Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

My research examines how medical education shapes what counts as knowledge in medicine. Working at the interface of Sociology and Health Professions Education, I explore how biomedical, social and experiential knowledge are organised and negotiated in the education of doctors. A central focus of this work is the persistence of knowledge hierarchies within professional education, where biomedical knowledge often carries greater epistemic authority than sociological or experiential forms of knowledge. Drawing on the sociology of knowledge and activity theory, my research first, analyses how educational practices — such as curriculum design, teaching, assessment and policy frameworks — reproduce or challenge these hierarchies and shape efforts to integrate different knowledge traditions within medical curricula. Second I explore the possibilities for epistemic transformation through processes of knowledge integration and the inclusion of experiential patient knowledge within medical education. I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students interested in the organisation of knowledge in medical education and related areas such as knowledge hierarchies, interdisciplinary knowledge integration, the medical humanities, sociological perspectives on medical curricula, activity theory in health professions education, and patient and public knowledge in professional training.