I am a sociologist with a substantive interest in (bio)medicine, healthcare, ageing and older people. My recent work focusses on dementia, both the science and medicine of dementia – including its diagnosis – as well as the experience and representation of dementia and its challenge to identity and personhood. My work is theoretically engaged and contributes to key sociological concepts, including categories and classification, identity, risk, morality, ethics and care.
Sociology of Health & Illness
Social theory
Qualitative methods
My research explores medicine and healthcare from a sociological perspective. I have written about the organisation of healthcare and its implications for older people as well as the ways in which medicine and healthcare intersect with people’s experiences of living with an illness.
I have been researching in the dementia field for nearly 10 years. I was awarded a Wellcome Trust post-doctoral fellowship to study the social and ethical aspects of dementia diagnosis in 2010. This led to ongoing collaborative research on what it means to live well with dementia, undertaking qualitative research as part of the IDEAL programme. I am currently working as part of the INCLUDE project which seeks to identify and mitigate the effects of social distancing, as a response to COVID-19, on those living with dementia and their carers.
Cardiff University School of Social Sciences PhD Scholarship
Wellcome Trust Society & Ethics Postdoctoral Fellowship
Associate member of Wiserd, Cardiff University
IDEAL programme: University of Exeter (Lead)
This module explores key contemporary themes and debates within the sociology of health and illness including health promotion and the sociology of risk, the experience of illness and health care in contemporary society, deviance and stigma in relation to illness, lay-professional interactions, the sociology of the body and the sociology of death and dying. The module will encourage students to draw upon both debates in the public sphere (e.g. news and/or social media) and key research studies to further their understandings of these issues.
This module aims to provide students with an overview of the range of data collection methods available to individuals undertaking research and to enable the student to consider the implications, application strengths and weaknesses of the various data collection methods. The module will also provide insight into the ways that such methods may be applied effectively and ethically in social research.
This module introduces students to key thinkers and theoretical orientations that have impacted both sociological thought and society itself from the Enlightenment to the mid-twentieth century. Using biographical sketches, historical vignettes, and applications to historical and contemporary events, the module aims to acquaint students with the history of sociological thought and its significance to understanding both the present and the past.
This module will introduce you to some of the key ideas, debates, and concerns that have animated sociologists from the mid-twentieth century to the present. Over the next few weeks, you will become familiar with the ways that contemporary sociological thought is attempting to grapple with key issues relevant to society today. Following on from The Classics module last semester, we'll consider how theorists continue to explore the possibility of social order, social reproduction, and social transformation. We'll place a number of the most well-known contemporary social theorists in relation to each other and analyse their works, whilst considering the historical contexts in which they emerged: the rapidly changing circumstances and unprecedented challenges of the early twenty-first century.
Social science involves assumptions about knowledge and reality which have been subject to longstanding philosophical debate. This module explores the philosophy of social science in two main stages. Firstly, the module will explore a series of competing perspectives on what society is, and what we can know about it, from empiricism through to post-structuralism. Secondly, the module will enable students to consider how these philosophical questions are reflected in particular debates within different areas of social science: economics, politics, sociology and interdisciplinary social science undertaken on issues such as climate change.
, £1.5 million (Co-Investigator)
2015 - 2019
2010 - 2015
2015 - Present
ESRC Festival of Social Sciences (FOSS): Cultural representations of dementia.
7th November 2017, Exeter Phoenix, 7pm
Panel discussion on cultural representations of dementia followed by public debate.
Dementia Awareness Day, Chapter Arts Centre, 17th May 2017
Short talks from researchers for public audience, including those living with or affected by dementia.
Public Uni Talk, 11th Nov 2016
‘Stand up style’ talks on a Friday evening for public audiences to hear about current research.
Robot & Frank, SciScreen, 20th March 2013
SciScreen is a public engagement programme run by researchers at Cardiff University. I spoke about dementia, memory and identity in the context of the film Robot and Frank.
http://www.cardiffsciscreen.co.uk/article/memory-and-identity-robot-and-frank
Blogs & Online Resources
Media
