Vitalities Lab Newsletter Number 6

VITALITIES LAB NEWSLETTER

Number 6, 6 November 2019

The Vitalities Lab is led by SHARP Professor Deborah Lupton, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW Sydney. Team members are Dr Ashleigh Watson, Dr Clare Southerton and Dr Marianne Clark. Further details here.

 

New team member

The VLab welcomes a new team member: postdoctoral fellow Dr Marianne Clark (pictured below), who received her doctorate in human movement and social theory from the University of Alberta.

 

New Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence Research Grant

The ARC Centre of Excellence in Automated Decision-Making and Society, led by RMIT University, was announced in October. Deborah is one of the 18 Chief Investigators across this eight university centre. She will be leading the UNSW Node of the Centre, as well as the Health Focus Area, and will be a co-leader of the People Program. The Centre is funded from 2020 to 2026. More details are here.

New book

Deborah’s new book Data Selves: More-than-Human Perspectives was published in October. Further details of the book, including excerpts, can be found here.

Other new publications

Southerton, C., Damkjaer, M.S. and A. Albrechtslund (2019) Photo sharing as participatory surveillance. In Cultures of Participation: Arts, Digital Media and Cultural Institutions, Routledge.

Lupton, D. (2019) Toward a more-than-human approach to neurotechnologies. American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience, 10(4), 174-176.

Presentations/workshops

On 1 October the VLab hosted the ‘Re-imagining Personal Data’ workshop as a satellite event of the Association of Internet Researchers Conference, which was held later that week at QUT in Brisbane. Deborah convened the workshop with Annette Markham from Aarhus University and Larissa Hjorth from RMIT University. (Photo below shows a participant with one of the activities completed in the workshop.)

Clare was involved in two presentations at the Association of Internet Researchers Conference:

• Damkjaer, M. S., Southerton, C., and Albrechtslund A. ‘Relief from communication: Parental surveillance technologies, trust and care’ (photo from the presentation below).
• McCann, H. and Southerton, C. ‘Fangirls and fake news’.

Other activities

In October, Deborah travelled to Berlin for the first meeting of the The Lancet and Financial Times ‘Governing Health Futures 2030: Growing Up in a Digital World’ Commission. She and other commissioners, from peak international organisations such as the Red Cross, the World Health Organization, the OECD, the UN and UNICEF, are working on a report that is due for completion in 2021. The German Health Minister came to the meeting to discuss his country’s digital health initiatives – the photo below shows Deborah with the other commissioners and the Minister (in the middle).

Media appearances

• The photo sharing chapter co-authored by Clare was cited in a New York Times article about parents sharing photos of their children online.
• Deborah was quoted in a Sydney Morning Herald article about mothers’ use of smartphones and social media.

VLab visitors

We welcome Dr Jens Lindberg, Umea University, Sweden, visiting the VLab from 1 October 2019 to 31 August 2020 and doctoral student Mr Jordan Mackenzie, University of Stirling, Scotland, visiting from 5 November to 16 December 2019

Vitalities Lab Newsletter Number 5

VITALITIES LAB NEWSLETTER

Number 5, 11 September 2019

The Vitalities Lab is led by SHARP Professor Deborah Lupton, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW Sydney. Team members are Dr Ashleigh Watson and Dr Clare Southerton. Further details here.

New publications

• Maslen, S. and Lupton, D. (2019) ‘Keeping it real’: women’s enactments of lay health knowledges and expertise on Facebook. Sociology of Health & Illness, online first. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.12982
• Lupton, D. (2019) ‘The internet both reassures and terrifies’: exploring the more-than-human worlds of health information using the story completion method. Medical Humanities, online first. org/10.1136/medhum-2019-011700

Presentations/workshops

19 July: Ashleigh convened ‘Affect, Knowledge and Embodiment: A Critical Feminist Arts/Research Workshop’ at the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Griffith University, Brisbane, with Dr Laura Rodriguez Castro (Griffith) and Sam Trayhurn (WSU).  Information about the workshop and copies of the zine can be found here.

14 August: Deborah gave an invited seminar presentation on her digital health research for the School of Public Health & Community Medicine, UNSW Sydney.

14 August: Deborah gave an invited lecture and a workshop, both on using social theory in a thesis, for the Arts & Social Sciences HDR student conference, UNSW Sydney.

19 August: Deborah gave an invited presentation to the UNSW Sydney Pioneers alumni association about her research on digital health.

