Michael Robertson

Clinical Associate Professor Michael Robertson is affiliated with the University of Sydney’s Centre for Values, Ethics and Law in Medicine (VELIM) and Sydney School of Public Health, within the Faculty of Medicine and Health. He also holds a visiting Professorial Fellowship at the Sydney Jewish Museum. His roles include coordinating the Ethics in Mental Health unit in the Sydney Bioethics Program and teaching Holocaust history at the University of Sydney.

Robertson’s research focuses on psychiatric ethics, trauma studies, and the historical intersections of psychiatry with political systems, particularly Nazi Germany. Key projects include the 'Psychiatry and the State' initiative examining Holocaust-era medical complicity and disability rights. He has authored/co-authored influential books like *Ethics and Mental Health* (2013) and *The First into the Dark* (2019).

His academic work spans bioethics, involuntary treatment, and the representation of psychiatry in media and cinema. He has published extensively in journals such as *Australasian Psychiatry* and *Health and History*, with a focus on ethical dilemmas in forensic psychiatry, community treatment orders, and historical case studies of medical ethics failures.

Robertson’s clinical background includes 20 years in acute psychiatry, serving as Head of Psychiatry at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. He is an Approved Medical Specialist for the NSW Worker’s Compensation Commission, specializing in occupational and forensic psychiatry. His teaching spans ethics, public health, and medical humanities.