Amy Milne-Smith

Amy Milne-Smith is Professor in the Department of History at Wilfrid Laurier University's Faculty of Arts. Her research examines nineteenth-century British cultural history with focus on gender, mental health, and social deviance.

She investigates Victorian constructions of masculinity through case studies of mental illness among elite men, exploring how psychiatric diagnosis reinforced class and gender boundaries. Her work on 'railway madness' analyzes trauma responses to industrial accidents, while studies of aristocratic scandals reveal tensions in gentlemanly identity.

Milne-Smith utilizes asylum records, court documents, and popular literature to reconstruct experiences of mental illness across social classes. Her publications address degeneration anxieties, workplace stress pathologies, and institutional responses to madness.