"I would like to celebrate progress made in terms of access to higher education for women. While access remains uneven across the globe, the current pandemic has opened up new, innovative ways of learning that have the potential to advance educational opportunities for women at a pace not imagined since the last pandemic. "
— Dr. Sonya Grypma, Vice Provost, Leadership & Graduate Studies and Dean of GLOBAL
Dr. Sonya Grypma is the Vice Provost, Leadership & Graduate Studies and Dean of GLOBAL at Trinity Western University. Dr. Grypma is also a member of the TWU Executive Leadership Team, and is currently serving as the TWU Senior Health Advisor, leading the University’s COVID-19 public health response. She served as TWU’s Dean of Nursing from 2013-2019, and is Past President of the Canadian Association for Schools of Nursing—Association canadienne des écoles de sciences infirmières.
Both a nurse and historian, Dr. Grypma has been a research fellow at UBC, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Virginia. Her program of research for the past 20 years has focused on transnational nursing history, particularly the intersection of Canadian, American and Chinese nursing networks developed through philanthropic, missionary and nursing organizations prior to 1951. She has been an invited keynote speaker on four continents, and has published three scholarly books on missionary history: Healing Henan (UBC Press, 2008); China Interrupted (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2012), and Nursing Shifts in Sichuan (UBC Press, forthcoming in 2021).
During Women’s History Month at TWU, we seek to hear from experts across campus about the influence of women in history and society. Here below, we hear from Dr. Grypma about her forthcoming book, Nursing Shifts in Sichuan, and what it reveals about women in society.
Hi Dr. Grypma, what are one or two highlights from your research on transnational nursing history?
Since nursing was one of only a few professional avenues open to women in the early 20th century, the study of modern nursing history provides an important lens into the nature of women's work and education. As a transnational phenomenon introduced in Europe and transported globally by colonial means, nursing had remarkably similar characteristics regardless of setting. Whether you lived in Toronto, Bella Bella, Beijing, Kampala, or Rio de Janeiro, nursing education was geared to unmarried women living communally in dorms attached to hospitals, with uniforms and rites of passage as recognizable today as in 1920. Nursing provided a socially-acceptable opportunity for bright and ambitious women to gain advanced university degrees and to become part of a global network that foreshadowed bodies such as the World Health Organization.
Could you draw any comparisons between your research for Nursing Shifts in Sichuan and the modern day public health responses?
My book focuses on wartime China and the mass migration of millions to Sichuan during Chinese occupation, including entire medical universities, and how this devastated health care. Specifically, I look at the evacuation of nursing faculty from the elite, Rockefeller-funded, Beijing-based Peking Union Medical University (PUMC) to Sichuan, where they were hosted for three years by the Canadian West China Mission. In terms of resonances with Covid-19, it is telling that most university-level nursing programs, including the PUMC, were established in the 1920s as a direct result of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic; public health nursing and baccalaureate nursing programs came into being in the catastrophic wake of that pandemic. Public health education and the opportunity for women to play a significant role in safeguarding the health of global populations is as critical today as it was a century ago.
During Women’s History Month, what do you wish to celebrate when it comes to women, work and society?
This month I would like to celebrate progress made in terms of access to higher education for women. While access remains uneven across the globe, the current pandemic has opened up new, innovative ways of learning that have the potential to advance educational opportunities for women at a pace not imagined since the last pandemic.
About Trinity Western University
Founded in 1962, Trinity Western University is Canada’s premier Christian liberal arts university dedicated to equipping students to establish meaningful connections between career, life, and the needs of the world. It is a fully accredited research institution offering liberal arts and sciences, as well as professional schools in business, nursing, education, human kinetics, graduate studies, and arts, media, and culture. It has five campuses and locations: Langley, Richmond-Lansdowne, Richmond-Minoru, Ottawa, and Bellingham, WA. TWU emphasizes academic excellence, research, and student engagement in a vital faith community committed to forming leaders to have a transformational impact on culture. Learn more at www.twu.ca or follow us on Twitter @TrinityWestern, on Facebook and LinkedIn.
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