SocioHealthLab x TASA Applied Sociology Seminar: John MacArtney

SocioHealthLab (UQ) and The Applied Sociology Thematic Group with The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) are pleased to co-host: On permeant ethnography: Sociological reflections on interdisciplinarity research in a medical school.

Presenter: Dr John I MacArtney, Associate Professor, Warwick Medical School, UK.

Date: 10 September 2026

Time: 12-1pm AEST

Location: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/433173016390691?p=Y9kr9tf4mBQkBQVeBE

Researcher Bio:

Dr John MacArtney is a Marie Curie Associate Professor of the sociology of dying, palliative care and the aftermath at Warwick Medical School. The interdisciplinarity of his research is reflected in the range of publications in sociological, health and medical journals, as well as being funded by Marie Curie, NIHR, UKRI (ESRC) and Australian Research Council.

Abstract:

I am a sociologist who has been based in health and medical schools since 2014, when I worked as an early career researcher on a large health (science) project. Since then, I have worked on and led multiple research studies in health and palliative care that have both challenged and reaffirmed my identity as a “sociologist”. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to reflexively explore what has – and has not – worked when negotiating these various (inter)disciplinary research spaces and offer some tentative suggestions for why that might be. I will also invite you to consider what my observations could mean for your research career and what the implications might be for how sociologists of health and illness position themselves in the changing HE and funding landscape.