Thomas Foth

Thomas Foth

Profile

Thomas Foth (he/him)
Associate professor

2011: PhD, Nursing, University of Ottawa
2007: MSc, Nursing science, University of Bremen (Germany)
2007: State exam 1st grade, University of Bremen (Germany)
2006: Certificate, Gender studies, University of Bremen (Germany)
1999: State-approved Diploma, Nursing, Wilhelmsburg Catholic Hospital

Room
LEE 418G


Biography

Thomas Foth is an associate professor at the School of Nursing in the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Ottawa. As a registered nurse, he has worked in different areas of the profession and taught at a nursing school in Germany before coming to Canada.

Professor Foth’s research interests include the history of nursing, and particularly the history of psychiatry. This kind of history is theoretically influenced by critical and decolonial theory, as well as crip and queer theory. He sees theoretical considerations and historical research as part of a praxis that aims to change the status quo of (psychiatric) nursing and our society in general. Another focus of Professor Foth’s research is the analysis of systematic de-democratization processes that have been implemented in nursing care. Keywords include management technologies like LEAN management, EBN, BP, or the definition of what counts as legitimate knowledge in nursing. Nurses can play an important role in changing the unequal and unjust conditions of neoliberal societies that systematically produce superfluous people.

Professor Foth is accepting new students for thesis supervision.

Research interests

  • Psychiatric nursing history as the “history of the present”  
  • Abolition democracy and psychiatry
  • Cooperation and mutual aid
  • Accounting, management and the neoliberal transformations of health care
  • Necropolitics and the global authoritarian turn
  • Postcolonial, decolonial and critical race theories
  • Processes of subjectification – queer and crip theories

Research

Professor Foth is currently working with an international study group (co-funded by the Institute of Advanced Studies [Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg HWK] in Delmenhorst on a co-edited volume with Melanie Schulze Tanellian under the title Psychiatry and the Politics of Death. Exploring the Intersections of Psychiatry, Violence and Death that will be published by the University of British Columbia Press in 2026.

Professor Foth is also working on a monograph with the title “The hospital as logistical operation.”

Professor Foth is a co-investigator (with principal investigator Professor Wendy Gifford) in the CIHR operating grant entitled: Developing wise practices for a culturally safe rapid public health response to COVID-19 with Pikwàkanagàn First Nation.

Professor Foth is a co-investigator (with principal investigator Professor Wendy Gifford) in the CHIR operating grant entitled: Adapting a holistic program to support the mental health and wellness of front line workers providing care to homeless and street communities. 

Publications

Books authored

  • Foth, T., Caring and Killing: Nursing and Psychiatric Practice in Germany, 1931-1943, Göttingen, V&R unipress, University of Osnabrück, 2013, 279 pages.
  • Block, K., Foth, T., Stamer M., Schmacke, N., Allgemeinmedizin und Pflege in der ambulanten Versorgung: Der weite Weg zur Kooperation [Nurses and General Practitioners in Homecare: The Long Journey toward Cooperation ], Weinheim und Basel, Beltz Juventa, 2012, 225 pages.

Books edited

  • Holmes, D., Murray, S. Foth, T. RadSex: Assembling Desiring-Machines. Routledge, New York (September 2017).
  • Foth, T., Holmes, D.; Hülsken-Giessler, M.; Kreutzer, S.; Remmers, H. Critical Approaches in Nursing Theory and Nursing Research: Implications for Nursing Practice, Göttingen (2017) (January 2017), V&R unipress, University of Osnabrück, 2016, 290 pages.

