Qualifications
Research Interests
My current research revolves around the formation and practice of forensic medicine and forensic science in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This research has manifested in two distinct projects the first of which was a Marsden-funded project titled, "Criminal Minds: A History of Forensic Psychology", which explores the interdisciplinary roots of the field. The second project is an exploration of medico-legal practice in British colonies such as Egypt and Ceylon.
My doctoral and postdoctoral work was concerned with the history of psychical research and parapsychology in Germany. I have published several papers on aspects of this history and my book The Stepchildren of Science: Psychical Research and Parapsychology in Germany, c. 1870-1939 was released in 2009 as part of Clio Medica: The Wellcome Series in the History of Medicine – Rodopi.
Recent Publications
- Wolffram H. (2018) Forensic Psychology in Germany: Witnessing Crime, 1880-1939. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. 257.
- Wolffram H. (2009) The Stepchildren of Science: Psychical Research and Parapsychology in Germany, c. 1870-1939. The Wellcome Series in the History of Medicine Vol 88. Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi. 350pp.
- Wolffram H. (2021) Teaching Forensic Science to the American Police and Public: The Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory, 1929-1938. Academic Forensic Pathology 11(1): 52-67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/19253621211002515.
- Maehle AH. and Wolffram H. (2017) History of hypnotism in Europe and the significance of place. Notes and Records 71(2): 119-123. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2017.0011.
- Wolffram HM. (2017) Crime and hypnosis in fin-de-siècle Germany: the Czynski case. Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science 71(2): 213-226. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2017.0005.