Health, Medicine and Agency [2018-21]

Convenors

Convenors

Dr Ignacia Arteaga (Philomathia Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Department of Social Anthropology) [2020-21]
Francesca Dakin (Research Assistant, The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute, University of Cambridge) [2020-21]
Dr Yuliya Hilevych (Visiting Research Associate, Faculty of History and the Reproductive Sociology Group) [2018-21]
Dr Karolina Kuberska (The Healthcare Improvement Studies (THIS) Institute, University of Cambridge) [2019-21]
Isabelle Le Gallez (Interdisciplinary Fellow, The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute and Legal Research Associate, Faculty of Law) [2020-21]
Dr Caroline Rusterholz  (Wellcome Trust Research Fellow, Faculty of History) [2018-21]

Dr Yuliya Hilevych is a Senior Lecturer and Deputy Programme Leader for Sociology at the University of Lincoln, and an Affiliated scholar at the Reproductive Sociology Research Group (ReproSoc) at the University of Cambridge. She combines historical and sociological approaches to the study of reproduction, social relations, and demographic and health policies across time and space. Previously Yuliya was a British Academy Newton International Fellow at the Faculty of History. Yuliya is a co-founder of the Health, Medicine and Agency Network.

 

Dr Karolina Kuberska is a Research Associate at The Healthcare Improvement Studies (THIS) Institute at the University of Cambridge. The core of Karolina’s research interests and expertise falls within the scope of medical anthropology, with a specific focus on understandings of health, wellbeing, and healthcare. Recognising the value of qualitative studies that privilege individual people’s experiences, she is committed to interdisciplinary research that is able to impact lives in meaningful ways.

 

Caroline Rusteholz is a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at the Faculty of History. She is a co-founder and co-convenor of Health Medicine and Agency. Her work brings a rigorous, interdisciplinary approach to major problems in the social history of medicine, history of sexual health and reproductive politics in 20th Century Europe.

 

 

Francesca Dakin became a co-convenor of the Research Network Health, Medicine and Agency in 2020. She is a Social Anthropologist and researcher at THIS Institute in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Public Health and Primary Care. She received her MPhil in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge in 2019. Her current work takes a qualitative approach to improving maternity care, adapting antenatal care to a remote setting, and investigating the legal, institutional and ethical drivers that affect how differential diagnoses are made, communicated and recorded in acute care.

 

Dr Ignacia Arteaga is joining the Health Medicine Agency network in 2020 after having participated in some of the events during 2019. She is a social anthropologist who specialises in Medical Anthropology, looking at practices of cancer detection and care in the UK. Currently, she is the Philomathia postdoctoral research associate in the Anthropology of Medicine and Care in Cambridge, having received her PhD and MSc from University College London. Ignacia has organised multiple conference panels in international conferences on the themes of anthropologies of care, such as the AAA and ASA, and given more than 12 presentations about her PhD research during the last four years. Ignacia has also led the organisation of two multidisciplinary workshops on cancer values (UCL, 2018), and cancer stratification practices (U. of Cambridge 2019) raising funds from UCL Cancer Network, UCL Octagon Fund and the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness. Ignacia is currently co-organising a third workshop on Perspectives of Risk and Care among hard-to-reach communities in Cambridgeshire, funded by Cancer Research UK.

Ms Isabelle Le Gallez became a co-convenor of the Research Network Health, Medicine and Agency in 2020. She is an academic lawyer who specialises in medico-legal issues. She received her law degree from the University of Sussex and her Masters in Medical Law and Ethics from the University of Edinburgh. She has been employed by various medico-legal and tort-based research projects whilst at her previous educational institutions. In her current role, she is contributing to a joint project between the Centre for Law, Medicine and the Life Sciences and The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute, ‘Differential Diagnosis and the Law’. The project is part of a larger research which is taking a closer look at how a diagnosis is made, communicated, and recorded in acute care with the goal of improving the process for doctors and patients. The legal arm of the project will clarify how the law, particularly the law of negligence, shapes the development and communication of differential diagnoses, and whether the law should be reformed.