5 September: Clare gave a presentation on her chapter (co-authored with Miranda Bruce) about intimacies and the impersonal in ‘Black Mirror’, published in the edited volume Social Beings, Future Belongings (Routledge) at the book launch, ANU, Canberra. Her presentation and others at the launch can be viewed here.

 

9 September: Ashleigh ran a zine-making workshop at the Vitalities Lab on the theme of ‘algorithmic micropolitics’. A blog post about the workshop and the zine itself that was collaboratively made by participants can be found here.

10 September: Deborah gave an invited presentation at the ‘Bioethics Colloquium’, convened by UNSW and the South East Sydney Local Health District Clinical Ethics Service

Call for submissions: So Fi Zine

Ashleigh has launched the call for submissions for So Fi Zine edition #6 – So Fi Zine is a sociological fiction zine for arts-based research, creative sociology, and art inspired by social science. The zine publishes short stories, poetry, photography, photo essays, cartoons, and other creative works. Edition #6 will be published in November 2019 and is inspired by Deborah Lupton’s digital, creative, more-than-human and future oriented research. Pieces are invited that creatively explore sociological futures: bodies, spaces, disciplines and things. Submission info and previous edition of the zine can be found here.

 

 

Media appearances

• Deborah wrote an article for The Conversation on portrayals of heart disease in the popular media. She did follow-up interviews on ABC Sydney, Melbourne and Far South Coast radio
• Deborah’s research on people’s use of digital health was quoted in an ABC Life online article about health apps

Vitalities Lab Newsletter Number 4

 

VITALITIES LAB NEWSLETTER

Number 4, 2 August 2019

The Vitalities Lab is led by SHARP Professor Deborah Lupton, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW Sydney. Further details here.

New Lab members

In July, the Vitalities Lab welcomed two new postdoctoral fellows: Dr Ashleigh Watson (left) and Dr Clare Southerton.

Ashleigh will be working on a new ARC Discovery Project ‘Living with Personal Data: Australians’ Understandings and Practices’ with Deborah and Mike Michael, University of Exeter. This project now has its own website, which can be found here. It will be regularly updated with news about the project findings, the methods we are experimenting with and lists of readings we are engaging with.

New publications

• Lupton, D. (2019) Australian women’s use of health and fitness apps and wearable devices: a feminist new materialism analysis. Feminist Media Studies, online first. doi:10.1080/14680777.2019.1637916
• Fitzpatrick, K., Leahy, D., Webber, M., Gilbert, J., Lupton, D. and Aggleton, P. (2019) Critical health education studies: reflections on a new conference and this themed symposium. Health Education Journal, online first. org/10.1177/0017896919860882

New grant

Deborah is one of an international team of researchers who has been awarded a network support grant by the Swedish  Foundation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, led by Martin Berg at Malmo University, Sweden. The network will convene activities related to the topic of ‘Re-humanising automated decision making’. Further details are here.

Presentations/workshops

Ashleigh ran a creative methods workshop on Affect, Knowledge and Embodiment at Griffith University, Brisbane, 19 July.  Details of the workshop and the zine created there can be viewed and downloaded here.

Ashleigh will be leading another zine making workshop at the Vitalities Lab on the topic of algorithmic identities in September. She will also be contributing to a TASA workshop on Creativity and Methodological Innovation in the Sociology of Familial and Intimate Relationships to be held 29 November: details are here.

Media appearances

Deborah was quoted in article in Bustle magazine on digital technology designed for women: https://www.bustle.com/p/is-the-rise-of-femtech-a-good-thing-for-women-heres-what-the-experts-think-17993009

Deborah did an interview for ABC Radio Gold Coast about her research on health and fitness apps and wearable devices (9 July)

Upcoming events

Deborah is an invited speaker at the TASA Health Day event on Data, Technology and Sociology in the Age of Digital Health: details are here

Vitalities Lab Newsletter Number 3

 

VITALITIES LAB NEWSLETTER

Number 3, 25 June 2019

The Vitalities Lab is led by SHARP Professor Deborah Lupton, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW Sydney. Further details here.

New Publications

1. Lupton, D. (2019) ‘I’d like to think you could trust the government, but I don’t really think we can’: Australian women’s attitudes to and experiences of My Health Record. Digital Health, 5, online, available at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2055207619847017

Presentations

13 May: Deborah was the convenor and one of the panel speakers at the UNSW Grand Challenges Event ‘Shaping our digital future’. The event was chaired by Matthew Kearnes, UNSW Sydney, and the two other panel members were Sarah Pink, Monash University, and Amanda Third, Western Sydney University (pictured below, with Amanda seated between Deborah and Sarah).

