Author: Glen Jankowski

Career File: Elizabeth Peel

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This is the first in our new series ProfFile: informal interviews with leading or under recognized critical health psychologists.

ProfFile 1: Elizabeth Peel – who is (amongst other things) a Lesbian, Left-Handed, Left-Wing Critical Health Psychology Professor

What is your current position?

Liz PeelI’m Professor of Psychology and Social Change, and Director of Research for the Institute of Health and Society at the University of Worcester, UK. I also Chair the BPS (British Psychological Society) Psychology of Sexualities Section.

Could you say a bit about your career trajectory so far?

Trajectory suggests an upward path. Circular routes, peaks and troughs, and variety across different roles are just as important. For instance, I spent a lot of time working to support the (then) BPS Lesbian and Gay Psychology Section in the early 2000s and I’m trying to so the same again now. Continue reading →

Toward an epistemology of precarity: Critical theory and participatory methods in times of widening inequality gaps: Michelle Fine’s ISCHP’15 keynote

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Black & White photo of Michelle Fine leaning against brick wallMichelle delivered one of the three keynotes at the last ISCHP conference in South Africa. It was a powerful talk concerning 6 or 7 types (Michelle admitted she isn’t big on numbers) of precarity. Her bio, taken from the ISCHP 15 conference website is below:


Michelle Fine is a Distinguished Professor of Social Psychology, Women’s Studies and Urban Education at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Her work addresses theoretical questions of social injustice that sit the intersection of public policy and social research, particularly with respect to youth in schools and criminal justice. Fine’s work integrates critical psychological theory with feminist and post-colonial theory, participatory designs, qualitative and quantitative methods and strong commitments to research for social justice. Fine’s research is considered highly influential. Over the past decade, Fine’s scholarship has been recognized nationally and internationally with awards, fellowships and prestigious invited lectures. She is the founding faculty member of the Public Science Project. The Public Science Project designs and implements theoretically informed and historically enriched research with movements for educational justice and policy reform. The most influential report to be published by Public Science Project is Changing Minds, a participatory action research project conducted with women in and out of prison, studying the impact of college in prison on women, their children, the prison environment and post release outcomes. Fine is also a much sought after expert witness in gender and race discrimination education cases where her research and testimony has been influential in obtaining influential court victories.

 

An audio recording of the majority of Michelle’s talk is below. Please note there are a couple of points where the audio recording skips. I was sorry not to have recorded the other brilliant and humbling keynotes by Garth Stephens and Leslie Swartz.  In future I’ll definitely be much better prepared.

Michelle speaks for about 47 mins with the last 8-10 minutes left for questions. Enjoy.

For other recordings of Michelle’s keynotes see here and here.

Review of the 9th Biennual ISCHP conference: Grahamstown, South Africa

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By Malvern Chiweshe

The first thing that comes to your mind when you hear about a critical health psychology conference, the 9th biennual ISCHP conference in Grahamstown, South Africa, held in July 2015, perhaps isn’t that it is going to be fun. When I first heard of the conference I pictured a group of experienced academics arguing and debating nonstop. To my surprise I had fun throughout the whole conference. In the words of Professor Leslie Swartz this was one of the best conferences ever held.

Continue reading →

Welcome To The ISCHP Blog!

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At this year’s Biennial General ISCHP meeting it was decided that the traditional newsletter would be turned into an online ISCHP blog –  a dedicated space for discussion, resources and research regarding critical health psychology.

As previous editors of the newsletters, Jess Drakett and I were happy to continue as editors now responsible for the look, feel, and overall content of the blog.

We’re also very pleased to have 8 Commissioning Editors. They are responsible for contributing 1-2 blog posts every 2 months. The Commissioning Editors have a broad range of expertise including on eating disorders, fat stigma, fitness cultures and social media, youth substance abuse, incarceration, health and its intersections with sexism and racism, critical health psychology in Africa and, of course, the internet.

We really hope you enjoy and can contribute.
Glen and Jess