- Social Anthropology, Social Sciences, Anthropolgy, Medical Anthropology, Medical Sociology / Anthropology, Critical Medical Anthropology, and 33 moreApplied medical anthropology, Health risk, health and illness, medical anthropology, health promotion, qualitative research, mixed methods, and public health, STS (Anthropology), science and technology studies (STS), Sociology of Smoking, Anthropology of Food, Sugar industry, Sugar Technology, Anthropology of emotions, Sociology of Food and Eating, Sociology of Food Allergy and Intolerance, Sociology of Food, Eating & Consumption, Anthropology Of Consumption, History Of Food Consumption, Sociology of consumption, Anthropology of Kinship, Kinship (Anthropology), Kinship and Relatedness (Anthropology), Kinship, Kinship care, Kinship and Family Studies, British Empire, Anthropology of Britain, Scotland, Sociology of Scotland, Anthropology of France, France, Sugar, History of Sugar, Sugars, Anthropology of Friendship, Intimacy, and Sociology of Foodedit
- I am a research fellow in Social Anthropology at University of Edinburgh. My PhD research explored sugar consumption,... moreI am a research fellow in Social Anthropology at University of Edinburgh. My PhD research explored sugar consumption, kinship and morality and the meaning of sugar for families in urban Scotland. I am currently involved in anthropological research on testing and diagnostics.
My previous research at ChemicalYouth asked how substances are incorporated through social practices. As a member of the ChemicalYouth team at the University of Amsterdam & University of Lyon, I studied people's lived experiences of smoking and e-cigarette use in France. Using a sensory approach, I asked what these technologies and substances could do for users in social context.
I also work on the research project "Afterlives of War: Combat Veterans’ Reintegration and Mental Health".
My research interests include anthropology of the body, sensory anthropology, health and wellbeing, kinship, childhood and visual methods.edit
ObjectivesTo explore the acceptability of regular asymptomatic testing for SARS-CoV-2 on a university campus using saliva sampling for PCR analysis and the barriers and facilitators to participation.DesignCross-sectional surveys and... more
ObjectivesTo explore the acceptability of regular asymptomatic testing for SARS-CoV-2 on a university campus using saliva sampling for PCR analysis and the barriers and facilitators to participation.DesignCross-sectional surveys and qualitative semistructured interviews.SettingEdinburgh, Scotland.ParticipantsUniversity staff and students who had registered for the testing programme (TestEd) and provided at least one sample.Results522 participants completed a pilot survey in April 2021 and 1750 completed the main survey (November 2021). 48 staff and students who consented to be contacted for interview took part in the qualitative research. Participants were positive about their experience with TestEd with 94% describing it as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’. Facilitators to participation included multiple testing sites on campus, ease of providing saliva samples compared with nasopharyngeal swabs, perceived accuracy compared with lateral flow devices (LFDs) and reassurance of test availability...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Background: In May 2020, the Scottish Government launched Test and Protect, a test, trace and isolate programme for COVID-19 that includes a PCR testing component. The programme’s success depended on the willingness of members of the... more
Background: In May 2020, the Scottish Government launched Test and Protect, a test, trace and isolate programme for COVID-19 that includes a PCR testing component. The programme’s success depended on the willingness of members of the public to seek out testing when they experienced symptoms and to comply with guidelines on isolation should they test positive.
Methods: Between 7 July and 24 September 2020, 70 semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of the general public (aged 19–85) living in the Lothian region of Scotland.
Findings: Social relationships and ethical considerations shape testing practices at every stage of the testing process. Members of the public viewed testing as a civic duty to society and moral duty to friends, family, and colleagues. However, the testing process also placed a significant social, economic, and practical burden on the individual and sometimes generated competing obligations. Many participants experienced a disconnect between the government’s portrayal of testing as easy and the everyday burden of testing.
Conclusions: COVID-19 testing is experienced as a social process shaped by multiple relationships and ethical considerations. The full burden of testing should be considered in the design of future testing programmes.
Methods: Between 7 July and 24 September 2020, 70 semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of the general public (aged 19–85) living in the Lothian region of Scotland.
Findings: Social relationships and ethical considerations shape testing practices at every stage of the testing process. Members of the public viewed testing as a civic duty to society and moral duty to friends, family, and colleagues. However, the testing process also placed a significant social, economic, and practical burden on the individual and sometimes generated competing obligations. Many participants experienced a disconnect between the government’s portrayal of testing as easy and the everyday burden of testing.
Conclusions: COVID-19 testing is experienced as a social process shaped by multiple relationships and ethical considerations. The full burden of testing should be considered in the design of future testing programmes.
