Thomas Foth, PhD

Biography

Thomas Foth is an assistant professor at the School of Nursing in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Ottawa. He has worked on many research projects in the fields of interdisciplinary cooperation between nurses and physicians, nursing professionalization processes in Germany as well as psychiatry in that country. As a nurse, he has worked in different areas of the profession. He taught at a nursing school in Germany before he came to Canada. His doctoral research project explores the participation of nurses in the killing of more than 200,000 sick persons during the Nazi regime. He received financial support from Robert Bosch Stiftung, a foundation in Germany, and the AMS Nursing History Research Unit at the University of Ottawa.

Foth’s fields of interest include history of nursing, critical theory of nursing action, nursing theories, philosophy of science, ethics, care provided to marginalized populations, technologies and nursing, power relationships between health care professionals and patients as well as gender. Most of his work is based on the discourse analytical approach, oriented on the works of Michel Foucault, queer theorists and postcolonial studies. He also uses approaches from actor-network theories and the “newer” critical theory in Germany.