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Gareth Thomas

Dr Gareth Thomas

(he/him)

Reader

School of Social Sciences

Email
ThomasG23@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 29208 70945
Campuses
Glamorgan Building, Room 2.35, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3WA
Comment
Media commentator

Overview

I am a Reader in the School of Social Sciences. I am a sociologist interested in disability, health and illness, medicine, reproduction, and stigma. My primary empirical focus in recent years has been the experiences of disabled people and their allies, and configurations of disability in different spaces (e.g., prenatal screening; popular media; the arts).

My research has been published across disciplines in journals including - but not limited to - Sociology of Health and IllnessThe Sociological ReviewSociology, Medical HumanitiesThe British Journal of SociologySociological Research Online, Health and Place, Health Risk and Society, Current AnthropologyMedical Anthropology Quarterlycultural geographiesJournal of Consumer Culture, and Men and Masculinities.

I have published two books: 1) Down's Syndrome Screening and Reproductive Politics: Care, Choice, and Disability in the Prenatal Clinic (2017), and; 2) Disability, Normalcy, and the Everyday (2018, with Dikaios Sakellariou). A third book - Recalibrating Stigma: Sociologies of Health and Illness - will be published with Bristol University Press in 2025 (written with Amy Chandler [University of Edinburgh], Tanisha Spratt [KCL], and Oli Williams [KCL]). My work has been supported by the British Academy, Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Health and Care Research Wales, and the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness, among others.

From October 2024, I will be the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Sociology of Health and Illness (with Janice McLaughlin [Newcastle University]). I am co-founder and co-convenor of the Medicine, Science and Culture Research Group (MeSC) and Cardiff Interdisciplinary Network on Disability (CIND) at Cardiff University.

Publication

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

Articles

Book sections

Books

Conferences

  • Sakellariou, D. and Thomas, G. 2016. Disability and everyday worlds. Presented at: 76th annual meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology, Vancouver, Canada, 29 March- 2 April 2016.

Monographs

Thesis

Websites

Research

My broad research interests are disability, health and illness, medicine, reproduction, and stigma.

From January to December 2023, I undertook a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship (grant MCFSS22\220015) exploring how adults with learning disabilities cultivate alternate narratives which celebrate and recognise their worth and humanity.

I have also recently completed a study on older people's involvement in walking football.

Teaching

In the last few years, I have convened and taught on the modules 'Contemporary Inequalities', 'Sociology of Stigma', 'Live Theory', and 'Advanced Concepts in Contemporary Sociology'. I have also taught on various other undergraduate and postgraduate modules including 'Introduction to Sociology', 'Sociological Inquiries', 'Social Research Methods', 'Ethnography', 'Digital Society', and 'Community, Sustainable Health, and Wellbeing'. I also taught for several years in the Cardiff University School of Medicine.

I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Biography

Previous Appointments

  • Reader, Cardiff University, 2023-
  • Senior Lecturer, Cardiff University, 2019-2023
  • Lecturer, Cardiff University, 2015-2019
  • Research Associate, Cardiff University, 2014-2015
  • Ph.D. Sociology, Cardiff University, 2010-2014
  • M.Sc. Social Science Research Methods (Distinction), Cardiff University, 2009-2010
  • Econ Sociology (First Class Honours), Cardiff University, 2006-2009

Supervisions

Current supervision

Kara Smythe

Kara Smythe

Research student

Jack Hogton

Jack Hogton

Research student

Kristina Addis

Kristina Addis

Research student

Joey Toogood

Joey Toogood

Research student

Rachael Walker

Rachael Walker

Research student

Mitchell Jones

Mitchell Jones

Research student