Profile

Biography

• PhD (York)
• BA(Hons) (Psychology, KwaZulu-Natal)
  

Having grown up in South Africa, Merran Toerien completed her BA(Hons) in Psychology and Gender Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg. She was awarded the Emma Smith Overseas Scholarship to pursue her PhD studies in the UK. Additional funding was also provided by the Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust.

Merran began her PhD at Loughborough University and completed it at the University of York. Titled, Hair Removal and the Construction of Gender: A Multi-method Approach, the PhD was supervised by Celia Kitzinger and Sue Wilkinson. The thesis consists of a series of projects, including a study of interaction in the beauty salon using conversation analysis (CA). At York, Merran trained extensively in CA and this is now her methodology of choice.

On completing the PhD, Merran worked as a researcher in the Department of Social Medicine at the University of Bristol, focusing on health professional-patient interaction in recruitment to trials and neurology clinic appointments.

She is currently employed as the RCUK Fellow in “Communication and Language Use in Interaction” within the Department of Sociology at the University of York.

Links

• Centre for Advanced Studies in Language & Communication

Departmental roles

Merran is also the Energy Coordinator for the Department of Sociology, which means she is involved in helping to reduce the department's carbon footprint.  Please feel free to contact her with any suggestions or queries in this regard.

Research

Overview

Merran is continuing to work on data collected during her previous post-doctoral research position, including:

• Nurse-patient interaction during recruitment appointments, with a particular focus on how nurses ask if patients are willing to take part in a medical trial
• Consultant-patient interaction during neurology clinic appointments, with a particular focus on how neurologists balance uncertainty and reassurance when ordering diagnostic tests and giving patients diagnostic information

In addition, Merran remains committed to the application of CA to ‘political’ concerns – particularly feminist issues – and is interested in exploring how CA might be applied to her other political passion: climate change.

She is a member of:

• The British Sociological Association
• The British Psychological Society
• Centre for Advanced Studies in Language and Communication

Current projects

A Conversation Analysis Study of Work-focused Interviews

Merran is currently working with Paul Drew (Sociology), Roy Sainsbury (Social Policy Research Unit) and Annie Irvine (Social Policy Research Unit) on this Department for Work and Pensions-funded project. Work-focused interviews (WFIs) are meetings between claimants of social security benefits and staff known as Personal Advisers (PAs).

The key aim is to help clients, where appropriate, to obtain paid work. We know from interview research that the nature of the PA-client interaction is an important factor in client satisfaction and successful outcomes. However, we know little about what makes the interaction work well. The objective of this study is to use CA to understand what happens during WFIs in order to develop best practice guidelines for inclusion in PA training.

Publications

Selected publications

• Toerien, M., Shaw, R., Duncan, R., and Reuber, M. (2011). Offering patients choices: A pilot study of interactions in the seizure clinic. Epilepsy & Behavior 20: 312–320
  
• Drew, P., Toerien, M., Irvine, A., & Sainsbury, R. (2010). A study of language and communication between advisers and claimants in work focused interviews. Department for Work and Pensions, Research Report 633.
• Irvine, A., Sainsbury, R., Drew, P., & Toerien, M. (2010). An exploratory comparison of the interactions between advisers and younger and older clients during work focused interviews. Department for Work and Pensions, Research Report 634.
• Toerien, M., Brookes, S.T., Metcalfe, C., et al. (2009). A review of reporting of participant recruitment and retention in RCTs in six major journals. Trials 10:52
• Kitzinger, C. & Toerien, M. (2009). The turn of talk. In Depth Paper.
• Toerien, M. & Kitzinger, C. (2007). Emotional Labour in Action: Navigating Multiple Involvements in the Beauty Salon. Sociology, 41(4): pp645-662.
  Download video extract: Emotional Labour in Action: Navigating Multiple Involvements in the Beauty Salon ( 15,600kb download)
  
• Whiting, P., Toerien, M., de Salis, I., Sterne, A.C., Dieppe, P., Egger, M., & Fahey, T. (2007). A Review Identifies and Classifies Reasons for Ordering Diagnostic Tests. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, pp981-989.
• Toerien, M. & Kitzinger, C. (2007). Emotional Labour in Action: Turn Design of Task-directed Talk in the Beauty Salon. Feminism & Psychology, 17(2): 162-172.
• Toerien, M., Wilkinson, S., & Choi, P.Y.L. (2005). Body Hair Removal: The ‘Mundane’ Production of Normative Femininity. Sex Roles, 52: 399-406
• Toerien, M. & Wilkinson, S. (2004). Exploring the Depilation Norm: A Qualitative Questionnaire Study of Women’s Body Hair Removal. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 1: 69-92.
• Toerien, M. & Wilkinson, S. (2003). Gender and Body Hair: Constructing the Feminine Woman. Women’s Studies International Forum, 26(4): 333-344.
• Toerien, M. & Durrheim, K. (2001). Power Through Knowledge: Ignorance and the ‘Real Man.’ Feminism & Psychology, 11(1): 35-54.