Book chapters

  • Lange, J.; Foth, T.; Kreutzer, S. (2021). „Der Pflegeprozess als Accountingtechnologie – Eine historische Analyse [The Nursing Process as Accounting Technology – A Historical Analysis].” Hülsken-Giesler, M.; Kreutzer, S.; Düttholm, N. (eds.) Neue Technologien in der Pfelge – Grundlegende Reflexionen und pragmatische Befunde [New Technologies in nursing – Fundamental Reflections and Pragmatic Indications], Göttingen, V&R unipress, University of Osnabrück.
  • Foth, T.; Holmes, D. (reprint). “Governing Through Lifestyle – The Lalonde Report and the Biopolitical Management of Public Health in Canada,” Hülsken-Giesler, M.; Kreutzer, S.; Dütthorn, N. (Eds). Neue Technologien in der Pflege – Grundlegende Reflexionen und pragmatische Befunde [New Technologies in nursing – Fundamental Reflections and Pragmatic Indications], Göttingen, V&R unipress, University of Osnabrück, (2021)
  • Foth, T. “Governing Dementia Through Prevention – Lifestyle and the Health Field Concept.” Leining, A., Schicktanz, S. Preventing Dementia? Critical Perspectives on a New Paradigm of Preparing for Old Age. Berghahn (2020)
  • Stuart, M.; Holmes, D.; Foth, T., “RadSex in Theory and in Practice.” Holmes, D.; Murray, S.; Foth, T. RadSex: Assembling Desiring-Machines. Routledge, New York, Routledge, 2017, 1-23.
  • Foth, T., McWatters, C.S., Lange J., Connell, M. Treating Through Threat and Fear – Nurses and the Fever Unit at the Ontario Hospital, Toronto 1940 – 1951. Hähner-Rombach, S. and Nolte K., History of Social Practice of Psychiatric Nursing and the Patients’ Situation in Psychiatric Facilities. Stuttgart, Franz Steiner Verlag (invited contribution), 2017, 153-182.
  • Foth, T., Lauzier, K., Antweiler, K. (2017), The Limits of a Theory of Recognition : Toward a Nusing Ethics of Vulnerability. Foth, T., Holmes, D.; Hülsken-Giessler, M.; Kreutzer, S.; Remmers, H. (Eds.) Critical Approaches in Nursing Theory and Nursing Research: Implications for Nursing Practice, Göttingen, V&R unipress, University of Osnabrück, 2017, 113-132.
  • Foth, T., Remmers, Holmes D., H, Kreutzer, S, Hülsken-Giesler, M. (2017), “Introduction: Critical Approaches in Nursing Theory and Nursing Research”, Foth, T., Holmes, D.; Hülsken-Giessler, M.; Kreutzer, S.; Remmers, H. (Eds.) Critical Approaches in Nursing Theory and Nursing Research: Implications for Nursing Practice, Göttingen, V&R unipress, University of Osnabrück, 2017, 9-32.
  • Foth, T., "Shock Therapies as Intensification of the War against Madness in Hamburg, Germany: 1930 – 1943", Power and the Psychiatric Apparatus. Repression, Transformation and Assistance, Holmes, D., Jacob, J. D., Perron, A., Surrey and Burlington, Ashgate, 2014, 267-287.
  • Shields, L., Foth, T., "Setting the Scene", Nurses and Midwives in Nazi Germany: the Nazi 'Euthanasia' Program, Benedict, S., Shields, L., New York and London, Routledge, 2014, 1-13.
  • Foth, T.; Kuhla, J.; Benedict, S., "Nursing during National Socialsim", Nurses and Midwifes in Nazi Germany: The Nazi 'Euthanasia' Program, Shields, L.; Benedict, S., New York and London, Routledge, 2014, 27-48.
  • Foth, T., "Changing Perspectives: From the ‘Euthanasia Killings' to the ‘Killings of Sick Persons'", Nurses and Midwives in Nazi Germany: the Nazi 'Euthanasia' Program, Benedict, S., Shields, L. (Eds.), New York and London, Routledge, 2014, 218-242.
  • Foth, T., "Wie Menschen unsichtbar werden. Pflegeaufzeichnungen und die Produktion von 'nacktem Leben'", Krankenpflege im Nationalsozialismus, Ulmer, E. M. (Ed.), Fankfurt am Main, Mabuse, 2013.
  • Foth, T. & Holmes, D., «Gestion biopolitique d'une population captive», PAC La biopolitique outre-atlantique après Foucault, Risse, D., Kiefer, A. (Eds.), Harmattan, 2012, 160-168.
  • Darmann-Finck, I. & Foth, T., "Bildungsforschung, Qualifikationsforschung und Sozialisationsforschung in der Pflege [Educational research and research of qualification and socialization in nursing]", Handbuch Pflegewissenschaft, Schaeffer, D. & Wingenfeld, K. (Eds.), Weinheim, Juventa, 2011, 165-182.
  • Foth, T. Regieren durch Akten, "Die Funktion von PatientInnenakten bei den Krankenmorden während des NS-Faschismus. [Governing through documents. The function of the medical records in the killing of sick persons during the NS-regime]", Strukturentstehung durch Verflechtung, Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie(n) und Automatismen, Conradi, T., Derwanz, H., Muhle, F. (Eds.), München, Wilhelm Fink, 2011, 219-235.

