Previous Events

Upcoming Seminar

Dr Elena Vaughan - 'Stigma Habitus: symbolic and structural violence in the reproduction of HIV-related stigma in Ireland'

Tuesday February 25th, 1.00pm - 2.00pm, (light lunch 12.30pm), G065, School of Psychology, NUI Galway

The Health Behaviour Change Research Group, HRB Primary Care Clinical Trials Network Ireland, the Health Promotion Research Centre and PPI Ignite @ NUI Galway are running a Spring 2020 joint seminar series to highlight research in the area of population health and health services. The seminars will take place on Tuesday February 25^th, Thursday March 19^th, Thursday April 23^rd and Tuesday May 26^th  at 1pm in G065, the School of Psychology. All are welcome to attend, and a light lunch will be served from 12.30pm.

We are delighted that Dr Elena Vaughan will deliver the first seminar next Tuesday 25^th February at 1pm, on the topic of ‘Stigma Habitus: symbolic and structural violence in the reproduction of HIV-related stigma in Ireland’. 

Dr Elena Vaughan is a post-doctoral researcher in the Health Promotion Research Centre in NUI Galway. Her PhD research investigated HIV-related stigma in Ireland. Specifically her work explored the relationship between media driven discourses of HIV and the embodied and enacted stigma experiences of people living with HIV in Ireland. Her research interests include health inequalities, HIV and sexual health, LGBT health, health-related stigmas and other social and structural determinants of health.

Increasingly, health scholarship is recognising that stigma is a significant social determinant of health, acting as a barrier to accessing screening and care, adherence to treatment and, engagement with services (Stangl et al., 2019). Though by no means a new phenomenon, scholarly interest in stigma as a driver of health inequalities has grown exponentially since Goffman’s (1963) seminal work ‘Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity.’

As Tyler (2018) has argued however, scholarship on stigma ‘…often side-lines questions about where stigma is produced, by whom and for what purposes’ (p. 721). Similarly, Parker and Aggleton (2003) have called for research that interrogates ‘the social, cultural, political and economic determinants and consequences of stigmatization’ (p. 20).

In response to such calls, Dr Elena Vaughan conducted research on HIV-related stigma in Ireland in order to explore the processes involved in the reproduction of stigma. Drawing on the findings from her work this seminar will explore health-related stigma through a Bourdieuian lens, offering a re-conceptualisation of the stigma process that acknowledges the constitutive roles of discourse, culture and power in determining health outcomes (Green & Labonte, 2008).

Upcoming Seminar Schedule – Save the dates!

• Thursday March 19^th Prof Michel Wensing, Implementation Science in Health- still much to do
• Thursday April 23^rd Dr Nancy Santesso, Engagement of Key Stakeholders in Evidence Synthesis
• Tuesday May 26^th Robert A. Joyce & Sinéad M. Hynes Five positive outcomes from integrating PPI in our research: experiences from a feasibility trial in Multiple Sclerosis (COB-MS)