Newcastle University

Roles and Responsibilities

Executive Director of the Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Institute (PEALS)

Qualifications

1996 PhD Department of Government, University of Manchester.
1993 MA Political Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
1990 BA Politics Honours (2:1), University of Strathclyde.

Previous Positions

09/99 – 09/01 Lecturer, Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds.
02/99 - 09/99 MA Co-ordinator Women’s Studies, Anglia Polytechnic University.
09/96 - 07/99 Lecturer, Department of Sociology and Politics and Department of Women’s Studies, Anglia Polytechnic University (fractional post: 0.25).
09/96 - 07/99 Research Fellow, Science and Technology Studies Unit, Anglia Polytechnic University.
09/95 - 08/96 Research Assistant, Science and Technology Studies Unit, Anglia Polytechnic University.

Memberships

BSA
Women's Studies Network UK Assocation

Research Interests

My current primary research interest can be briefly represented as: exploring how childhood disability or illness is framed from within the worlds of medicine, community and family. Through this research interest crucial insights are being generated on the importance of the relationships between these different worlds in the production of meaning. In the process the work challenges existing perceptions within disability studies that children and their families are simple objects of medical inquiry, alongside challenging perceptions in medical sociology that disability is interesting when it happens to previously ‘normal’ adult bodies. Clearly explorations of family and kinship are central to such explorations and I am increasingly pursuing an interest in both the fluidity of kinship relations, which are not framed by biology, and the significance of genetics in ascribing particular narratives of what family is based on biological ties.

An additional long term research activity involves writing on contemporary feminist social theory, in particular in relation to identities, materiality and critical theory. These two areas of work come together at various points, particularly when exploring experiences of and ideas about kinship and care.

Current Work

With Emma Clavering, Erica Haimes and Michael Wright I have just concluded an ESRC project examining the intersections between genetics and kinship from a social anthropological perspective (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/peals/research/project/2745). The focus is families who have a child referred to genetic services and examining over time how varied family members, including children themselves, incorporate and don't incorporate genetic meanings into their family narratives and vice versa. While the project is concluded we are still actively developing our publications from the project.

Myself, Edmund Coleman-Fountain, Patrick Olivier, Allan Colver are currently working on an ESRC project examining the embodied transitions disabled young people make as they move towards adulthood (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/peals/research/project/3921). The project examines whether disability makes a difference in such transitions and if it does what kind of difference is that. We are also examining whether pain is a meaningful concept to disabled young people and influential to how they think about their bodies. The work involves both qualitative interviews and alongside, creative work with both photography and artefact making with the research participants.  

I am also a member of the international research consortium 'Ethics of Family and Health and Social Care', involving colleagues from Groningen University, Uppsala University, Singapore University and Michigan State University.

Research Roles

I am Executive Director of the Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Centre (PEALS).

Postgraduate Supervision

I have successfully supervised 9 PhD students to the completion of their studies and currently supervise 5 PhD students. The majority of these past and current students are ESRC funded.

I am happy to discuss potential PhD topics in the areas of disability, kinship and care, medical innovation and feminist social theory.  

Esteem Indicators

Committee Membership
Previous member of the Editorial Board of Sociology.

Previous member, of the International Advisory Board for the Sage Handbook of Research Ethics (editors Pauline Ginsberg and Donna Mertens)

Review activities
ESRC, Referee Fellowship and Grant Proposals and End of Award Reports

Book Proposal Reviews for Routledge, Palgrave and Polity.

Journal Article Reviews for Sociology, Sociology of Health and Illness, Theory, Culture and Society, Social Science and Medicine, Social Research Methodology: Theory and Practice, European Journal of Health Management, Sociology of Health and Illness, Science Technology and Human Values and Feminist Theory, Women’s Studies International Forum, Community, Work and Family, Social Policy and Society, Journal of Applied Research, Diabetic Medicine, Health.

Keynote Talks

'Families’ experiences of paediatric genetics: Findings from an ethnographic study'. British Society for Human Genetics Conference, 5^th – 7^th September, Warwick University, 2011

‘Potential familial and patient responses to gene therapy: lessons from current genetics provision in healthcare’ TREAT-NMD 2011 International Conference, Geneva, Nov, 2011

McLaughlin, J. ‘Working across disciplinary and institutional boundaries in health and social research.’ BSA Regional Postgraduate Workshop: Bridging the Gap: Translating knowledge into action in Health and Social Research. Newcastle University. 3^rd June, 2010.

