Narelle Warren

Assoc Professor

Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

<a href="https://www.monash.edu/arts/graduate_research" onclick="target='_blank';">https://www.monash.edu/arts/graduate_research</a>

20032025

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Research interests

I am a medical anthropologist and interdisciplinary health social scientist interested in the experiences of ageing, chronic conditions, and care for structurally vulnerable communities. My research adopts a comparative methodological approach to explore the relationships between chronic health conditions and practices of care in people’s local moral worlds. In particular, I am interested in how - in contexts of chronicity - people work/act to achieve good life. 

My work is interdisciplinary and collaborative: I work across academia, community, health and government organisations to inform policy development. My research spans a range of areas and disciplines, including global public health, health services research, rehabilitation, disability studies, neuropsychology, and critical social psychology. 

My research covers the following broad fields:

  • The intersubjectivities of care in the context of chronic illness - my work raises questions about the nature of relations of care. 
  • Development of informal carer support materials: this focuses on low- and middle-income settings, where access to carer support services may be limited. 
  • Health and Health Systems research on stroke and dementia examines the role of health systems and health services (including facilities) in shaping people's immediate and longer-term health outcomes in the context of these conditions. This body of work also includes training to build capacity among local health researchers.
  • Chronic and neurodegenerative health conditions, and the role of structural vulnerabilities in shaping people's experiences of these. For the past 20+ years, I have demonstrated a strong commitment to understanding how social inequalities contribute to people's risk of chronic conditions, diagnostic processes, and access to treatment, support and care.
  • Elucidating sociocultural understandings of ageing and the life course, was the focus of my doctoral research (on women's experience of midlife in rural areas) and is central to my current work on illness.
  • Concepts of recovery and rehabilitation, in informal/community and formal/clinical settings.
  • New and emerging health technologies, including brain-computer interfaces, prosthetics, and mitochondrial replacement.
  • Feminist Ethnographic and Participatory Research training - I deliver this established program in Australia and internationally, including in the highly successful online methods training delivered with Dr Sara Niner.
  • Research ethics - I was a member of the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee from 2009-2023 and continue to explore the salience of ethical concepts across all of my work. 

 

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
  • SDG 5 - Gender Equality
  • SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
  • SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Research area keywords

  • Ageing
  • Cardiovascular Disease
  • Stroke
  • Gender and Health
  • Inequalities in Health
  • neurodegenerative diseases
  • Disability Studies

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or