My over-arching research theme is ‘the body and physical culture’. In essence, this theme is about exploring the ways in which (mainly) young people construct embodied identities and learn about their bodies in contemporary physical cultures. My research is located within the broad field of pedagogy but transcends the confines of formal educational institutions by including learning in contemporary contexts and informal cultures. Within this broad theme I have developed work in three overlapping sub-themes:
1. Health, Medicalisation and embodied identity
The focus of this sub-theme is ana analysis of the ways in which contemporary physical cultures are infused by discourses of health and, in particular, how contemporary understandings of the body are medicalised. For six years, I have been exploring the impact of obesity discourses (attitudes and practices associated with the prevention of obesity) on the development of eating disorders, and their effects on schooling practices. This has led to a book (co-lead author with John Evans, Brian Davies and Rachel Allwood) documenting detailed research on young women who have anorexia and their experiences of ‘health’ within school contexts. This work has led to requests for interviews from National and international media such as SKY, channel 4 news, womens hour, and I continue to published internationally recognised work with my colleague, Professor John Evans.
In 2006, I was a visiting scholar in Australia and New Zealand and while there I wrote a research proposal to conduct research on ‘The impact of new health imperatives on schools’. The research proposal was funded by the ESRC and I am the principle investigator. This role involves the management of two research staff in the UK and and co-ordinating the the international collaboration with colleagues in Australia and New Zealand. I am also co-researcher on a successful Australian Research Council grant which has been awarded to replicate the UK studiy in Australia and New Zealand.
In 2007, I won a competitive call for bids for seminar / conference funding from the Society for Educational Studies. This funding facilitated a one day seminar entitled ‘Performative health and body pedagogies; every child matters?’. The seminar included high profile international speakers such as Professor Chis Shilling and Professor Jan Wright and attracted over 70 scholars and health practitioners). Building on these projects I have, sought other collaborations with colleagues in the UK and beyond. I am now leading editor of a forthcoming text ‘Expanding the obesity debate: Critical readings’ along with Dr Lee Monaghan (Limerick, Ireland) and Lucy Aphramor (dietician and academic). This will offer a comprehensive and interdisciplinary critique of how obesity is constructed and its impact upon young people’s identities. In 2004, I also undertook collaborative research exploring how obesity and anorexia are both experienced as liminal and marginal subjectivities with colleagues in Finland; work that is now published in ‘Bordering Biomedicine’ (Rich and Harjunen, 2004).
Research in this theme continues to develop. I have written specifically about the ways in which anorexia is constructed and often medicalised (see Rich, 2004), and this has led to an interest in the various ways in which illness is constructed in different contexts, such as the emerging pro-anorexia contexts (Miah and Rich, 2008). Collectively, this work has led to a recent invitation to become a fellow of the Royal Society for Medicine, and involvement in the foresight obesity scoping workshops informing UK government policy.
2. Emerging technologies, media and the body
My interest in pedagogy extends beyond formal schooling contexts and into more contemporary informal contexts of learning such as the media. In 2008, I published ‘The Medcalization of Cyberspace’ with Dr Andy Miah. This was the first book to explore how health has been medicalised within virtual contexts such as the Internet, and the significance for this in terms of how people construct and learn about their bodies; both as healthy and ill bodies. This book explored various online communities, environments and practices such as the development of pharmaceutical companies, health promotion and self diagnosis, and the changing relationship between patients and health professionals. This text also connects with my interest in eating disorders, including two chapters on the bioethics of pro-anorexia.
I have also published on matters concerning contemporary advancements in technology and the body, and the use of genetics, such as talent identification and genetic testing (see Rich and Miah, 2006). I have explored these issues in terms of how discourses connected with genetics may impact on how we come to understand ability, identity and the body. In 2007, I was invited to Stockholm Bioethics Center to discuss emerging ideas on genetic manipulation as a way to reduce the ‘gender gap’ in sport, and in 2006 was invited onto an expert panel at an international meeting on genetic technology and sport at UK sport, London..
3. Gender and Physical Cultures
My work on gendered bodies and physical culture underpins much of the research that has followed. My doctoral research explored the impact of gender on teacher training students’ approaches to teaching, the development of their own gendered bodies and the shaping of others’ bodies within physical education contexts. This work has been published in book chapters (Brown and Rich, 2002) and articles (Rich, 2002; Rich, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005) as well as presented at a number of international conferences. During 2002-2004 I undertook research commissioned by the International Olympic Committee to explore women’s experiences of National Olympic Committees. This work utilized a life history methodology, exploring how women’s identities and experiences have been shaped by involvement in different cultural contexts. I presented this work with colleagues at an invited IOC conference in Marrakech, Morroco in 2004. Much of my work on gender employs a feminist post-structural methodology and, in 2007, I established a PhD research student discussion group on these issues at Loughborough University. In 2004 I also founded, and now chair, Gender, Sport and Society; an international forum bringing together over 140 international scholars in this field.
Key conferences / invites
- Invited speaker: Congress of the European College of Sport Science which will take place in Estoril, Portugal, July 9 – 12, 2008.
- Conference organiser/Chair: Performative health and body pedagogies, one day conference for which I secured funding award via the Society For Educational Studies. Hosted this event at Loughborough University
- Invited Speaker: Physical Education and Childhood Obesity Specialist Seminar, association for Physical Education, May 2007.
- Invited Speaker: Roehampton Seminar Series. April 2007.
- Invited Speaker : Enhancing Physical Capacities: Ethics, Regulation and European Policy” Stockholm Bioethics Centre, Stockholm University – 28/29 March 2007
- Invited Plenary Speaker: Bio-pedagogies, University of Wollongong
- Invited Plenary Speaker: Expanding the Obesity debate, University of Limerick, Ireland, Jan 2006.
- 2005 Invited speaker British Sociological Association, and British Psychological Association Seminar events on ‘weighty issues’.
- British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Glamorgan, 2005
- Part of Keynote presentation – International Olympic Committee Third World Conference on Women and Sport. Marrakech, Morocco, March 2004.
- 3rd Global Conference on Making Sense of Health, Illness and Disease Monday 5th July – Friday 9th July 2004, St Catherine’s College, Oxford
- Invited to give guest lecture at the International Olympic Academy (unable to attend) 2003
- 2nd Global Conference Making Sense of Health, Illness and Disease, St Hildas College Oxford, UK. July 2003
- British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Exeter, Septermber 2002
- Women and Sport World Conference, Montreal Canada, May 2002
- British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Exeter, September 2002
- Women and Sport World Conference, Montreal Canada, May 2002
- International Olympic Academy, Post-Graduate Research Seminar, Olympia Greece, 2001
- International Sociology of Education Conference, Sheffield, January 2001
- Women and Sport Conference, UK, 2000
- Feminism and Educational Research Methodologies, Manchester 1999