‘Modes of care and mothering: How does citizenship and care intersect in the lives of mothers of disabled children’?, ESRC Seminar Series ‘Parenting Cultures’, University of Kent, January, 2009.

Parental perspectives on evidence: When are parents experts?, European Academy of Childhood Disability, Vilnius, Lithuania, June, 2009

(with Emma Clavering) ‘How inclusion is operationalised in early year settings. Findings from a research study undertaken in Newcastle and Sheffield’. Twelfth Conference and Annual Meeting of the North of England Collaborative Cerebral Palsy Survey, Trevalyan College, University of Durham, 21st of March, 2007

'What makes looking after a baby with complex needs challenging? The perspective of parents’, North of England Paediatric Society, Centre for Life, Newcastle, 15th of June, 2007

‘The social, ethical and political exploration of genetics and the new life sciences’, Launch of the Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle University, 27th of October, 2006.

'Gendering the user and technological innovation,' International Summer Academy on Technology Studies, Austria, July. 2001

Award
2001 ‘EBM and Risk: Rhetorical Resources in the Articulation of Professional Identity,’ Journal of Management in Medicine, Vol 15, No 4/5, 352-363. Outstanding Paper of the Year.

Funding 

ESRC Grant (Principal Investigator) ‘Embodied Selves in Transition: Disabled Young Bodies’, CI: Professor Allan Colver (IHS) and Professor Patrick Olivier (Culture Lab). May 2011-April 2013. RES-062-23-2886.  £229,000.

ESRC Grant (Principal Investigator) ‘Kinship and genetic journeys: A study of the experiences of families who are referred to paediatric genetics’, CI: Professor Erica Haimes, Newcastle University and Dr Michael Wright, Northern Genetics Service. RES-062-23-1475. Oct 2008-Sept 2011. £395,000

ESRC Grant (Co-Investigator) ‘Does Every Child Matter, Post-Blair? The interconnections of disabled childhoods’, PI: Professor Dan Goodley, Manchester Metropolitan University, September 08-August 10. £9,000 (full grant worth £205,000)

Cancer Research UK Nursing Fellowship, (Academic Supervisor and grant holder) ‘Living with the aftermath of genetic testing for Hereditary non Polyposis Colon Cancer (HNPCC). What are the intersections between genetics and kinship?’, Fellow: Lorraine Cowley, Co-Academic Supervisor Dr Tracy Finch, Institute of Health and Society Dr Emma Clavering, PEALS, Sept 07-Sept 10, £160,000

British Academy Grant, (Principal Investigator) ‘Exploring interpreters’ perspectives on working in legal, health and social work settings’, Feb 2007 – July 2007. £7356

ESRC Grant (Co-Investigator) Professionals and disabled babies: Identifying enabling care’, PI: Dr Dan Goodley, University of Sheffield. June 2003 - May 2006. £134,000 (full grant worth £309,000)

Newcastle Healthcare Charities, (Co-Investigator) ‘Attitudes to pregnancy risk amongst women with Type 1 diabetes’, funded by the RVI Scientific Research Committee, PI: Dr Gillian Hawthorne, Head of Diabetes Centre, Newcastle General Hospital, April 2004-March 2004. £35,000

ESRC Post Doctoral Fellowship, mentoring Dr Mark Casey, Sept 05-August 06.

Projects

• Disability & Education
  Project Leader(s): Dr Janice McLaughlin
• Diversity in Childhood Conference Barcelona
  Project Leader(s): Dr Janice Mclaughlin
• Kinship and Genetic Journeys: A study of the experiences of children and their families referred to paediatric genetics
  Project Leader(s): Dr Janice McLaughlin
• Living with Heredity Non Polyposis Colon Cancer (HNPCC). A ten year retrospective examination of the experiences of a large North of England family. What can we learn?
  Project Leader(s): Janice McLaughlin and Dr Tracey Finch (Institute of Health & Society)
• Risk Management of Pregnant Women with Type 1 Diabetes: Exploration of Medical Professional Models of Understanding and Response
  Project Leader(s): Dr Janice McLaughlin

