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Professor | Ahorangi
Head of Programme | Tumuaki o te Hōtaka

ContactRuth Fitzgerald_large

Room 7C11
Tel +64 3 479 8169
Email ruth.fitzgerald@otago.ac.nz

Research | Rangahau

My fields of research can be summarised as follows:

  • anthropology of health and medicine (area specialisation: Aotearoa/New Zealand) with a specific focus on ideologies in health, practises of care, and moral reasoning in health dilemmas, clinical anthropology and oral health.
  • biotechnologies of health with a specific focus on the cultural significance in Aotearoa/New Zealand of genetic testing, moral reasoning and TOP (termination of pregnancy), the cultural worlds of scientists as health workers, the embodied risks of consumption (food scares) and the media constructions and public perceptions of such technologies.
  • qualitative research methods with a specific focus on the ethnographic study of ethnically diverse urban societies, grounded theory, narrative theory, media analysis and embodiment; with longstanding interest and experience in interdisciplinary research collaborations between sciences and humanities.

In overview, my research interests are in the disciplinary subfield of medical anthropology, in which I take a sociocultural approach. My work draws its inspiration from a deep commitment to the study of health and illness in its social and political context.

The range of my research projects and outputs is quite wide as they reflect my central interests of ideologies in health, care, inequalities in health care provision and moral reasoning - topics which are in themselves quite open ended and multifaceted concepts. Thus my work has been both diverse in topic (exploring health policy, health practitioners, problematising disability, pioneering the social study of the impact of new technologies in New Zealand medicine, media analysis of health debates, lay meanings of oral health etc) as well as methodologically flexible (frequently working in interdisciplinary collaborations and publishing in 'hard' as well as social science journals).

Teaching schedule |Rārangi Whakaako

Research topics |Kaupapa Rangahau

  • 2024, Director, Critical Disabilities Studies Research Network
  • 2022, Critical Disability Studies Research Network Co-PIs Dr. Gill Rutherford (Education), Dr. Megan Gallop (Deputy Director Childrens' Issues), Prof. Leigh Hale (Physiotherapy), Prof Ruth Fitzgerald (Social Anthropology) $20,000 University of Otago
  • 2022, Improving Pasifika Student Success in POPH192 ($10,000) Quality Improvement Grant, University of Otago PI Dr Julia Wilson, (Team: Prof. Ruth Fitzgerald, Dr. Molly George, Garrett George, Rebekah Kennedy)
  • 2020, Staying Woke to Ableism? UORG ($45,000) Co PIs Dr Gill Rutherford, Prof. Ruth Fitzgerald, Named Investigators Dr Megan Gallop, Prof. Leigh Hale
  • 2014, Wenner Gren Foundation, Combined ASAANZ/AAS Conference 'Cosmopolitan Anthropologies', (PIs Assoc. Prof Ruth Fitzgerald, Assoc. Prof. Chrystal Jaye, PhD Candidate Molly George) $US 20,000.
  • 2014, UORG, Changing the way we play at school: hearing the children's voice, (PIs Assoc. Prof. Ruth Fitzgerald, PhD Candidate Molly George, Assoc. Prof Rachael Taylor. $21,359.
  • 2014, Royal Society Conference Grant, Combined ASAANZ/AAS Conference 'Cosmopolitan Anthropologies', (PIs Assoc. Prof Ruth Fitzgerald, Assoc. Prof. Chrystal Jaye, PhD Candidate Molly George), $1500.
  • 2012, Ministry of Health, Oral Health Self Care for Low Income Dunedin Adults. $NZ230,000,  (PIs Prof Murray Thomson, Dr Ruth Fitzgerald, Prof John Broughton).
  • 2011, Humanities Division Summer Studentship, Nov 2011 – Feb 2012. $NZ5000 (PI)
  • 2011, HDG, Exercising the Right to Choose? Men, Moral Reasoning, Abortions and Care, $NZ6,000 July 2011 – March 2012. (PI)
  • 2010, Marsden, Troubling Choice. Exploring and explaining techniques of moral reasoning for people living at the intersection of reproductive technologies, genetics, and disability, $NZ735,000, Feb 2011 – Feb 2014. (PIs Dr Ruth Fitzgerald, Assoc. Prof. Julie Park, University of Auckland, and Assoc. Prof. Mike Legge, University of Otago).
  • 2010, ORG, Exercising the Right to Choose? Southern Men, Moral Reasoning, Abortions and Care, $NZ10,000, Jan 2011- Jan 2012. (PI)
  • 2009, ORG, Exercising the Right to Choose? Moral decision making by South Island women over pregnancy terminations, $19,271, Jan 2010 – Jan 2011. (PI)
  • 2009, Royal Society of New Zealand, Funding for face to face meeting for international collaborators on the research project, Filial Duty and the Virtuous Saint, $NZ6,500, July 2009- July 2010. (PIs Dr Ruth Fitzgerald,  Prof. Charles Nuckolls, BYU, Utah and Assoc. Prof. Mike Legge, University of Otago).
  • 2005, ORG, Conceiving Reproductive Scientists, $NZ50, 861, Jan 2005 – Jan 2007. (PIs Dr Ruth Fitzgerald, Assoc. Prof. Mike Legge, University of Otago).
  • 2004, Quality Improvement Initiatives Fund, Tutorial Group Improvement Initiative, $7,500, (PIs Dr Ruth Fitzgerald, Dr Carol Bond HEDC, Ms Martin and Mr van der Meer OUSA).
  • 2003, ORG The Political Economy of Occupational Overuse Syndrome $NZ26,839 (PIs Dr Chrystal Jaye, Dept of General Practice, Dr Ruth Fitzgerald).
  • 2001, Divisional Research Grant, Nurse Prescribing in Southern Rural New Zealand,  $NZ5,000 9.11.01 – 31.12.02. (PI)

