Courtney Buckler
Postgraduate Researcher
Sociology
About me:
I am an ESRC funded PhD student in Sociology (2019-2023).
My work explores the ongoing ideological and discursive function of Evidence-Based Medicine, paying particular attention to its impact on social and political imaginings of knowledge, expertise, and care. To do so, I look at EBM's impact on mental health practice in the UK - focussing specifically on the NICE Guideline on Depression in Adults.
Methodologically, I use Institutional Ethnography to look beyond EBM's methodological and clinical functions, thinking instead about issues around beurocracy, power, and neoliberal mental health reform.
OrcidID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7046-7827
Twitter: https://twitter.com/courtneysommer_
Alongside my academic work, I am Executive Director and co-founder of Make Space, a user-led organisation exploring self-harm. Our work includes research, training, and peer solidarity work. You can learn more at: makespaceco.org.
Research Project:
What does it mean to be evidence-based? What gets to count as evidence? My research explores the ongoing legacy of Evidence-Based Medicine, focussing specifically on evidence-based guidance around depression developed by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE). My work uses Institutional Ethnography (as developed by Canadian sociologist Dorothy Smith) to explore controversy surrounding the depression guideline, looking at how EBM’s discursive legacies are woven into institutional processes, practices, and ways of speaking.
Research Supervisory team:
Dr Hannah Farrimond
Dr Angela Cassidy
Research Wider Research Interests:
Feminist epistemologies, sociology of medical knowledge-making, queer theory, mad studies, pharmaceutical cultures, diagnosis, and Institutional Ethnography.
