Managing Editors

Simon Carter

I am a sociologist working at the Open University with interests in science and technology studies, health and medicine and science engagement. Recently I looked at how our ideas about sunlight have changed over time in Europe. I am currently examining biosecurity and public understandings in relationship to bird and swine flu. I would describe myself as a Geek but isn’t everyone now? I enjoy science and detective/crime fiction and spend too much time reading other people’s blogs (especially sci-fi ones).

Twitter: @sdc60

Ewen Speed

I am a sociologist working in the School of Health & Social Care at the University of Essex. I am currently looking at the ways in which often very progressive ideas are shaped and changed in the policy implementation processes, such that their progressive edge is blunted or even lost. I am also interested in exploring the ways in which the state organisation of healthcare corresponds with dominant ideas about citizenship and welfare. When I am not being sociological I can generally be found cycling around the rural byways of north Essex.

Twitter: @EwenSpeed

Contributing Editors

Hannah Bradby

Having completed a multi-disciplinary undergraduate training, I wrote a sociological doctoral study that used mostly anthropological methods and discovered that tribal allegiances are key in academia. In addition to standard research papers I have had short stories, novellas and journalism published. I have edited a series of student-fiction as well as books, books series and journals. The various ways that healthcare policy, institutions and professionals respond to the diverse needs of patients, as well as the wider public, is a current research focus.

Twitter: @HannahBradby

Judy Green

I am a sociologist of health currently at King’s College London and I co-edit the journal Critical Public Health.  On balance, I would rather be drafting papers with a fountain pen, reading books in a library, and seeking not to change the world, but to understand it. Slowly.  So I’m not quite sure how I’ve ended up as a contributing editor to one of these new-fangled blog thingies.  Or on twitter.

Twitter: @judegreen

Susan McPherson

Susan is a senior lecturer in the School of Human and Social Care at the University of Essex. She researches around the boundaries of clinical psychology, health psychology and medical sociology and also has interests in social history and social policy. Specific research interests include mental health, the construction of diagnoses and management of depression.

Twitter: @SMhuirich

Jen Remnant

Jen is a post-doctoral research associate at Heriot-Watt University. Before working in academia she worked in adult health and social care. She is particularly interested in the distribution of health resources and state welfare, and notions of conditionality and deservingness. When not at work, Jen spends as much time as possible up mountains, in boats and/or dancing.

Twitter: @JK_Remnant

Sasha Scambler

I am a sociologist based at King’s College London with an interest in health, focusing on long term disabling conditions, loneliness and social isolation, inequality in all its various forms and social theory.  During the day I try to subvert dental students with information about poverty, inequality and the importance of the NHS.

Twitter: @sashascambler

Christopher Till

I am a sociologist in the School of Social Sciences at Leeds Beckett University. Recently I have conducted theoretical and empirical work on self-tracking of health and digital labour which are indicative of my broader interests in health and digital technologies. An ongoing project is looking at health inequalities and the efficacy of obesity and physical activity interventions through big data. I am a co-editor of Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine and can be found blogging at This Is Not A Sociology Blog and podcasting at the Digital Sociology Podcast.

Twitter: @chrishtill

Carl Walker

Carl Walker is the course leader for the MA Community Psychology. Carl sits on the British Psychological Society National Community Psychology section committee and is chair of the European Community Psychology Association group on austerity and mental health. Recently he co-founded the national group ‘Psychologists against Austerity’. Carl’s current interest are in exploring the structural and economic elements that relate to concepts of mental distress and the use of community initiatives to work toward addressing mental health needs. In his spare time, he tours a stand-up comedy show as a fundraiser against NHS privatisation and cycles his bike increasingly slowly over the South Downs.

Twitter: @carl1545