Winter 2019

**Please note that the seminar originally scheduled for February 12th has been cancelled.

Troubling ruling discourses of health:

Teaching, doing, and writing institutional ethnographies

Speakers: Drs. Fiona Webster (IHPME, University of Toronto) and Eric Mykhalovskiy (Sociology, York University), and Colin Hastings (PhD Candidate, Sociology, York University)
Time: Friday, March 22nd, 2019, 12:00pm-1:30pm
Location: HS 208, 155 College St.

Abstract: Institutional ethnography (IE) is an approach to the sociological investigation of ruling relations that has become popular in health and health sciences research in Canada and beyond. Drawing on their experiences of teaching and doing institutional ethnographic research in multiple settings, the speakers in this panel reflect on the following questions:

What is IE research and what makes it critical?
What is the relationship of IE to other traditions of social inquiry?
What characteristic challenges do institutional ethnographers face in seeking out funding, carrying our research, and publishing findings?
What challenges are faced teaching IE to diverse groups of students?
What is the future of IE research on health and health care?

Don’t mind the mess:

Reflections on doing a Foucauldian discourse analysis of pandemic influenza news coverage

Speaker: Dr. Laena Maunula (2017-18 Dissertation Award Honourable Mention)
Time: Tuesday, April 23, 12:00pm-1:30pm
Location: HS 208, 155 College Street

Abstract: Foucauldian discourse analysis is characterised not by a prescribed set of analytic steps, but rather by using Foucauldian theoretical frames which lead to asking certain questions rather than others. Drawing from a study of risk discourses within H1N1 coverage in the Canadian print news media, in this session I reflect on the methodological ‘messiness’ of Foucauldian discourse analysis, with a special focus on generating a meaningful yet manageable study sample from news media data.