 

11 June 2019: Deborah gave a keynote at the Digitally Engaged Patient conference, University of Copenhagen

13 June 2019: Deborah gave a seminar presentation at King’s College, London

13 June 2019: Deborah gave a seminar presentation at the London School of Economics

14 June 2019: Deborah gave a keynote at the Surveillance in the 21^st Century early career workshop, Royal Holloway University of London (the Founder’s Building at Royal Holloway is pictured above).

Workshops

In May, Deborah held two workshops at UNSW Sydney on using image cards for social research. Her reflections on the workshops and methods can be found here.

Media Appearances

Deborah was quoted about her research on My Health Record in for an article published in Government News: https://www.governmentnews.com.au/government-too-incompetent-for-digital-health/

Deborah was quoted about her research on fat politics in SBS ‘The Feed’ online: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/man-asked-to-move-from-emergency-exit-seat-claims-he-was-fat-shamed

Deborah was quoted in an article on fitness trackers in the New Zealand Listener news and current affairs magazine (8 June edition)

Other News

Deborah published a short document collecting together six of her popular blog posts providing tips and advice for successful academic research. The PDF can be accessed here.

With co-editor Zeena Feldman, Deborah completed work on their edited volume Digital Food Cultures for Routledge’s Critical Food Studies book series. The book is now in production and will be published in early 2020.

Vitalities Lab Newsletter Number 2

VITALITIES LAB NEWSLETTER

Number 2, 29 April 2019

The Vitalities Lab is led by SHARP Professor Deborah Lupton, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW Sydney. Further details here.

New Publications

• Lupton, D. (2019) Towards a more-than-human analysis of digital health: inspirations from feminist new materialism. Qualitative Health Research, online first. doi.org/10.1177/1049732319833368
• Maslen, S. and Lupton, D. (2019) Enacting chronic illness with and through digital media: a feminist new materialist approach. Information, Communication and Society, online first. doi: 1080/1369118X.2019.1602665
• Lupton, D. and Leahy, D. (2019) Reimagining digital health education: the critical pedagogical and research possibilities of storyboarding. Health Educational Journal, doi:1177/0017896919841413
• Lupton, D. (2019) ‘It’s made me a lot more aware’: a new materialist analysis of health self-tracking. Media International Australia, doi:org/10.1177/1329878X19844042

 

Presentations

 

Deborah speaking at the CSRH seminar series

• Deborah Lupton: ‘The internet both reassures and terrifies’: using the story completion method for health research. Presentation for the Centre for Social Research in Health Seminar Series, 2 April 2019
• Deborah Lupton: ‘”Smart” health promotion: a perspective from digital sociology’. Invited presentation at a sub-plenary on smart health promotion, International Union for Health Promotion and Education World Conference, Rotorua, New Zealand, 10 April 2019
• Deborah Lupton: ‘The more-than-human worlds of self-tracking for health and fitness’. Keynote at the World Congress of the Sociology of Sport, Dunedin, New Zealand, 24 April 2019

The campus at the University of Dunedin, where Deborah gave a keynote

 

Upcoming events

• 6 May: Deborah will be holding a  Vitalities Lab in-house pop-up methods workshop using the ‘New Metaphors’ inspiration cards
• 7 May: Deborah is presenting a workshop on ‘Increasing your academic visibility’. Registration is free and open to all. Further details here.
• 13 May: Deborah is the convenor and one of the panel speakers at the UNSW Grand Challenges Event ‘Shaping our digital future’. Registration is free and open to all. Further details here.

Opportunities

• The Vitalities Lab has a doctoral research stipend worth $30,000 annually for four years for a domestic candidate who meets UNSW Sydney requirements for doctoral admission and wishes to pursue a project related to the Lab’s research directions. Contact Deborah Lupton (d.lupton@unsw.edu.au for further details).
• Research practicums are also available for international doctoral students who are pursuing their studies at a university outside Australia to spend a period of time as a visiting researcher at the Vitalities Lab under Deborah Lupton’s supervision. Tuition fees apply. Further details are available here.

 

Vitalities Lab Newsletter Number 1

The Vitalities Lab’s first newsletter is available here: VLab Newsletter 1.