Doing Research in Cultural Studies: An Introduction to Classical and Newer Methodological Approaches

`This book is a goldmine for students…it is brilliantly conceptualized and brilliantly executed. With this book cultural studies finally comes of age methodologically′ - Professor Norman K Denzin, Institute of Communications Research, University of Illinois

Doing Research in Cultural Studies outlines the key methodological approaches to the study of lived experience, texts and social contexts within the field of cultural studies. It offers a comprehensive discussion of classical methodologies and introduces the reader to more contemporary debates that have argued for new ethnographic, poststructuralist and multi-scape research methods. Through a detailed yet concise explanation, the reader is shown how these methodologies work and how their outcomes may be interpreted.

Key features of the book include:

- An innovative framework - combining different methodologies and approaches.

- A variety of `real-life′ examples and case studies - enriches the book for the reader

- A set of practical exercises in each chapter - pedagogical and student-focused throughout.

The book has a flowing narrative and student-friendly structure which make it accessible to and popular with students, while the discussion of fresh approaches makes it also of interest to experienced researchers. It contains all the ingredients necessary to help the reader attain a solid grasp of analytical and practical challenges to doing effective research in cultural studies today.

I have a long-term research interest in how the lived experience of our body/self is mediated by institutions (medicine, media) and social regimes and contexts. My research focuses on issues of health, medicine, psychiatry and science. In addition to studying experience I have conducted historiographic research, media analysis and interviewed experts, such as scientists, clinicians and policy-makers. Recently my research has focused on health and lifestyle, both in terms of healthy lifestyle and lifestyle-related diseases and in terms of medicine become more like “lifestyle” i.e. blending into consumer culture. I have recently completed two research projects. One, funded by the Department of Health, on primary prevention of heart disease, which consisted of a qualitative follow-up study on healthy individuals at risk of heart disease in the aftermath of an intervention. The other study, funded by the Wellcome Trust, focused on nutrigenomics, a new scientific discipline, which seeks to harness genetics to improve healthy diet and consisted of analysing new biotech companies in the area as well as interviews with scientists and policy makers. I have also conducted interviews with individuals with a genetic susceptibility to deep vein thrombosis. Currently I am working to compile my work in this area into a monograph. For the past fifteen years I have also studied eating disorders, particularly anorexia. I have published a monograph The Anorexic Self (State University of New York (SUNY) Press, 2008), which critically investigates how the “disordered” anorexic self is configured in psychiatry, media and social sciences and how this discourse is lived by women diagnosed as anorexic or bulimic. I continue publishing and working in this area, also with PhD students. My work has a strong methodological focus, and I have published a book Doing Research in Cultural Studies (Sage, 2003), which lays out how to examine the lived, discursive and material dimensions of reality. I am a member of the British Sociological Association, Society for the Social Studies of Science and currently convene our local North and East Midlands Medical Sociology Group. I supervise, and I am interested in supervising, PhD students in the area of health, medicine and innovative qualitative methodologies. I have a first degree in journalism and mass communication from the University of Tampere, Finland, and for a short while I worked as a professional political reporter. I have a PhD in Communications from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, which was funded by a Fullbright studentship as well U of I. Prior to starting in Loughborough in 2007 I have worked at the University of Exeter and University of Leicester, both in the UK.