Thinking In Between

APOLLO Social Science Team, QMUL

Welcome to Thinking In Between. We explore how social theory and qualitative methods can illuminate the messy world of health and healthcare. In each episode, we invite a researcher working at the borderlands of social science and health to choose three “big ideas” that have influenced their research journey and the way they think.

  1. SEP 1

    Knowledge is Power, Ian Hacking, and Racialisation (Sara Paparini)

    This episode of Thinking In Between hears from Dr Sara Paparini, a medical anthropologist and Senior Lecturer in Public Health and Equity at the Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary University of London. Sara's research began in HIV but has expanded to applying critical public health and anti-racist lenses to many other areas. Sara shares three big ideas with us in this episode: Knowledge is Power - "Lucky Valley: Edward Long and the History of Racial Capitalism" by Catherine Hall (Cambridge University Press, 2024) and "Medicalizing Blackness: Making Racial Differences in the Atlantic World, 1780-1840" by Rana Hogarth (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017), 156-157 Ian Hacking on "Making People Up". The particular lecture that Sara discusses is Kinds of People: Moving Targets, which he presented at the British Academy in 2007. Another key text is "The Taming of Chance" by Ian Hacking (Cambridge University Press, 2014) Racialisation - a particular malevonent form of "making people up", which Sara uses Hacking's work to understand. Sara shares from "Abolition Geography: Essays Towards Liberation" by Ruth Wilson Gilmore (Verso, 2022)

    59 min

  2. AUG 1

    Helen Bamber, Legacies, and "From the Horse's Mouth" (Sam Miles)

    Our guest today is Dr Sam Miles, Reader in Social Science at Barts and the London Medical School, Queen Mary University of London. He leads social science teaching across the medical school. Today, he talks about what it's like to work in that role, and shares three ideas who have most influenced his work and thinking: 1) Helen Bamber: a remarkable leader and human rights advocate 2) Legacies: particularly through Sam's work on the children's author David Rees, who died from HIV/AIDS 3) Learning "From the Horse's Mouth" - who do you choose to teach and to learn from?

    45 min

  3. JUL 1

    Social Pedagogy, Act Early, and Urban Childhoods (Claire Cameron and Deniz Arzuk)

    In this episode, we're joined by Professor Claire Cameron and Dr Deniz Arzuk from the Social Research Institute in University College London. They bring three ideas that have shaped their work and thinking: 1) Social Pedagogy is a discipline common in much of continental Europe that reframes professional "care" provided to children, focusing on ethics, justice, meaningful activities, and relationships. 2) Act Early is a research study about "early life changes to improve the health and opportunities for children living in areas with high levels of child poverty". Here, Claire and Deniz describe learning from working closely with local councils, and what counts as evidence. 3) Urban Childhoods is a forthcoming book (UCL Press, 2025) edited by Claire, which explores "Growing up in inequality and hope". In this part of the discussion, Claire and Deniz how the sociology of childhood adds value to public health and urban studies.

    52 min

  4. APR 2

    Problematisation, Ontological Politics, and Science and Technology Studies (Kari Lancaster)

    In this episode, we speak to Professor Kari Lancaster from the University of Bath. Kari speaks about her career journey so far, coming from performance studies to policy studies and then into science and technology studies (STS) "sideways". Kari is recognised for contributing empirical social science research in her specific fields of focus (drugs and addiction, and infectious disease including hepatitis C, HIV, and Covid-19). In this episode - which also took place as a live seminar - Kari shares three ideas that have shaped her thinking and research: Problematisation (Carol Bacchi, Michel Foucault) Ontological politics (John Law, Annemarie Mol) Coming to science and technology studies (STS) "sideways"

    47 min

  5. MAR 5

    The Normal and the Pathological, Inventive Methods, and Cyborgs and Goddesses (Natassia Brenman)

    Thinking In Between is back! On this episode, we welcome Dr Natassia Brenman, who is a senior qualitative researcher at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford. Nat's research focuses on the challenges around improving access to healthcare and how technologies influence health practices. Today, she discusses three big ideas that have influenced her research and thinking: Canguilhem, Georges. 1991. The Normal and the Pathological. Translated by Carolyn R. Fawcett. New York: Zone Books. Lury, C. and Wakeford on ‘Inventive methods’ – Introduction to Inventive Methods: The happening of the social. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 25–36 Donna Haraway, and more recently Jasbir K Puar on ‘Cyborgs and Goddesses. Puar JK. “I Would Rather be a Cyborg than a Goddess”: Becoming-Intersectional in Assemblage Theory. In: Feminist Theory Reader. 5th ed. Routledge; 2020.

    49 min

  6. 12/12/2024

    Liberation Pedagogy, Epistemic Humility, and Flourishing (Louise Younie)

    This month, Professor Louise Younie from the Institute of Health Sciences Education at QMUL shares three ideas that have shaped her journey as an academic, a general practitioner, a person living through cancer diagnosis and treatment, and a creative teacher. Louise's work focuses on using creative enquiry to explore professional identity formation, human flourishing, and humanising medicine. 1) Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire. Seabury Press, 1970 2) Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing by Miranda Fricker. Oxford University Press, 2007 3) Flourishing Spaces website - https://www.creativeenquiry.co.uk/

    51 min

  7. 11/15/2024

    Paul Farmer, Critical Drug Studies, and bell hooks (Jen Randall)

    Episode Notes In this episode, our guest is Jen Randall, Senior Lecturer in Global Public Health at Queen Mary University of London. Jen believes in the transformative potential of teaching, and we hear stories of this through the episode. She shares three ideas which have changed her thinking and pedagogical approach: 1) Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues by Paul Farmer. University of California Press, 1999 2) High Price: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society by Carl Hart. HarperCollins, 2013 3) Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks. Routledge, 1994

    48 min

  8. 10/17/2024

    Feminist Curiousity, Intersectionality, and the Health Disparities Research Industrial Complex (Iona Hindes)

    In this episode, we welcome Iona Hindes from the Centre for Public Health and Policy at Queen Mary University of London. Iona is an anthropologist studying the unequal impacts of Covid-19 policies on maternity healthcare experiences. She introduces three ideas, how they have challenged her, and what they have allowed her to see differently: 1) Seriously! Investigating Crashes and Crises as if Women Mattered by Cynthia Enloe. University of California Press, 2013 2) Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color, by Kimberle Crenshaw. Stanford Law Review, 1991 3) The Health Disparities Research Industrial Complex by Jerel Ezell. Social Science and Medicine, 2024

    53 min
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About

Welcome to Thinking In Between. We explore how social theory and qualitative methods can illuminate the messy world of health and healthcare. In each episode, we invite a researcher working at the borderlands of social science and health to choose three “big ideas” that have influenced their research journey and the way they think.

Information

  • Creator
    APOLLO Social Science Team, QMUL
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2025
  • Episodes
    19
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025
  • Show Website
    Thinking In Between

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