Clare Jackson
Senior Lecturer

Profile

Biography

I came to sociology somewhat unexpectedly by way of psychology. My undergraduate and postgraduate degrees were both in psychology, and I expected to stay on that path until a module in discourse analysis on my Masters course changed my thinking. It introduced me to conversation analysis (CA), and to a way of looking at talk and interaction that I hadn't encountered before. Keen to pursue it properly, in 2005, I came to the Department of Sociology at York, long renowned for its work in CA, to do a PhD (part time). I took up a lectureship in 2013, and contribute to teaching on the Social Psychology pathway.

My PhD combined my interests in interaction, identity and gender, using CA to examine gendered person reference in mundane talk, in part as a response to, and critique of, the idea that gendered speakers always-already produce gendered talk. Since then, my research has used CA to study the interactional accomplishment of decision-making in clinical settings. From 2015–2017 I worked on a project analysing how choice is  offered in neurology consultations.  Since 2017 I have been researching how decisions are made in interaction between labouring women, their birth partners and healthcare practitioners in midwife-led units. My research has been funded by NIHR and I have published in various journals including Patient Education and Counseling, Research on Language and Social Interaction and Sociology of Health & Illness.

My teaching is driven by these same interests in interaction, health, and gender, and by conversation analysis as a method. I welcome enquiries from prospective postgraduate research students interested in exploring these themes through CA or other qualitative approaches.

I am currently Chair of the Sociology Ethics Committee and serve on the Faculty of Social Sciences Ethics Committee.

Departmental Roles

•  Chair of the Sociology Ethics Committee 

Research

Overview

My main research interests are in applying conversation analysis to clinical healthcare interactions.

Research Grants:

• 2015-2017 NIHR HS&DR: Evaluating nuanced practices for initiating decision making in neurology clinics
• 2017- 2021 NIHR HS&DR: Interactional practices of decision making during childbirth in maternity units
• 2026-2027 ESRC IAA: Labour talk: From sociological research to midwifery practice through conversation analysis

Publications

Selected publications

[since 2020]

• Jackson, C., 2025. Risk assessment as routine: A conversation analysis of midwives’ risk surveillance practices in midwife-led care during labour. Patient Education and Counseling, 140, article 109279.
• Jackson, C., Weatherall, A. and Land, V., 2025. Pain displays in childbirth: How first-stage contractions are interactionally managed in midwife-led births. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 58(1), pp.50-68.
• Jackson, C. and Beynon‐Jones, S., 2024. Just go with your body? A conversation analytic study of the transition from first to second stage of labor in UK midwife‐led care. Birth, 51(4), pp.825-834.
• Beynon‐Jones, S.M. and Jackson, C., 2024. Talking cervixes: How times materialise during the first stage of labour. Sociology of Health & Illness, 46(5), pp.849-866.
• Annandale, E., Baston, H., Beynon-Jones, S., Brierley-Jones, L., Brodrick, A., Chappell, P., Green, J., Jackson, C., Land, V. and Stacey, T., 2022. Shared decision-making during childbirth in maternity units: the VIP mixed-methods study. Health and social care delivery research, 10(36), pp.1-160.
• Jones, D., Wilkinson, R., Jackson, C. and Drew, P., 2020. Variation and interactional non-standardization in neuropsychological tests: The case of the Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination. Qualitative Health Research, 30(3), pp.458-470.

Teaching

Overview

Given my background in psychology and my research interests in conversation analysis, I contribute to teaching across the Social Psychology pathway and modules in CA. I currently teach on Social Interaction and Conversation Analysis, which introduces students to CA, and Talk at Work, which applies CA to workplace and institutional settings.

On the Social Psychology pathway, I teach Foundations in Social Psychology, covering theories of self, emotion and identity including Goffman, Hochschild and ethnomethodology; Critical Social Psychology, which takes a critical and decolonial lens to the discipline's history and mainstream methods; and Contemporary Social Psychology, which applies critical social psychology to contemporary social issues.

I welcome enquiries from prospective students interested in exploring critical social psychology and conversation analysis.

Supervision

Current PhD Students

• Chen, Xiaohang
• Farrington, Levi
• Kandola, Amy
• Molina, Pablo
• Murphy, Phoebe
• Linfoot, Nicholas
• Zhang, Xiaoyu