ANU Sociologist recognised at TASA 2019

ANU sociologist Dr Katherine Carroll has been recognised at the 2019 Australian Sociological Association (TASA) Conference in Sydney.

Dr Katherine Carroll, a Research Fellow in the ANU School of Sociology received the 2019 Sociology in Action Award, recognising the impact in medical and health service delivery across Australia and the United States of her research involving video-reflexive ethnography (VRE). The research, in collaboration with health care professionals, uses VRE to assess practitioner methods and patient experiences, to better understand and improve healthcare processes.

Accepting the award at the conference dinner, Dr Carroll recognised the importance of this collaboration by a great variety of people and the resulting changes patients will experience.

"In my acceptance speech I thanked the clinicians, patients and family members who collaborated in all my VRE research to date, and accepted the award on behalf of the growing global VRE research community, including the clinicians, patients and families who took part in the research over the years and those who went on to make significant changes to their practices in healthcare delivery as a result."

Also recognised at the TASA Conference was Brydan Lenne, a PhD Candidate co-supervised by Dr Carroll, Professor Catherine Waldby, Director of the Research School of Social Sciences at ANU and Associate Professor Melinda Cooper at University of Sydney. A research assistant at University of Sydney, Brydan received the 2019 Jean Martin Award for the best PhD thesis in the Social Sciences in Australia (2017-2019). Her thesis used VRE to understand the clinical expeirneces for autism spectrum disorders.