PhD Studentship: Identity Work in Palliative Care: A Conversation Analytic Study of Interactions with Newly Diagnosed Patients

ESRC DTP Collaborative Studentship

Loughborough University and Treetops Hospice

The Midlands Graduate School is an accredited Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP). Loughborough University (UK) as part of Midlands Graduate School is inviting applications for an ESRC Doctoral Studentship in collaboration Treetops Hospice to commence in October 2025.

The candidate will supervised by Dr Marco Pino and Prof Elizabeth Peel in the Department of Communication and Media (UK) and Sharan Harris-Christensen, manager of the Treetops Hospice Education & Development Team.

Treetops Hospice is an independent third-sector organisation delivering palliative care. The candidate will video-record drop-in information sessions run by the Treetops Hospice Wellbeing Café for newly diagnosed patients and their families. The aim is to investigate, using conversation analysis methods, interactional practices that the staff use to help patients maintain a positive identity as competent and autonomous individuals after a diagnosis of life-limiting illness. A diagnosis of incurable progressive illness, alongside a reduction in functional capacities for daily living, can negatively affect a patient’s identity. We are interested in the ways interactions with healthcare practitioners can support patients in retaining a positive identity, dignity, and “normality in an otherwise changed reality” (Bye, 1998, p. 12).

The project will leverage conversation analysis by investigating identity as a practical achievement of participants’ actions in interaction. With support from the supervisors, the candidate will examine interactions video-recorded at the Wellbeing Café to identify challenges that patients face in maintaining a positive identity in interaction; identify interactional practices that the staff use to support patients in negotiating a positive identity; and draw implications for social scientific understandings of identity construction after a diagnosis of incurable illness. The project will include qualitative interviews with patients and staff.

The supervisory team have extensive experience of using conversation analysis in video-based studies of interactions in healthcare and social-care settings, including palliative and end-of-life care (see our publications: Pino and Peel). The project will give the candidate solid grounding in social interaction research. They will join the Discourse & Rhetoric Group (DARG), a world-leading research group in language and social interaction. At Treetops Hospice, they will develop transferable skills relevant to the translation of research findings into training and policy recommendations for the healthcare sector. Harris-Christensen is an experienced communication trainer with nursing background, who will co-supervise the candidate and expose them to Treetops Hospice’s work in the design and delivery of communication skills training for practitioners.

We especially welcome familiarity and experience with using conversation analysis, although this is not necessary to apply for the studentship.

Application Process

Please click 'Apply’ to be redirected to our website, where you can download a Collaborative Studentship application form. Please upload an anonymised CV as part of the online application process. Shortlisted applicants will be required to provide transcripts and two references.

Application deadline: 28^th February

Shortlisted applicants will be interviewed on the 10^th of March between 9.00 and 16.00 (GMT), online on Microsoft Teams.

Midlands Graduate School ESRC DTP

Our ESRC studentships cover fees at the home rate, a maintenance stipend, and extensive support for research training, as well as research activity support grants. Support is available to home and international applicants. For details, visit: www.mgsdtp.ac.uk/studentships/eligibility/.

Informal enquiries about the research or the Department of Communication and Media prior to application can be directed to Marco Pino. Email: m.pino@lboro.ac.uk.

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