Previous convenors [2018-20]

Dr Sarah Hoare (The Healthcare Improvement Studies (THIS) Institute, University of Cambridge) [2018-20]
Ms Hande Güzel (PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology) [2018-19]
Mr George Severs (PhD candidate Faculty of History) [2018-19]
Dr Natasha Kriznik (Research Associate, The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care) [2018-19]
Dr Elizabeth Turk  (Research Associate, Department of Social Anthropology) [2018-19]

Dr Sarah Hoare is a Research Associate in The Healthcare Improvement Studies (THIS) Institute at the University of Cambridge. She is currently exploring patient and clinician experience of participating in an innovative screening programme aimed at detecting atrial fibrillation, a heart condition responsible for one in ten strokes. Sarah’s work to date has focused on understanding the social context of healthcare, exploring how the interactions of patients, clinicians and organisations shape and are influenced by current practice, most recently in end-of-life care.

Hande Güzel is a PhD candidate at the Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge. Her research interests cut across sociology of health and illness, gender, sexuality, and the body. Her PhD research focuses on re-virginisation practices in Turkey.

 

George Severs is a PhD student at Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he is researching a history of HIV/AIDS activism in the UK c. 1982-1997. Before this, he studied for an MPhil in Modern British History at Pembroke College, Cambridge with a thesis exploring the Church of England’s responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. George also has a First Class (Honours) BA in History from Royal Holloway, University of London. His previous work examined the British National Party (BNP)’s opposition to gay men (c. 1982-1999) by employing a historically sociological analysis of the party’s ‘homohysteria’ to more accurately identify the party’s anti-gay attitudes.  Research interest: Post-war British history, Religious history, Queer history, LGBTQ history, Oral History, Radical history/histories of activism, British fascism.

 Natasha is a Research Associate in The Healthcare Improvement Studies (THIS) Institute at the University of Cambridge. Her research interests relate to medical sociology, particularly health inequalities and public health, as well as the processes related to the production of social policy. She is also interested in social theory and its use in enhancing the outcomes of research.

 

Faculty Advisors

Professor Sarah Franklin (Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology)
Professor Nick Hopwood (Professor of History of Science and Medicine, Department of History and Philosophy of Science)
Professor Graham Martin (Director of Research, The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute, Department of Public Health and Primary Care)

Previous Faculty Advisor

Professor Simon Szreter (Professor of History and Public Policy, Faculty of History)

Programme 2020-21

All online events are scheduled at UK time. Please check time for individual events.

Easter Term 2021

Health, Medicine and Agency
Roundtable: Ethnographic Approaches to ‘Non-Normal Bodies’ 27 Apr 2021 5:00pm - 7:00pm, ONLINE SESSION (UK Time) Giulia Sciolli (Cambridge), Kelly Robinson (Cambridge)
Practices of (Non) Engagement With Health Services 14 May 2021 12:00pm - 1:30pm, ONLINE SESSION (UK time). Please note time and date change Reading Group
Gendered Health and Vulnerability 25 May 2021 5:00pm - 7:00pm, ONLINE SESSION (UK Time) Hande Güzel (Cambridge), Julieta Chaparro Buitrago (Cambridge)
Race and Sexual and Reproductive Health 8 Jun 2021 5:00pm - 7:00pm, ONLINE SESSION (UK Time) Maud Bracke (Glasgow)

