Julie Ellis

BA (Hons) Sociology (University of Sheffield)
MA Sociological Research (University of Sheffield)

email : j.c.ellis@sheffield.ac.uk

Thesis title / scope of research

The main aim of my project is to explore how everyday family life carries on and gets `done´ over a period of time when someone within the family has a life-threatening or terminal illness. By conducting in-depth interviews with family members and carrying out participant observation on a hospice ward, I will seek to understand how practices and processes of family life are negotiated at this time. The motivation I have for understanding family life in the context of terminal illness can be traced back to my direct involvement with patients and their families during periods of voluntary work within a hospice and as a bereavement support worker.

The project is funded by the ESRC.

Supervisor(s)

• Professor Jenny Hockey
• Professor Allison James

Other experience / research interests

My research interests include:
• Death, dying and bereavement
• Families, relatedness and intimacy
• Emotions
• The body
• Medical sociology; health and illness
• Representation, narratives and story-telling
• Gender, and feminist methodology
• Qualitative methods/ methodologies