Research Interests:
Testing programs for COVID-19 depend on the voluntary actions of members of the public for their success. Understanding people’s knowledge, attitudes, and behavior related to COVID-19 testing is, therefore, key to the design of effective... more
Testing programs for COVID-19 depend on the voluntary actions of members of the public for their success. Understanding people’s knowledge, attitudes, and behavior related to COVID-19 testing is, therefore, key to the design of effective testing programs worldwide. This paper reports on the findings of a rapid scoping review to map the extent, characteristics, and scope of social science research on COVID-19 testing and identifies key themes from the literature. Main findings include the discoveries that people are largely accepting of testing technologies and guidelines and that a sense of social solidarity is a key motivator of testing uptake. The main barriers to accessing and undertaking testing include uncertainty about eligibility and how to access tests, difficulty interpreting symptoms, logistical issues including transport to and from test sites and the discomfort of sample extraction, and concerns about the consequences of a positive result. The review found that existing ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are growing in popularity among young smokers in France seeking to reduce tobacco-induced harms without abandoning the small everyday pleasures and social relationships that unfold around smoking. But... more
Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are growing in popularity among young smokers in France seeking to reduce tobacco-induced harms without abandoning the small everyday pleasures and social relationships that unfold around smoking. But e-cigarettes raise ideological challenges: The World Health Organization and the French Agency for Safety of Medicine and Health Products (Agence Nationale de Sécurité du Médicament) have denied e-cigarettes the status of pharmaceutical substitution products in the cessation of smoking, while their possibilities for pleasure are seen as a threat by France’s public health council, the Haut Conseil de Santé Public. This paper discusses how different actors (policy makers, tobacco companies, and users themselves) have embraced this new technology. I argue that e-cigarettes have become a valued form of substitution precisely because they provide occasions for social bonding, gustatory pleasure, and the non-medicalized management of health with endless possibilities for individualized tailoring.
Research Interests: Anthropology, Medical Anthropology, Social Anthropology, Youth Studies, Ethnography, and 46 moreAddiction, Drugs And Addiction, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of the Body, Drugs and drug culture, Youth Culture, Sensory, Pleasure, Ethnography (Research Methodology), Medical Anthropology/ antropología médica, Anthropology of France, Anthropologie De Terrain, Sensory Ethnography, France, Anthropologie de la santé, Harm Reduction, Anthropology of Health and Illness, Youth, Drugs, Electronic Cigarettes, Smoking Cessation, Smoking, Nicotine, Anthropologie, Sociology and Anthropology, Smoking and Drug Rehabilitation, Nicotine Dependence, Tobacco Smoking, Quit Smoking, Ethnographie, Electronic Cigarette, Medical Anthropolgy, Nicotine Addiction, E-Cigarettes, Vaping, Anthropology of smoking, .Medical Anthropology, Visual and Sensory Anthropology, Sensory Anthropology, Anthropologie de la santé/ sociologie de la santé, Nicotine and Tobacco, Smoking and Health, Nicotine Replacement Therapy, Anthropology of Drug Use, Anthropologie du médicament, and Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems
Research Interests: Medical Anthropology, Addiction, Drugs And Addiction, Tobacco, Addiction and Recovery, and 19 moreTobacco Addiction, Electronic Cigarettes, Smoking Cessation, Tobacco Cessation, Smoking, Nicotine, Sociology of Smoking, Nicotine Dependence, Tobacco Smoking, Quit Smoking, Smokeless Cigarettes, Electronic Cigarette, Nicotine Addiction, E-Cigarettes, Anthropology of smoking, Visual and Sensory Anthropology, Sensory Anthropology, Cigarette-smoking, and Nicotine Replacement Therapy
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In her bold account of the contemporary “atmosphere” of cigarette smoking, Dennis suggests we escape anti/protobacco positionalities by “studying the war, rather than only taking up a place in the battle”. Writing against the grain of... more
In her bold account of the contemporary “atmosphere” of cigarette smoking, Dennis suggests we escape anti/protobacco positionalities by “studying the war, rather than only taking up a place in the battle”. Writing against the grain of approaches that seek to understand smokers’ practices to better regulate tobacco consumption, Dennis offers a phenomenological analysis of the lived experience of smoking itself.
Research Interests:
Presented at American Anthropological Association (AAA/CASCA) Annual Meeting: Changing Climates / Changer d'air. Vancouver, November 2019.
Research Interests:
This paper draws on ethnographic fieldwork with families and primary schools in Edinburgh to explore the changing meanings, agency and effects attributed to sugar in different spheres of everyday life. When embedded in social... more
This paper draws on ethnographic fieldwork with families and primary schools in Edinburgh to explore the changing meanings, agency and effects attributed to sugar in different spheres of everyday life. When embedded in social relationships, sugar can be made potent.
This conference paper explores the role of birthday cakes in dynamics of kinship and social relatedness ethnographically. What can birthday cakes tell us about the way people in Edinburgh relate to one another? What can birthday... more
This conference paper explores the role of birthday cakes in dynamics of kinship and social relatedness ethnographically. What can birthday cakes tell us about the way people in Edinburgh relate to one another? What can birthday celebrations tell us about sugar?