Lent Term 2021

Health, Medicine and Agency
Digital Diagnostic Technologies 19 Jan 2021 5:00pm - 7:00pm, ONLINE SESSION (UK Time) Fernando Valenzuela (Chile), Richard Milne and Alessia Costa (Wellcome Genome Campus)
Book Discussion ‘Women’s Medicine. Sex, Family Planning and British Female Doctors’ 9 Feb 2021 5:00pm - 7:00pm, ONLINE SESSION (UK Time) Caroline Rusterholz (Cambridge), Laura Kelly (Glasgow), Yuliya Hilevych (Cambridge)
Reading Group: Health and Environment with Geographies of Health 19 Feb 2021 12:00pm - 1:30pm, ONLINE SESSION (UK time). Please note change of time and date.
Roundtable: Reproduction, Economy, Law, and Technology 2 Mar 2021 5:00pm - 7:00pm, ONLINE SESSION (UK Time) Claire Horn (CCSF), Sylvie  Armstrong (European University Institute), Kylie Baldwin (De Montfort University Leicester)
Personalisation Practices in Cancer Research 16 Mar 2021 5:00pm - 7:00pm, ONLINE SESSION (UK Time) William Viney (Goldsmiths, London), Julia Swallow (Edinburgh)

Michaelmas Term 2020

Health, Medicine and Agency
Roundtable: Mental Health and Agency in Clinical Encounters 6 Oct 2020 5:00pm - 6:30pm, ONLINE SESSION (UK Time) Sahanika Ratnayake (Cambridge), Riana Betzler (St Louis)
Public Engagement: Engaging with Healthcare Practitioners as Medical Historians 3 Nov 2020 5:00pm - 6:30pm, ONLINE SESSION (UK Time) Alison Moulds (Oxford), Agnes Arnold-Forster (Roehampton London)
Roundtable: Birth Control and Sex Education in Cultural and Historical Perspectives 17 Nov 2020 5:00pm - 6:30pm, ONLINE SESSION (UK Time) Jessica Borge (KCL), Lea Taragin-Zeller (Woolf Institute), Ben Kasstan (Bristol)
Ethnographic Approaches to Health Inequalities 1 Dec 2020 12:00pm - 2:00pm, ONLINE SESSION (UK Time). Please note the changed time. Webinar

Past Programmes

Programme 2019-20

Theme Michaelmas 2019: Limits of Patient Agency

Health, Medicine and Agency
Reproduction and Law – The Limits of Patient Agency 8 Oct 2019 12:00pm - 2:00pm, Seminar Room S1, 1st Floor, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DT. NB Different room today
Visual Plague Photographic Database 22 Oct 2019 12:00pm - 2:00pm, Seminar Room SG2, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DT Christos Lynteris (St Andrews)
What and Who Causes Health Inequalities? 8 Nov 2019 12:00pm - 2:00pm, HPSS Library, Hardy Building (First floor, Room 108), Downing Site. Please note change of day and venue Joint Reading Group with Geographies of Health
CANCELLED End-Of-Life-Care and Limits of Patient Agency 19 Nov 2019 12:00pm - 1:00pm, Large Seminar Room, Cambridge Institute of Public Health, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Forvie Site, Cambridge, CB2 0SR Erica Borgstrom (Open University), Natashe Lemos Dekker (Amsterdam)
Pregnancy Loss 11 Feb 2020 12:00pm - 2:00pm, Seminar Room SG1, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DT Sheelagh McGuinness (Bristol), Aimee Middlemiss (Exeter )
CANCELLED: Health and Stigma 25 Feb 2020 12:00pm - 1:00pm, Small seminar room, Institute of Public Health (IPH), Forvie Site. Biomedical Campus CB2 0SR *Different venue Tanisha Spratt (Oxford), Brigit McWade (Lancaster)
Maternal Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa 6 Mar 2020 12:00pm - 1:30pm, Room 108, 1st floor. HPSS Library, Hardy Building. Downing Site *Different Day and Venue Reading Group
POSTPONED to 15 May: Reading Group Health and Solidarity (with Geographies of Health) 24 Apr 2020 12:00pm - 2:00pm, Online session Joint Reading Group
TWITTER Roundtable: End-Of-Life-Care and Limits of Patient Agency 5 May 2020 7:00pm - 8:00pm, Online session. Time changed Erica Borgstrom (Open University), Natashe Lemos Dekker (Amsterdam)
ONLINE Reading Group Health and Solidarity (with Geographies of Health) 15 May 2020 12:00pm - 2:00pm, Online session
ONLINE Roundtable AIDS and HIV Activism 19 May 2020 12:00pm - 2:00pm, Online session George Severs (Cambridge), Hannah J. Elizabeth (Warwick)
ONLINE Roundtable: The Relationship Between Health and Stigma 2 Jun 2020 12:00pm - 2:00pm, Online session Tanisha Spratt (Oxford), Brigit McWade (Lancaster)