Peer-reviewed articles

  • Foth, T. (2021) “Dementia as a queer way of life and as “crip possibility”: A critique of the concept of person in person-centredness,” Nursing Philosophy.
  • Larocque, C., Foth, T. & Gifford, W. “No more sttler tears, no more humanitarian consternation: Recognizing our racist history and present NOW!,” (2021) Wittness: The Canadian Journal of Critical Nursing Discourse, 3(1), 07-10.
  • Larocque, C., Foth, T. “Which lives are worth saving? Biolegitimacy and Harm Reduction during COVID-19,” (2021) Nursing Inquiry.
  • Smith, K., Foth, T.. “Tomorrow is cancelled: Rethinking nursing resistance as insurrection,” (2021) Aporia 13(1), 15-25.
  • Dominique, JL., Jacob, JD., Perron, A., Pariseau-Legault, P., Foth, T. « (Re)construction identitaire et pratique infirmière en psychiatrie légale : réflexion critique sur les commissions d’examen, » (2020), Recherches en soins infirmiers, 143, 118-126.
  • Foth, T. “Humanitarian reason and the movement for overdose prevention sites: The NGOization of the Opioid “Crisis,” Nursing Philosophy (2020). Doi: 10.1111/nup.12324
  • Foth, T., McWatters, C. (submitted). “Making the case – Accounting and the scientific administration of the Canadian psychiatric hospital,” Accounting, Orgnaization, Society (AOS) (2021).
  • Jacob, JD; Foth, T. “Conflicting interests: Critiquing the place of “institutional reputation” in research ethics reviews,” Aporia (2019)
  • Nazon, E.; Perron, A.; Foth, T. “Rethinking the social role of nursing through the work of Donzelot and Foucault,” (2019) Witness: The Canadian Journal of Critical Nursing Discourse, 1(1), 49-58. 
  • Nazon, E.; Foth, T.; Perron, A. (2019) « La charité: un idéal au cœur des soins infirmiers, » Canadian Bulletin of Medical History/Bulletin canadien d’histoire de la médecine.
  • Skinner, E.; Wright, D.K.; Jacob, J.D.; Vanderspank-Wright, B.; Foth, T. “Ethical Dimensions of Nursing and the Palliative Approach in Geriatric and Forensic Psychiatry: A Qualitative Study,” (2018) Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 56(6): e122 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2018.10.395
  • Foth, T.; Holmes, D. “Governing Through Lifestyle – The Lalonde Report and the Biopolitical Management of Public Health in Canada,” (2018) Nursing Philosophy.
  • Foth, T.; Lange, J.; Smith, K. “Nursing history as philosophy – towards a critical history of nursing” (2018), Nursing Philosophy, DOI: 10.1111/nup.12210.
  • Humphrey-Murto, S.; Varpio, L.; Wood, T. J.; Gonsalves, C.; Ufholz, L. A.; Mascioli, K.; Wang, C.; Scowcroft, K.; Foth, T. “The Use of the Delphi and Other Consensus Group Methods in Medical Education: A Review”, (2017), Academic Medicine (AcadMed-D-16-01527R1).
  • Foth, T.; Holmes, D. "Neoliberalism and the government of nursing through competency-based education" (2016), Nursing Inquiry. DOI: 10.1111/nin.12154.
  • Foth. T.; Efstathiou, N.; Vanderspank, B.; Ufholz, L.A.; Dütthorn, N.; Zimansky, M.; Humphrey-Murto, S. "The Use of Delphi and Nominal Group Technique in Nursing Education: A Review", International Journal of Nursing Studies, 60, 2016, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2016.04.015.
  • Foth, T.; O'Byrne, P.; Holmes, D, "Health Prevention in the Era of Biosocieties: A Critical Analysis of the "Seek and Treat" Paradigm in HIV/AIDS Prevention", Nursing Inquiry, 23(2), 99-108, 2016, DOI: 10.1111/nin.121.
  • Foth, T.; Block, K.; Stamer, M.; Schmacke, N., "The Long Way Toward Cooperation. Nurses and Family Physicians in Northern Germany", Global Qualitative Nursing Research, 14, 2015.
  • Foth, T., "Understanding "Caring" Theories and Biopolitics. The Case of Nurses under the Nazi Regime", Nursing Philosophy, 14(4), 284-294, 2013.
  • Foth, T., "Shock Therapies as Intensification of the War against Madness in Hamburg, Germany: 1930-1943", Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, 30(2), 161-184, 2013.
  • Jacob, J. D.; Foth, T., "Expanding our understanding of sovereign power: On the creation of zones of exception in forensic psychiatry", Nursing Philosophy, 14(3), 178-185, 2013.
  • Foth, T., "Caring and Devastation in Nazi-Germany", Nursing Inquiry, 20(2), 93-100, 2013.
  • Foth, T., "Biopolitical Spaces, Vanished Death, and the Power of Vulnerability in Nursing", Aporia, 1(4), 16-26, 2009.
  • Foth, T.; Steiner, C., "Im Spannungsfeld zwischen Natur und Technik: Pflege als Bewahrerin des natürlichen Körpers? [Between nature and technology: nursing science and the natural body]", intensiv Zeitschrift für Anästhesie und Intensivmedizin, 15, 20-31, 2007.