Medical Anthropology

This theme encompasses a wide range of research informed by medical anthropological theoretical perspectives, notably theorising around embodiment, Foucault’s bio-power, and Wenger’s Communities of Practice; and utilising anthropological methodologies such as ethnography and narrative analysis.

Illness and Medical Experiences

GPs as patients (Associate Professor Chrystal Jaye, Dr Hamish Wilson)

Patients’ Experiences of Stereotactic Radiosurgery

Assoc. Prof Chrystal Jaye in collaboration with Assoc. Prof David Menkes, Dr Mary Davidson, Psychological Medicine, and Dr S Costello, Radiology.

Embodiment in Health and Illness

Assoc. Prof Chrystal Jaye. This is a thread that informs much of Assoc. Prof Chrystal Jaye’s research.

Occupational Overuse Syndrome

• Assoc. Prof Chrystal Jaye in collaboration with Dr Ruth Fitzgerald (Department of Anthropology)
• This research examines various aspects of occupational overuse syndrome. This includes patients and health practitioners perspectives and experiences and employs theoretical frameworks of liminality, biopower, and embodiment.
• Publications are currently in preparation.

Communities of Clinical Practice

Mr Tony Egan, Assoc. Prof Chrystal Jaye. This is ongoing research that includes a project funded by a University of Otago CALT Grant to do an observational study of 4th Year medical students on their surgical attachment in a teaching hospital.

Access to Personal Health Information

Associate Professor Chrystal Jaye in collaboration with Associate Professor David Menkes, Dr Charlotte Hill, and Dr Melissa Horsfall. This research project investigated the perspectives of pakeha and Maori groups with regard to who should have access to personal health information and in what situations.