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Contact information


elspeth.davies@phc.ox.ac.uk


ORCID ID https://orcid.org/0009-0000-3499-681X


she/her

Elspeth Davies

Qualitative Researcher

Biography

My research seeks to understand some of the social and ethical issues surrounding new and existing cancer screening programmes. Drawing on anthropological methods, I aim to centre the stories of people affected by cancer prevention and early detection interventions, considering how a range of ways of engaging with such programmes can come to constitute living well. I am particularly interested in issues surrounding overdiagnosis and medicalisation, injustices and inequalities, and in exploring the role of ethnography and other forms of qualitative research in evidence-based medicine and policy-making.

Funded by Cancer Research UK, my doctoral work followed the development of a novel tool for oesophageal cancer screening, which aimed to diagnose Barrett’s oesophagus, a risk state or precancer for this cancer type. My thesis explored questions surrounding what it might mean to live 'at risk' of disease - for the people who become patients, and for the clinicians, healthcare services and communities that must care for these people who are not 'ill' but might be in the future. Using ethnographic fieldwork with scientists, policymakers, clinicians and in patient support groups, this work sought to make a range of stakeholders' experiences of diagnosing and living with cancer risk visible. I am currently working on turning this thesis into my first monograph.

Having enjoyed teaching during my PhD, I am always keen to hear from students, as well as future research collaborators.

Recent publications

More publications

Media

Davies, Elspeth. 2025. Research explores care offered to people with Barrett’s oesophagus. Heartburn Cancer UK Blog. Available at: https://heartburncanceruk.org/blog/new-research-explores-care-offered-to-people-with-barretts-oesophagus/ 

Davies, Elspeth. 2024. What does it mean to diagnose and live with cancer risk? Journal of Medical Ethics Blog. Available at: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-ethics/2024/07/03/what-does-it-mean-to-diagnose-and-live-with-cancer-risk/

Hibbs, Stephen. 2024. Acquiring Bodies, Reworking Social Determinants, and Facebook Ethnography (Elspeth Davies). Thinking In Between Podcast (Apollo Social Science, Queen Mary University of London). Available at: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Ds7y6OyE9P3C5hxmtHWfz

Rigney, Jane. 2024. On medical anthropology, understanding ‘risk’ and barriers to achieving interdisciplinarity in the world of cancer prevention: an interview with Elspeth Davies. Cancer Presentation and Screening Blog: Queen Mary University of London. Available at: https://cancerprevention.qmul.ac.uk/index.php/2024/03/22/on-medical-anthropology-understanding-risk-and-barriers-to-achieving-interdisciplinarity-in-the-world-of-cancer-prevention-an-interview-with-elspeth-davies/

Armstrong, Emily. 2022. Acing it: The ambitious early career researchers driving progress in cancer early detection. Cancer Research UK Website. Available at: https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/2022/01/21/acing-it-the-ambitious-early-career-researchers-driving-progress-in-cancer-early-detection/