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I have a background in Social Anthropology and completed my PhD at the LSE in 2010. Since then, I have worked at the Institute of Public Health at the University of Cambridge and undertaken a Visiting Postdoctoral Fellowship at The Centre for Medical Science and Technology Studies at the University of Copenhagen.

Qualifications

MA Social Anthropology (Goldsmiths), PhD Sociology (LSE)

Research interests

My PhD thesis provided an account of the diagnosis, treatment and management of thyroid conditions within the United Kingdom. It focussed upon the high levels of ambiguity engendered by the relationship between the different forms of evidence (symptomatic, clinical etc.) used to diagnose and manage thyroid disease. In particular, the ethnographic study tracked how such indeterminacy establishes the affective, biological, and epistemological boundaries of thyroid disease for both patients and medical professionals.

In addition to publishing articles arising from my thesis, I am currently developing a substantial programme of research in collaboration with Paul Stenner, Johanna Motzkau (OU) and Monica Greco (Goldsmiths). Adopting a process theoretical approach, and by conducting two empirical studies across the fields of child protection and medically unexplained symptoms, the research aims to explore how the concept of liminality can enhance social scientific understandings of situations characterised by multiple forms of uncertainty and indeterminacy.

Paul Stenner, Johanna Motzkau, Monica Greco and I are also collaborating to develop a network of like-minded researchers under the umbrella of The Actual Occasions Project.

Recent publications

Cohn, S. Bunn, C. Stronge, P and Clinch, M. (Forthcoming) Entangled complexity: why complex interventions are just not complicated enough, J Health Serv Res Policy

A repository of research publications and other research outputs can be viewed at The Open University's Open Research Online.

Last updated: 13 November 2012