Explore every episode of the podcast The Operative Word

In this sixth episode of Volume Two, Tracy Morison and Siobhán Healy-Cullen (Massey University, New Zealand) talk with Professor Catriona Macleod (Rhodes University, South Africa), a leader in feminist health psychology. Catriona reflects on doing socially engaged work in South Africa as “emotionally hard but intellectually productive”; navigating institutions, including funding bodies (!), that don’t always value critical work, and; work-life “balance” in an academic context focused on metricisation.

Catriona works on the Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction research programme, and is engaged with multidisciplinary research projects related to sexuality and reproduction.

You can read more about her work and career here:

Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction research programme at Rhodes University: https://www.ru.ac.za/criticalstudies/⁠

Catriona’s ISCHP career file: ⁠https://ischp.net/2019/04/15/career-file-catriona-macleod/

In this fifth episode of Volume Two, Tracy Morison andSiobhán Healy-Cullen sit down with Professor Christine Stephens (Massey University), one of the founding ISCHP members. Christine reflects on her research journey, how the research landscape has changed for ECRs, her experience ofdoing applied work, and the importance of community.

Christine co-leads the The Health and Ageing Research Team (HART) team, an interdisciplinary group of researchers doing research projects related to health and ageing in AotearoaNew Zealand. The HART team run a longitudinal study of ageing that has been following older New Zealanders and their quality of life in work and retirement since 2006. 

You can read more about her work and career here:

• http:\\hart.massey.ac.nz
• https://www.massey.ac.nz/about/news/massey-professors-receive-onzm-for-pioneering-work-in-health-psychology-and-aging-studies/
• https://ischp.net/2019/03/15/career-file-christine-stephens/

In this fourth episode of Volume Two, Ally Gibson and Siobhán Healy-Cullen sit down with Ian Lubek. Ian reflects on his research journey, and looks back on receiving the ISCHP Lifetime Impact with Communities Award (2023). Ian is an adjunct professor at the University of Guelph, Canada. For over 25 years Ian and the NGO he formed, SirCHESI, have used community-based participatory action research to with women in Siem Reap (near Angkor Wat Cambodia) involved as beer sellers and hostesses at entertainment venues. The aims of this community-driven work were to: 1) counter customers’ pressures to engage in unprotected sex, 2) gain training to move on to safer hotel work, and 3) become peer educators to help others keep safe (by using condoms). In 2000, when they started this action research, the prevalence of HIV was 25%; this was reduced to 1% by 2012. Ian helped build and fund the local NGO and assisted in forming a union that empowered locals and doubled salaries. You can read more about Ian's work here:

https://news.uoguelph.ca/2013/01/research-helps-reduce-hivaids-in-siem-reap/

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1359105313500253

This episode was recorded by Brett Scholz, with WendyStainton-Rogers.

In this third episode of Volume Two, Wendy looks back on receiving the ISCHP lifetime achievement award (2023), shares her plans for (more!) book-writing, reflects on q-methodology as a ‘boutique method’, and reminiscesabout memorable conference moments (including a story about the infamous water pistols!).

You can read more about Wendy and her work at the following links:

• https://ischp.net/2016/09/05/proffile-wendy-stainton-rogers/

• https://ischp.net/2023/09/11/2023-ischp-award-winners/
• https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Wendy-Stainton-Rogers

This episode was recorded by Brett Scholz, with Gareth Treharne.

In this second episode of Volume Two, Gareth reflects on his research and teaching, his experiences of attending ISCHP conferences, and his term as ISCHP chair.

This episode was recorded by Brett Scholz, Ally Gibson, and Andrea LaMarre.

Kicking off Volume Two, Kerry Chamberlain shares his experience witnessing the creation of ISCHP. He discusses how the society came to be what is is today and what he sees as the challenges and future for qualitative research in health psychology.

We are thrilled to announce that volume two of our ISCHP podcast, The Operative Word is about to kick off!  We will hear from core and foundational members of ISCHP, honouring their invaluable contributions to the field. Join us as we unravel the complexities that shape how critical health psychologists understand health and wellbeing. Episode One will be released at the beginning of March.

In the 6th and final(!) Issue of Volume 1 of The Operative Word (#TheOW), Dr Andrea LaMarre calls for optimism amongst critical health psychologists - even as we continue to put our scholarship where our politics are, and dismantle power structures. Providing a meaningful and thought-provoking bookend to our first volume, she challenges us to think about how to balance deconstruction with reconstruction.

In the 5th Issue of The Operative Word (#TheOW), Dr Glen Jankowski poses a challenge to the discipline of psychology, to consider the ways in which discrimination and racism continue to be perpetuated in the ways we practice and conduct research. He argues for a focus on the effects of such discrimination for the health and wellbeing of people from BME (Black Minoritised Ethnic) groups. You can also visit his and his colleagues’ website: https://bmepsychology.com/ for more information and resources.

In this Issue of The Operative Word (#TheOW), Professor Antonia Lyons (@antoniacl) recounts some of the key points about the keynote address she delivered at the last ISCHP conference. Informed by her research programme on young adults' drinking cultures, we ask her to reflect on a broad range of issues including gender, social media identity curation, marginalised groups, and neoliberalism.

In this Issue of The Operative Word (#TheOW), Dr Brett Scholz (@brett_scholz) reflects on the power that we hold in conducting health psychology research and he encourages us to consider the role we, as researchers, can play as allies in partnering with community members. We also briefly mention some work done by Dr Britta Wigginton and Dr Jenny Setchell on researchers’ positions as insiders/outsiders: https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2016.1183065

In this Issue of The Operative Word (#TheOW), Dr Ally Gibson (@allyfgibson) invites us to be more transparent about our research processes and in doing so avoid the traps of methodological 'catch phrases'. She mentions, at one point, Kerry Chamberlain's paper on methodolatry available at: doi.org/10.1177/135910530000500306

In this Issue of The Operative Word (#TheOW), Dr Britta Wigginton (@brit_wig) challenges us to think about place, and suggests that psychological research needs to consider the role of place in health.

From July 1, The Operative Word - the podcast of the International Society of Critical Health Psychology - will release a new issue every 2 months. The first volume of the podcast has been edited by Dr Britta Wigginton, Dr Ally Gibson, and Dr Brett Scholz. In this episode, we give a very brief teaser and explain the motivation for the podcast. #TheOW @crithealthpsych http://ischp.info