Sex, Health and the Clinic
What was fundamentally invisible is suddenly offered to the brightness of the gaze, in a movement of appearance so simple, so immediate that it seems to be the natural consequence of a more highly developed experience. |
Centre staff run a vibrant research program in the broad area of Sex, Health and the Clinic. Of central interest are the ways discourses of medicine and science define, shape and confine embodied experiences of health, gender and citizenship. Based on empirically grounded research into pressing health issues such as addiction, obesity, reproduction and hepatitis C, these projects draw on innovative theoretical and methodological approaches. In part they critically examine how contemporary assumptions about responsibility and agency are being applied to health outcomes, and the effects these expectations have on health service delivery, policy and individual social actors. The projects are also part of broader critical dialogue on a range of issues including the role of science as the 'gold standard' discourse of truth in Western societies, and the action of matter (drugs, viruses, clinical paraphernalia and so on) in helping shape culture, bodies and subjectivities.
For further information on these projects, follow the links below or contact the first named chief investigators listed.
- Childhood obesity: mothers, children and liberal public health
Dr Suzanne Fraser, Dr JaneMaree Maher, Professor Jan Wright
2009 – 2011 - The technological determinants of gambling-related harms in Australia
Dr Mark Davis, Dr Suzanne Fraser, Professor Shane White
2009-2012 - Under construction: the social and cultural politics of hepatitis C in Australia
Dr Suzanne Fraser, Associate Professor Carla Treloar, Associate Professor David Moore
2007-2010 - Substitution, enhancement, autonomy: making treatment regimes with methadone and HRT
Dr Suzanne Fraser, Dr kylie valentine, Dr Celia Roberts
2006-2007 - Injecting practice between sexual partners who use injecting drugs
Dr Suzanne Fraser, Dr Max Hopwood, Dr Joanne Bryant, Dr Carla Treloar
2007-2009 - The reproducing body: women, birth, pain and time
Dr JaneMaree Maher
2006-2007 - Comparing the role of takeaways in methadone maintenance treatment in New South Wales and Victoria
Dr Suzanne Fraser, Dr Carla Treloar, Professor Susan Kippax, Dr Alex Wodak
2004-2008 - Gestating generations
Dr JaneMaree Maher and Dr Kay Torney Souter
2002-2005
 Suzanne Fraser |
“Medical knowledge is a key tool we use to understand ourselves today. Whether we see ourselves as healthy or unhealthy, active or sedentary, at risk of developing particular conditions or not, we’re always invited to define our habits, choices and experiences from the point of view of public health concepts and medical knowledge. The ubiquity of medical perspectives, and their connection with ideas of virtue and normality, make them hugely influential. I find researching medical knowledges and discourses of health absolutely fascinating for the insights it can offer on daily life, gender norms, stigma and the forces under which health policy and health services are formulated and delivered.” |