Alexandra Gibson
Ally Gibson is a research fellow in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine (SPHCM) at UNSW Sydney, Australia. She is primarily involved in co-ordinating the Qualitative Research Network Hub in SPHCM, a new initiative providing expertise in qualitative research methodology to staff and students through consultation services, seminars, and workshops.
Ally has ten years' experience conducting a range of qualitative research projects relating to health, illness, and the practice of medicine. She is particularly interested in: people's experience and responses to pressing health challenges or global health risks (e.g., antimicrobial resistance, cancer); sexual and reproductive health; issues of gender, sexuality and identity; concerns and experiences of inequity, marginalisation, and vulnerability in health.
Ally welcomes the opportunity to share knowledge and experience in conducting qualitative research in health. She has presented widely on different forms of data collection (e.g. interviews, focus groups, visual methods) and methods of analysis (with particular expertise in discourse analysis and discursive psychology).
She has published across the areas of sociology, infectious diseases, health psychology, women's health, and nursing. Her primary aim in research is to critically analyse understandings and experiences of health, illness and health care, in order to tackle global health concerns affecting society today.
Ally currently holds an honourary research fellow position at the University of Queensland. She is also the co-convenor for The Australian Sociological Association Health Thematic Group and is an Early Career Representative for the International Society of Critical Health Psychology. She is interested in collaborating with advocates, practitioners, and other researchers in health.
Ally has ten years' experience conducting a range of qualitative research projects relating to health, illness, and the practice of medicine. She is particularly interested in: people's experience and responses to pressing health challenges or global health risks (e.g., antimicrobial resistance, cancer); sexual and reproductive health; issues of gender, sexuality and identity; concerns and experiences of inequity, marginalisation, and vulnerability in health.
Ally welcomes the opportunity to share knowledge and experience in conducting qualitative research in health. She has presented widely on different forms of data collection (e.g. interviews, focus groups, visual methods) and methods of analysis (with particular expertise in discourse analysis and discursive psychology).
She has published across the areas of sociology, infectious diseases, health psychology, women's health, and nursing. Her primary aim in research is to critically analyse understandings and experiences of health, illness and health care, in order to tackle global health concerns affecting society today.
Ally currently holds an honourary research fellow position at the University of Queensland. She is also the co-convenor for The Australian Sociological Association Health Thematic Group and is an Early Career Representative for the International Society of Critical Health Psychology. She is interested in collaborating with advocates, practitioners, and other researchers in health.
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dealing with the illness and remaining vigilant for recurrence. We discuss how this neoliberal approach can be empowering, but also has the effect of positioning women as primarily responsible for managing their health and their illness.
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dealing with the illness and remaining vigilant for recurrence. We discuss how this neoliberal approach can be empowering, but also has the effect of positioning women as primarily responsible for managing their health and their illness.
Method. We conducted telephone interviews with 27 (lesbian, rural, and/or ‘culturally diverse’) women across Australia about their experiences of having breast cancer, what meanings they attached to the experience, and what sources of support they drew on during this illness. Interviews were analysed using narrative-discursive analysis, with the aim of identifying common and divergent ways that women discursively constructed and negotiated their experiences.
Results. In preliminary analysis of the interviews, it is clear that women identified to varying degrees with common western constructions of breast cancer, such as the “breast cancer survivor” position and as members of the breast cancer community. Whilst some describe support and benefits from breast cancer services, many construct narratives which highlight the particular difficulties and limitations that women from ‘diverse’ backgrounds experience in trying to gain the support they need.
Conclusion. Women’s breast cancer experiences are more nuanced than is commonly portrayed in western society. This is highlighted through the accounts of women who come from a range of backgrounds and who, at times, have had to negotiate their cancer in relation to their cultural background, sexual identity, and geographical locations in Australian society.
Firstly, we use a multimodal critical discourse analysis of Australian breast cancer websites to highlight some of the discourses that shape information and support services, and demonstrate the limited space made available for women from diverse backgrounds. In this, we particularly consider information aimed at lesbians and culturally diverse and Indigenous women. As we show, the information aimed at lesbians is limited to one paragraph, in which lesbians are positioned as the 'other' to heterosexuals, and all visual material depicts only heterosexual couples. The information aimed at Indigenous women and women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (depicted through photographs and images) focuses on the issue of 'breast awareness'. Cultural beliefs are constructed as being a barrier to early detection; however, this message is aimed at well women, to be 'aware' of breast cancer. Further, there is no information regarding the specific difficulties that women might face in having to access treatment in another language or how they might deal with such issues. This website analysis serves to highlight the gaps that need to be addressed in the way that breast cancer information and services are presented by breast cancer organisations and how they might be more inclusive.
Secondly, we discursively analyse interviews with 27 women across Australia who identify as lesbian, culturally or linguistically diverse, or living in a rural/remote area. This study is currently under way, with the purpose of understanding how women who come from a range of backgrounds experience breast cancer and negotiate dominant cultural constructions of the illness.
Methods: The websites of four Australian breast cancer organisations were analysed using multimodal discourse analysis.
Results: The websites were analysed for the ways in which they construct breast cancer within the framework of the pink ribbon culture. The websites were additionally assessed for the positionings that they made available to women with breast cancer.
Conclusions: This study illuminates how the pink ribbon culture operates within the Australian context, and demonstrates the ways in which breast cancer organisations might overlook certain groups of women with breast cancer."