Dr Julie Ellis

BA (hons), MA, PhD, FHEA

School of Education

Research Associate

julie.c.ellis@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 228162

The Wave

Full contact details

Dr Julie Ellis
School of Education
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH

Profile

I am a sociologist interested in everyday experiences of health, illness and the end of life. I joined Sheffield in 2024 as a Research Associate in the ethnographic stream of the Cripping Breath project. Previously I worked at the University of Huddersfield as a Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Health and Illness where I taught across a variety of sociology modules, supervised doctoral students and co-led the University's Palliative and End of Life Care Special Interest Group.

Before joining Huddersfield, I held different teaching and research positions at Sheffield including RA roles with two large ESRC funded research projects, one about sharing information online in times of crisis, and another about early-life loss and post-mortem.

I have also worked as an action researcher in the public sector on an EU project about peer-mentoring in everyday ICT use, and after completing my PhD (an exploration of family practices during life-threatening illness) I completed a research internship with the University of Nottingham working on a project about narratives of genocide in the digital economy.

Research interests

My research interests are broadly related to health and issues of identity, relationality and everyday experience. Much of my work has focused on the end of life where I have a particular interest in how relationships and everyday practices shape (and are shaped by) experiences of death, dying and bereavement. My work draws on perspectives from medical sociology, the sociology of death, dying and bereavement, material culture studies and family and personal life. Methodologically, I am inspired by ethnographic and creative qualitative approaches and seek to use these to understand experiences of health, illness and loss in rich, embodied and accessible ways.

Having been involved in a number of highly sensitive and emotionally challenging projects, I have developed an ongoing interest in issues related to reflexivity, vulnerability and researcher wellbeing. As part of my research practice, I have drawn on my own experiences to explore and publish reflections on these topics.

Publications

Books

Reed K, Ellis J & Whitby E (2023) Understanding baby loss. Manchester University Press.
Reed K, Ellis J & Whitby E (2023) Understanding baby loss: The sociology of life, death and post-mortem.

Journal articles

Peacock M, Bissell P, Ellis J, Dickson JM, Wardrope A, Grünewald R & Reuber M (2023) ‘I just need to know what they are and if you can help me’: medicalization and the search for legitimacy in people diagnosed with non-epileptic attack disorder. Epilepsy and Behavior, 148. View this article in WRRO
Borgstrom E & Ellis J (2021) Internalising ‘sensitivity’: vulnerability, reflexivity and death research(ers). International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 24(5), 589-602.
Reed K & Ellis J (2020) Uncovering hidden emotional work : professional practice in paediatric post-mortem. Sociology, 54(2), 312-328. View this article in WRRO
Borgstrom E, Ellis J & Woodthorpe K (2019) ‘We Don’t Want to Go and Be Idle Ducks’: Family Practices at the End of Life. Sociology, 53(6), 1127-1142.
Reed K & Ellis J (2019) Movement, materiality, and the mortuary: Adopting go-along ethnography in research on fetal and neonatal postmortem. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 48(2), 209-235. View this article in WRRO
Reed K, Whitby E & Ellis J (2018) Remembering baby. Bereavement Care, 37(3), 88-91. View this article in WRRO
Hargreaves S, Bath P, Duffin S & Ellis J (2018) Sharing and empathy in digital spaces: qualitative study of online health forums for breast cancer and motor neuron disease. (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). JMIR, 20(6). View this article in WRRO
Ellis J (2018) Family food practices: relationships, materiality and the everyday at the end of life. Sociology of Health and Illness, 40(2), 353-365. View this article in WRRO
Lovatt M, Bath PA & Ellis J (2017) Development of Trust in an Online Breast Cancer Forum: A Qualitative Study . Journal of Medical Internet Research, 19(5). View this article in WRRO
Borgstrom E & Ellis J (2017) Introduction: researching death, dying and bereavement. Mortality, 22(2). View this article in WRRO
Ellis J (2013) Thinking beyond rupture: continuity and relationality in everyday illness and dying experience. Mortality. View this article in WRRO
Wessels B, Anderson B, Durrant A & Ellis J (2012) Mediating genocide: Cultural understanding through digital and print media stories in global communication. International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, 8(2), 193-209.
Ellis J, Hockey J, Richardson T & Woodthorpe K (2010) British Sociological Association (BSA) Study Group Symposium. Illness, Crisis & Loss, 18(3), 263-266.