Postgraduate students | Tāura

  • PhD ‘Vigilant Steps: A Study of Buddhist Female Renunciant Groups in Contemporary Sri Lanka’, de Silva, University of Otago, (2018–2021). Primary Supervisor: Professor Schontal
  • PhD ‘Anthroposophical music therapy in South Korea: An applied ethnography within the anthroposophical community’, Cho, (2017–2020). Primary Supervisor: Professor Johnson
  • PhD ‘Approaching a Ritual Design Strategy’, Lewis University of Otago (2017–2020). Primary Supervisor: Professor Fitzgerald
  • PhD ‘Drifting through Samsara’, Rahmani, University of Otago (2016–2020). Primary Supervisor: Professor Sweetman
  • MA ‘Art, Liminality and Healing: an ethnographic study of artistic identity in the Taranaki region of New Zealand’ Coplestone-Tipler, University of Otago (2019–2021).
  • Hons Dissertation ‘You’re Not on Your Own Kid, This is Our Song: A Thematic and Dialogic Analysis of Taylor Swift Fans on Reddit’, Robinson, University of Otago (2023-2023)
  • Hons Dissertation, ‘Queering Healthcare: Experiences of Navigating Heternormative Healthcare in New Zealand’,Giorgioni, (2021–2021)
  • Hons Dissertation, ‘Overwhelming Workloads: Five accounts of parenting and learning medicine in New Zealand’, Olliver, (2021–2021)
  • Hons Dissertation, ‘Four Japanese Immigrants in Dunedin and their Changing Identities’, Kydd, University of Otago (2019–2019)

Publications

Fitzgerald, R. (2024, July). Person-centred care in embryology: Some assumptions and their limits. Invited presentation at the NZ Embryology Meeting, Auckland, New Zealand. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Fitzgerald, R. (2024, February). Care as seriality: Reflections on waiting at the bus stop for C21 health services. Keynote presentation at the Performance of the Real Research Theme Interdisciplinary Conference: Performing Care and Carelessness, Dunedin, New Zealand. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Longmuir, K., Park, J., Fitzgerald, R., Legge, M., & Shore, C. (2023). Hope: Valuing lives and persons with degenerative conditions: Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Sites, 20(1), 1-26. doi: 10.11157/sites-id526 Journal - Research Article

Fitzgerald, R. P. (2023). Prenatal screening. In K. Dew & S. Donovan (Eds.), Encyclopedia of health research in the social sciences. (pp. 254-268). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. [Encyclopaedia/Dictionary Entry]. Chapter in Book - Research

Fitzgerald, R. (2023, November). Critical readings of community wellbeing. Verbal presentation at the Northern Network for Empirical Music Research (NEMuR) Ninth Meeting, [Hybrid]. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

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