how British healthcare was and remains built around the oppositons between "mental or physical" medicine and "chronic or acute" conditions. Another, on the history of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) showed how this diagnosis was central to a particular kind of 'evidence-based medicine' that has come to dominate modern psychology. I am currently supervising one PhD on the history of student mental health and exam stress, and another on the publication of accounts of "lived experience of mental illness".

More generally, I am interested in the ways in which modern medicine and psychiatry influence and inform our everyday lives, from assumptions about who we are, the advice we are given, and the services provided for us.

This involves research in the history of the emotions, the history of anthropology and sociology, and the history of psychiatry, psychology, social work and medicine.

Publications

Books

  • Millard C (2026) . New York: Routledge.
  • Millard C (2015) . Palgrave Macmillan Wellcome Trust.
  • Millard C (2015) . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Edited books

  • (Ed.) () . Routledge.

Journal articles

  • Millard C (2024) . The Lancet, 404(10461), 1395-1397.
  • Bowker-Howell F, Sabroe I & Millard C (2024) . British Medical Journal (The BMJ), 2024(385).
  • Morrell M, Sabroe I & Millard C (2024) . Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 99(2), 203-205.
  • Millard C (2024) . BJPsych Advances, 30(2), 134-136.
  • Millard C (2023) . Science in Context, 36(1), 76-97.
  • Sabroe I, Mather S, Wilson A, Hall-Flavin DK, Fricker M, Barron LA & Millard C (2021) . The Lancet, 397(10277), 872-873.
  • Elliott GK, Millard C & Sabroe I (2020) . Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11.
  • Millard C & Callard F (2020) . History of the Human Sciences, 33(3-4), 3-14.
  • Millard CJ (2020) . Social Theory and Health, 18, 184-198.
  • Wilson A, Millard C & Sabroe I (2019) . The Lancet, 394(10192), 20-21.
  • Millard CJ & Ougrin D (2017) . Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 22(3), 175-176.
  • Millard CJ (2016) . Social History of Medicine.
  • Turner J, Hayward R, Angel K, Fulford B, Hall J, Millard C & Thomson M (2015) . Medical History, 59(4), 599-624.
  • Millard C & Wessely S (2014) . BMJ, 349(nov14 10), g6821-g6821.
  • Millard C (2013) . History of the Human Sciences, 26(2), 126-150.
  • Millard C (2012) . Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 25(6), 503-507.

Book chapters

  • Millard C (2026) , The Politics of Personal Experience (pp. 34-53). Routledge
  • Millard C (2026) , The Politics of Personal Experience (pp. 1-14). Routledge
  • Millard C (2026) , The Politics of Personal Experience (pp. 78-82). Routledge
  • Millard C (2026) , The Politics of Personal Experience (pp. 85-126). Routledge
  • Millard C (2026) , The Politics of Personal Experience (pp. 54-76). Routledge
  • Millard C (2026) , The Politics of Personal Experience (pp. 166-179). Routledge
  • Millard C (2026) , The Politics of Personal Experience (pp. 127-165). Routledge
  • Millard C (2026) , The Politics of Personal Experience (pp. 17-33). Routledge
  • Regan D & Millard C (2026) (pp. 51-58). Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
  • Millard C (2025) In Beaumont C, Colpus E & Davidson R (Ed.), Everyday Welfare in Modern British History: Experience, Expertise and Activism (pp. 199-220). Springer Nature Switzerland
  • Millard C & Wallis J (2022) In Millard C & Wallis J (Ed.), Sources in the History of Psychiatry, from 1800 to the Present (pp. 1-12). Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Millard C (2022) In Millard C & Wallis J (Ed.), Sources in the History of Psychiatry, from 1800 to the Present Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Millard C (2020) In Jackson M & Moore MD (Ed.), Balancing the self : Medicine, politics and the regulation of health in the twentieth century (pp. 314-339). Manchester University Press
  • Millard CJ (2020) Conclusion: Balance, malleability and anthropology: historical contexts In Jackson M & Moore M (Ed.), Balancing the Self: Medicine, Politics and the Regulation of Health in the Twentieth Century Manchester University Press
  • Millard CJ (2015) Creating 'the social': stress, domesticity and attempted suicide In Jackson M (Ed.), Stress in Post-War Britain (pp. 177-192). Routledge

Book reviews

  • Millard C (2021) . Journal of Contemporary History, 56(2), 440-441.
  • Millard CJ (2017) . Medical History, 4(61), 602-604.
  • Millard C (2015) . History of Psychiatry, 26(4), 496-497.
  • Millard C (2012) . History of the Human Sciences, 25(1), 135-139.

Theses

  • Millard CJ Re -inventing the "cry for help": attempted suicide in Britain in the mid-twentieth century c 1937-1969.

Other

  • Millard C & Wessely S (2014) . BMJ, 349(dec16 18), g7619-g7619.
Research group

Research supervision

I am happy to supervise anyone interested in medicine, psychiatry, psychology, patient activism, social work, child guidance, the emotions, gender roles, the welfare state, the National Health Service and child abuse in twentieth- century Britain.

Current Students

Eva Surawy Stepney

PhD Student (History)
School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities

Title: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and the foundations of ‘evidence-based’ practice in British Psychology, 1948-1990.
Email
esurawystepney1@sheffield.ac.uk
Photo of Eva Surawy Stepney
Profile picture of Photo of Eva Surawy Stepney

Anna Edwards, Amy Hall

All current students

Completed Students
  • Diana John (second supervisor)- Oral Histories with women who were married to gay men.
  • Kate McAllister - Encephalitis Lethargica, viral illness, and the binary structures of the modern British health system c.1900-1975

Find out more about PhD study in History

Teaching interests

The history of psychiatry, the history of the emotions.

Teaching activities
  • "From Shell-Shock to Prozac" - history of mental health and illness in twentieth-century Britain
  • "From stiff upper lips to 'snowflakes'" - history of emotions in twentieth-century Britain.
     
Professional activities and memberships
Co-Editor _History of the Human Sciences_
Public engagement

I co-devised and led the public engagement project ‘The Carnival of Lost Emotions’ at Queen Mary, University of London between 2012 and 2016 – engaging the public about the history of feeling. The Carnival has been shortlisted for an award, and showcased by the National Co-Ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) as an example of best practice in public engagement. It has been performed in diverse environments: the Barbican Centre, the Natural History Museum, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and as part of Secret Cinema.

The Carnival of Lost Emotions

I recently devised and ran a public engagement event on psychological testing – talking people through 1940s, 1950s and 1960s psychological questionnaires. This was part of the Wellcome Trust’s ‘Feeling Spectacular’ programme.

In the media:

I have blogged for the Wellcome Library, the Centre for the History of the Emotions and The Conversation.