Chapters

Reed K, Ellis J & Whitby E (2023) Introduction, Understanding baby loss (pp. 1-19). Manchester University Press
Reed K, Ellis J & Whitby E (2023) 7 Relationships, Understanding baby loss (pp. 167-192). Manchester University Press
Reed K, Ellis J & Whitby E (2023) 6 Memory, Understanding baby loss (pp. 142-166). Manchester University Press
Reed K, Ellis J & Whitby E (2023) 5 Care, Understanding baby loss (pp. 118-141). Manchester University Press
Reed K, Ellis J & Whitby E (2023) 4 Emotions, Understanding baby loss (pp. 91-117). Manchester University Press
Reed K, Ellis J & Whitby E (2023) 3 Technology, Understanding baby loss (pp. 66-90). Manchester University Press
Reed K, Ellis J & Whitby E (2023) 2 Decisions, Understanding baby loss (pp. 44-65). Manchester University Press
Reed K, Ellis J & Whitby E (2023) 1 Trauma, Understanding baby loss (pp. 20-43). Manchester University Press
Reed K, Ellis J & Whitby E (2023) Trauma, UNDERSTANDING BABY LOSS (pp. 20-43).
Reed K, Ellis J & Whitby E (2023) Technology, UNDERSTANDING BABY LOSS (pp. 66-90).
Reed K, Ellis J & Whitby E (2023) Relationships, UNDERSTANDING BABY LOSS (pp. 167-192).
Reed K, Ellis J & Whitby E (2023) Memory, UNDERSTANDING BABY LOSS (pp. 142-166).
Reed K, Ellis J & Whitby E (2023) Life after death Conclusion, UNDERSTANDING BABY LOSS (pp. 193-207).
Reed K, Ellis J & Whitby E (2023) Emotions, UNDERSTANDING BABY LOSS (pp. 91-117).
Reed K, Ellis J & Whitby E (2023) Decisions, UNDERSTANDING BABY LOSS (pp. 44-65).
Reed K, Ellis J & Whitby E (2023) Care, UNDERSTANDING BABY LOSS (pp. 118-141).
Ellis J, Winslow M & Noble B (2016) Social Policy and Care of Older People at the End of Life In Foster L & Woodthorpe K (Ed.), Death and Social Policy in Challenging Times (pp. 17-34). Palgrave Macmillan UK

Book reviews

Ellis J (2016) Virtual afterlives: grieving the dead in the twenty-first century. Mortality, 21(1), 91-92.
Ellis J (2014) Death, dying and social differences. Mortality, 19(3), 319-320.

Conference proceedings papers

Ellis M, Chapman J, Croucher K, Ellis J, Hallett N & Vanacker S (2015) P-95 Untold stories: objects, relationships and memory in hospice care. The Art and Science of Hospice Care – Poster Presentations (pp A34.1-A34)

Preprints

Hargreaves S, Bath PA, Duffin S & Ellis J () Sharing and Empathy in Digital Spaces: Qualitative Study of Online Health Forums for Breast Cancer and Motor Neuron Disease (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) (Preprint).

Teaching interests: Qualitative methods; sociology of health and illness; socio-cultural perspectives of death and bereavement.

Professional activities and memberships: I am an editorial board of the interdisciplinary journal Mortality and have been a long-standing council member of the Association for the Study of Death and Society (ASDS). Recently I became an Academic Fellow with the charity Compassionate Communities UK.