Dr Janice McLaughlin
Executive Director, PEALS

  • Email: janice.mclaughlin@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 222 7511
  • Fax: +44 (0) 191 222 7497
  • Address: Sociology
    Claremont Bridge Building
    University of Newcastle
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU

Roles and Responsibilities

Executive Director and Research 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 interests can be represented under the theme ‘disabilities, professionals and technologies’. The work involves studying the social processes embedded in policy and technology innovations and considering differences in medical, cultural and social understandings of risk and quality of life when living with or treating a chronic illness.

My recent work has narrowed in focus to the multiple care networks and practices that surround childhood disability. Published findings are exploring the transformative potentialities of care practices; the boundaries of parenting within contexts of intensive medical intervention; and the changing nature of family dynamics and identities within the presence of disability.

Other Expertise

Feminist contemporary social theory.

An ongoing publication activity involves writing on contemporary feminist social theory, in particular in relation to identities, materiality and critical theory. This work has involved hosting a conference in January 2003 and publications that have emerged from the conference.

Current Work

Current writing activity is focused on research dissemination from an ESRC project on families with disabled children which has concluded. With others involved in the study, in particular Professor Dan Goodley, Manchester Metropolitan University, and Emma Clavering, Newcastle University, we have just finished a book manuscript for Palgrave (Families Raising Disabled Children: Enabling Care and Social Justice) and are working on various research journal articles.

Working with Lorraine Cowley, a Genetics Counsellor from the Northern Genetics Service, and Tracy Finch from the Institute of Health and Society, we are looking at the intersections between genetics and kinship. Lorraine's work, which we are supervising, will explore how a large extended family make sense of and incorporate genetics discourses within their understandings of family when tested for an inherited genetic fault.

Future Research

With Emma Clavering, Erica Haimes and Micheal Wright I am just beginning a new ESRC project examining the intersections between genetics and kinship from a social anthropological perspective. The focus is families who have a 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.

With Dan Goodley and Katherine Runswick-Cole, we are just starting a new project working with both parents and disabled children, to explore what implications the Every Child Matters policy has for the rights of disabled children.

Research Roles

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

Postgraduate Supervision

Health innovations, users and professionals; feminist social theory; sexualities

1) Lena Ganesh, Lead supervisor, Co-supervisors Dr Peter Phillimore, Dr Rose Gilroy (APL) Initial registration Sept 2003. Recently Completed.
2) ESRC +3 PhD Student, Elizabeth Brace, Co-supervisor, Lead Supervisor Professor Diane Richardson, Initial Registration Sept 03. Recently Completed
3) ESRC 1+3 Case Student, Alice Elliot, Lead supervisor, Co-supervisor Dr Catherine Exley (Institute of Health and Society), Public Sector Sponsor, Newcastle Primary Care Trust, initial registration Sept 04.
4) Yi-Ting Shih, Lead Supervisor, Co-supervisor Dr Tom Shakespeare (PEALS), initial registration May 04.
5) Mandy Cheetham, ESRC Case student, Co-Supervisor, Lead Supervisor, Professor Diane Richardson, initial registration Sept 04.
6) Angie Scott, ESRC student, Co-Supervisor, Lead Supervisor, Professor Diane Richardson, initial registration Sept 05.
7) Edmund Coleman-Fountain, ESRC student, Co-Supervisor, Lead Supervisor Professor Diane Richardson, initial registration Sept 06.
8) Ingrid Young, ESRC student, Co-Supervisor, Lead Supervisor Professor Diane Richardson, initial registration Sept 07
9) Lorraine Cowley, Cancer Research UK, Nursing Research Fellow, Lead Supervisor, Co-Supervisor, Dr Tracy Finch (Institute of Health and Society), initial registration Sept 07

Esteem Indicators

Committee Membership
Member of the Editorial Board of Sociology.

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 Reviews for Education, Communication and Information, Disability and Society, British Journal of Sociology, and The European Legacy.

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
(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

1. 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. Oct 2008-Sept 2011. £395,000

2) ESRC Grant (Co-Investigator) 'Does Every Child Matter, Post-Blair? The interconnections of disabled childhoods', PI: Professor Dan Goodley, Manchester Metropolitan University, July 2008-June 2010.

2)Cancer Research UK Nursing Fellowship,(Supervisor and Grant Holder) 'Living with hereditary non polyposis colon cancer', Main Supervisor and Account Holder, Nursing Fellow, Lorraine Cowley, Co-Supervisor, Dr Tracy Finch. Sept 07-Sept 10.

3) British Academy Research Grant,(Principal Applicant) 'Exploring Interpreters’ Perspectives on Working in Legal, Health and Social Work Settings', , Named Research Associate, Dr Emma Clavering. February 07 - September 07.

4) Mentor to ESRC Post Fellowship (Post Doc Fellow, Dr Mark Casey)

5) ESRC Grant (Co-Investigator) 'Professionals and Disabled Babies: Identifying Enabling Care’, PI: Dr Dan Goodley, University of Sheffield. June 2003 - May 2006

6) Newcastle Healthcare Charities (Co-Investigator) 'Attitudes to pregnancy risk amongst women with Type 1 diabetes', Newcastle Healthcare Charity, PI, Dr Gillian Hawthorne, Head of Diabetes Centre, Newcastle General Hospital, April 2004-March 2004.