Julie Ellis

I am currently working in the Information School at The University of Sheffield as a researcher on the ‘A Shared Space and a Space for Sharing’ project. The aim of the project is to explore how people in a range of extreme circumstances (e.g. experiencing addictive drug use, humanitarian crisis) share information, emotion and resources online. I am working on Work Package 3 which focuses on individuals (and their relatives/ carers) with terminal, life-threatening and chronic conditions.

My background is in Sociology. I completed my ESRC funded PhD in the Department of Sociological Studies at the University of Sheffield in 2011. This was an ethnographic study which explored the experience of everyday family life in families where a relative was living with a life-threatening illness.

My primary research interests are in the areas of identity and personal relationships at the end of life. I have broader interests in the following areas: material culture and everyday lives; sociology of the body; medical sociology; illness narratives; gender; life course; innovative qualitative research methodology.

Currently I am Secretary of the Association for the Study of Death and Society (ASDS). I also co-convene the British Sociological Association Study Group: Social Aspects of Death, Dying and Bereavement.