Programme 2018-19

In what ways do individuals influence the kinds of medical treatment options widely available? The “Health, medicine and agency” research network posits that patient agency has been a central factor in shaping processes of medicalisation and biomedicalisation across a broad range of geographical and cultural contexts. In recent history, patient ‘expertise’ has been the driving force behind a wide range of social movements in the health sphere, from natural childbirth and euthanasia request to the rejection of compulsory vaccinations and unregulated use of antibiotics. The associated risks to health, fiercely polarized public opinion, and emergent subjectivities that have accompanied such social movements invite critical exploration. “Heath, medicine and agency” brings into focus the growing importance of, and controversies surrounding, individual and patient agency by adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, thereby engaging work in the humanities, social and medical sciences, and creative arts.

Themes 2018-19
Michaelmas Term 2018: Patient Needs
Lent Term 2019: Patient Experience
Easter Term 2019: Collective Action and Engagement

Health, Medicine and Agency
Modern Times: The Way of All Flesh 8 Oct 2018 5:00pm - 7:00pm, Seminar Room, SG2, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road. NB Change of room today Film Screening- Health, Medicine and Agency
Patient Needs: Conceptualisation 22 Oct 2018 5:00pm - 7:00pm, Seminar Room, SG1, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road Reading session – Health, Medicine and Agency
Patient Needs: An Example from History 5 Nov 2018 5:00pm - 7:00pm, Seminar Room, SG1, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road Dora Vargha (Exeter) Reading session – Health, Medicine and Agency
Patient Needs: Medical Technologies, (In)Equalities and New Imaginary Futures 19 Nov 2018 5:00pm - 7:00pm, Seminar Room, SG1, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road Cathy Herbrand (De Montfort), Manuela Perrotta (Queen Mary London), Andrea Stockl (East Anglia), Elizabeth Toon (Manchester) – Health, Medicine and Agency
Patients as Consumer and the Personalisation of Medicine 21 Jan 2019 5:00pm - 7:00pm, Seminar Room SG1, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road Reading session – Health, Medicine and Agency
Reading group with Ilana Löwy 4 Feb 2019 5:00pm - 7:00pm, Seminar Room S1, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road NB S1, 1st floor today* Ilana Löwy – Health, Medicine and Agency
Patients, Expertise and New Markets (Roundtable) 18 Feb 2019 5:00pm - 7:00pm, Seminar Room SG1, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road Tommy Dickinson (KCL), Marcin Smietana (Cambridge), Wendy Kline (Purdue College of Liberal Arts), Charlotte Faircloth (UCL) – Health, Medicine and Agency
Public Engagement Activities around Patients’ Experiences within Institutions (Roundtable) 4 Mar 2019 5:00pm - 7:00pm, Seminar Room SG1, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road Elizabeth Fistein (Public Health and Primary Care), Jenny Crane (Wellcome Trust), Janet Weston (LSHTM) – Health, Medicine and Agency
Patients, Health Experiences and Collective Action 13 May 2019 5:00pm - 7:00pm, Seminar Room SG1, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DT Tracey Loughran (Essex), Kate Mahoney (Essex), Robert Pralat (Cambridge), Diana Rose (London)
Abortion Across Borders. Transnational Travel and Access to Abortion Services 29 May 2019 5:00pm - 7:00pm, Diferent day and room. Seminar Room SG2, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DT Book launch. Christabelle Sethna (Ottawa)
Public Engagement in Health Research 10 Jun 2019 5:00pm - 7:00pm, Seminar Room SG1, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DT Joann Leeding (Cambridge), Anne Hanley (London)

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