PhD Position in Anthropology​/Sociology of Health and Illness​/Science and Technology Studies

The University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) is offering a PhD position at the Competence Centre Care, Health and Society (CARES) within the Department of Business Economics, Health and Social Care (DEASS) in Manno, Switzerland.

The position is funded by the project “
The expertisation of patient knowledge: the recognition, institutionalisation and professionalisation of patient expertise in healthcare and society (EPiK)” (SNSF Grant No. ).

The selected candidate will work under the supervision of Dr. Giada Danesi, CARES, DEASS-SUPSI, and Prof. Dr. Nolwenn Bühler, science and technology laboratory (STS Lab) of the Institute of social sciences (ISS) of the University of Lausanne (UNIL). PhD candidate will be enrolled in the doctoral program at the University of Lausanne, with the opportunity to take part in the CUSO programme and to join the PhD Program in Public Health offered by the Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+).

Starting date: 1st January 2027 or to be agreed

The CARES at SUPSI is an interdisciplinary research centre that explores care as a multifaceted phenomenon, spanning clinical, social, ethical, organizational, and economic dimensions. By integrating social and nursing sciences, the Centre promotes a holistic understanding of care and engages with society to address contemporary challenges in health and welfare systems.

The STS Lab at UNIL is a transdisciplinary laboratory exploring the complex relationships between science, technology, and society. It mobilizes social sciences methods to address the practical, ecological, and political stakes of science, innovation, and technology.

The ISS at UNIL analyses complex social and cultural phenomena within an academic environment fostered by interdisciplinary collaboration and critical dialogue.

The candidate will contribute to a project examining the recognition, institutionalisation and professionalisation of patient expertise within and outside health institutions in Switzerland. The project investigates how patient knowledge becomes expertise and gains legitimacy within the healthcare system, potentially leading to a professional career in three salient and growing medical fields:
1) mental health,
2) diabetes and
3) cancer. In doing that, it addresses two key social and scientific phenomena at play:
1) epistemic legitimation, i.e. the nature of the patient expertise recognized as authoritative (or not) and the processes of institutionalisation and professionalisation in different medical fields, including the role of digitalisation in promoting the legitimisation of patient expertise;
2) social inequities, i.e. the processes of social inclusion and exclusion in relation to its institutionalisation and professionalisation.

The candidate will conduct research on one of the case study under examination (cancer) and contributing to comparisons with the other two case studies under examination (mental health and diabetes). The fieldwork will take place across Switzerland, including 6-9 months in French-speaking Switzerland. Qualitative and ethnographic methods will be used to examine how patients and/or informal caregivers become and are mobilised as experts in the context of the female and male reproductive systems’ cancers.

The research will address the epistemic, institutional, social and digital dynamics ond these dimensions, the project will contribute to broader interdisciplinary reflections on the reorganization of healthcare in the era of patient and public involvement (PPI) measures and the digitalisation of healthcare.

The successful candidate will:

• Take responsibility for all phases of the research project on the cancer’s case study, including data collection across Switzerland (i.e., documentary analysis, ethnographic observations in different contexts and interviews), data management, analysis of qualitative data, interpretation of findings, disseminating findings and writing a PhD thesis.
• Ensure knowledge transfer and dissemination through team meetings, conference presentations, scientific publications, and stakeholder engagement.
• Colla…