• McLaughlin J, Clavering EK. Questions of kinship and inheritance in pediatric genetics: substance and responsibility. New Genetics and Society 2011, 30(4), 399-413.
• McLaughlin J, Phillimore P, Richardson D, ed. Contesting Recognition: Culture, Identity and Citizenship. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
• McLaughlin J, Phillimore P, Richardson D. Introduction: Why Contesting Recognition?. In: McLaughlin, J., Phillimore, P., Richardson, D, ed. Contesting Recognition: Culture, Identity and Citizenship. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, pp.1-19.
• McLaughlin J. Where's the Harm? Challenging Bioethical Support of Prenatal Selection for Sexual Orientation. In: Scully, JS; Baldwin-Ragaven, LE; Fitzpatrick, P, ed. Feminist Bioethics: At the Centre, On the Margins. Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins University Press, 2010, pp.174-189.
• McLaughlin J. Modes of care and mothering: How does citizenship and care intersect in the lives of mothers of disabled children?. In: Dahl, HM; Keränen, M; Kovalainen, A, ed. Europeanization, Care and Gender: Global Complexities. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, pp.94-107.
• Watson N, Thomas C, Roulestone A, McLaughlin J. Understanding disabled families: Replacing tales of burden with ties of interdependency. In: Watson, N., Roulstone, A., Thomas, C, ed. Routledge Handbook of Disability Studies. Abingdon, Oxon, UK: Routledge, 2012, pp.402-413.
• Clavering EK, McLaughlin J. Children's participation in health research: from objects to agents?. Child: Care, Health and Development 2010, 36(5), 603-611.
• McLaughlin J, Goodley D, Clavering EK, Fisher P. Families Raising Disabled Children: Enabling Care and Social Justice. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2008.
• McLaughlin J, Goodley D. Seeking and rejecting certainty: Exposing the sophisticated lifeworlds of parents of disabled babies. Sociology 2008, 42(2), 317-335.
• McLaughlin J. Conceptualising Intensive Caring Activities: the Changing Lives of Families with Young Disabled Children. Sociological Research Online 2006, 11(1).
• McLaughlin J, Casey ME, Richardson D. Introduction: At the intersections of feminist and queer debates. In: Richardson, D; McLaughlin, J; Casey, ME, ed. Intersections Between Feminist and Queer Theory. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, pp.1-18.
• McLaughlin J. Feminist Social and Political Theory : Contemporary Debates and Dialogues . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
• McLaughlin J. Screening networks: Shared agendas in feminist and disability movement challenges to antenatal screening and abortion. Disability and Society 2003, 18(3), 297-310.
• McLaughlin J. EBM and risk : Rhetorical resources in the articulation of professional identity. Journal of Management in Medicine 2001, 15(5), 352-363.
• Clavering EK, McLaughlin J. Crossing multidisciplinary divides: Exploring professional hierarchies and boundaries in focus groups. Qualitative Health Research 2007, 17(3), 400-410.
• Richardson D, McLaughlin J, Casey ME, ed. Intersections between feminist and queer theory. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
• McLaughlin J. The return of the material: Cycles of theoretical fashion in lesbian, gay and queer studies. In: Diane Richardson, Janice McLaughlin and Mark E. Casey, ed. Intersections between feminist and queer theory. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, pp.59-77.
• McLaughlin J. Exploring diagnostic processes: Social science perspectives. Archives of Disease in Childhood 2005, 90(3), 284-287.
• McLaughlin J. Gendering Technological Change in Organisations. In: Rohracher H, ed. User Involvement in Innovation Processes. Profil-Verlag: Munich, 2005, pp.127-146.
• Casey ME, McLaughlin J, Richardson D. Locating sexualities: politics, identities and space. Sexualities 2004, 7(4), 387-390.
• McLaughlin J. Professional Translations of Evidence Based Medicine. In: Learmonth M; Harding N, ed. Unmasking Health Management: A Critical Text. Hauppauge, New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2004, pp.75-90.
• McLaughlin J. Risky Professional Boundaries: Articulations of the Personal Self by Antenatal Screening Professionals’. Journal of Health, Organization and Management 2003, 17(4), 264-279.
• McLaughlin J, Rosen P, Skinner D, Webster A. Valuing Technology: Organisations, Culture and Change. London: Routledge, 1999.
• McLaughlin J, Clavering EK. Visualising difference, similarity and belonging in paediatric genetics. Sociology of Health and Illness 2012, 34(3), 459-474.
• McLaughlin J. Digital imagery and child embodiment in paediatric genetics: Sources and relationships of meaning. Sociology 2013. In Press.
• Coleman-Fountain E, McLaughlin J. The Interactions of Disability and Impairment. Social Theory and Health 2013. In Press.