Dr Claire Tanner

Email: claire.tanner@unimelb.edu.au	Phone: 3 8344 4000	View page

Research Overview

Dr Tanner is interested in the sociology of science, the body and health. Her research is focused on enhancing understanding of people’s health experiences and the interventions and technologies they turn to for help, especially for those living with serious health and medical conditions. This work aims to identify barriers to effective support in different healthcare populations, and to enhance understanding of the interconnected ways attitudes, relationships and expectations impact on health practices and decision-making. Claire’s work aims to contribute to the development of more effective and ethical policy and regulatory interventions and healthcare services to directly support people, families and carers managing critical and chronic health conditions.

Funding

ARC Discovery Project 2016-2018 (DP160100257), Children as health advocates in families: assessing the consequences, with Prof JaneMaree Maher, Prof Jan Wright, Prof Jo Lindsay and Dr Deana Leahy

Move Australia (previously Arthritis Vic): Improving patient information about autologous stem cell treatments for muscle, bone and joint health

Research Publications

2017 - Journal Articles Refereed

‘No one here’s helping me, what do you do?’: Addressing patient need for support and advice about stem cell treatments. Regenerative Medicine, 12(7), 791–801. DOI: 10.2217/rme-2017-0056

University students’ drinking as a social practice and the challenge for public health. Critical Public Health,  27(2), 228-37.

2017 – Authored Book Chapters

‘Big promise, big business: the socio-cultural and regulatory dynamics of stem cell tourism’ in C. Hauskeller, A. Manzeschke & A. Pichl (Eds.), The Matrix of Stem Cell Research Revisited, Abington: Taylor & Francis Books. (In press)

‘Becoming a ‘successful’ drinker and a graduate: A sociological perspective on alcohol consumption by university students’ in V. Preedy (Ed.) The Neuroscience of Alcohol: Mechanisms and Treatment, Cambridge (US): Academic Press (Elsevier). (In press)

2016 - Authored Research Books

Stem Cell Tourism and the Political Economy of Hope, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

2015 - Journal Articles Refereed

“My dirty little habit”: Patient constructions of antidepressant use and the ‘crisis’ of legitimacy.  Social Science & Medicine,  146, 53-61.

Between hope and evidence: How community advisors demarcate the boundary between legitimate and illegitimate stem cell treatments.  Health, 19(2), 188-206.

Mothers caring through injury: how can we understand the dual burden of caregivers’ recovery?  Journal of Family Studies, 21(1), 72-86.

Social class, anxieties and mothers’ foodwork.  Sociology of Health and Illness, 37(3), 422-436.

Starting antidepressant use: a qualitative synthesis of UK and Australian data.  BMJ Open,  5:e008636. DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-0086