RESEARCH AT TEXAS WOMAN'S UNIVERSITY

FACULTY PROFILE SYSTEM

Name: Gayle A. Sulik
Title: Assistant Professor
Department: Sociology and Social Work
Email address: gsulik@twu.edu
Description of research activities:   My research agenda revolves around the impact of culture and gender on health and illness processes, medicalization, and embodiment. My dissertation focused on breast cancer in the United States. Having submitted several papers on gendered coping strategies and care work, I am writing a book manuscript on how contemporary American women cope with breast cancer and the pink ribbon culture that surrounds it. I have also analyzed the medicalization of breast cancer and infertility, the gendered boundaries of illness, the social construction of the “medical consumer,” the role of the media in shaping understandings of health and illness, and the usefulness of qualitative methods in health research.
Keywords:  medical sociology, culture, gender, breast cancer, qualitative methods
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