Sushila Chowdhry
PhD Student
Address
- Street
-
Medical Quad, Teviot Place
- City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH8 9AG
Background
I have a background in community and public health nursing, counselling, further education and higher education teaching. My public health and counselling background have inspired my current interest in sociologies of the body and narrative research which are at the heart of my doctoral research. Whilst working as a full-time further education lecturer I graduated from University of Dundee in 2012 with an MSc in Applied Professional Studies. My Master’s research critically explored the ways in which female further education lecturers use emotion in relation to student achievement. The completion of my MSc led to two successful single author academic publications critically examining the uses of emotion in contemporary neoliberal contexts.
Teaching
Along with my PhD study, I also currently work within higher and further education contexts. Teaching roles within higher education include teaching PhD students on the Learning Enhancement and Development Skills programme at Heriot-Watt University. The Programme is accredited by the Higher Education Academy and enables students to gain the status of Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Recent employment within HE includes teaching as an Associate lecturer at Abertay University.
My teaching roles within the further education sector spans courses within healthcare, social care, and counselling studies. My areas of expertise include applied psychology and sociology for healthcare, counselling theories (humanistic and psychodynamic), healthcare practice (reflective practice, professionalism and ethics), mental health care, group-counselling skills, and counselling supervision.
I am also involved with the Scottish Graduate School for Social Science as a Student Representative and will be co-facilitating a session at the 2016 Summer School entitled: ‘Women in academia: focussing on the doctoral experience’.
Project activity
Dangerous stories at work: ‘High-risk’ pregnancy in the context of larger women’s maternal healthcare (Working title)
Having a large body during pregnancy is believed to be associated with a range of potential complications for both mother and baby, and therefore, such pregnancies are classified as ‘high-risk’. Because of the ‘high-risk’- status of the pregnancy women find themselves faced with a range of additional screening tests and associated health interventions. Having a large body renders a person open to societal critical commentary making it more difficult for larger people to have their experiences and feelings taken seriously. This is particularly so within medical spaces where large bodies are often understood as ‘deviant and troublesome’. My doctoral project aims to explore the experience of being pregnant and receiving maternity care as a larger woman, providing a space for the women’s experiences to be understood through analysis of the stories they tell about being pregnant in the context of maternal healthcare.
My research is supervised by Dr Rosie Stenhouse (Principle Supervisor) and Dr Marion Smith (Second Supervisor).