Institute for International Health and Development - Staff Profiles

Dr Bregje de Kok

Areas of interest

• Sexual and Reproductive health, in particular:
• Different forms of ‘loss in childbearing’ such as maternal mortality, spontaneous and induced abortions, and infertility.
• Sexual and Reproductive Health & human rights
• Qualitative research methodology, in particular discourse analysis and conversation analysis.
• Technology enhanced and distance learning

Biographical statement

I am a psychologist by background, and my work is most closely related to critical health psychology. I could also describe myself as a discourse analyst or discursive psychologist. I draw on various social sciences and public health in my work and greatly value interdisciplinary work.

I have considerable research experience in the U.K and in Malawi. In my doctoral research, I examined constructions of infertility in Malawi by women and men with a fertility problem, their relatives and (biomedical and indigenous) practitioners. Practical implications of the findings have been published as a report, which I presented at the Ministry of Health in Malawi, local NGOs and medical (training) institutions. I have also been involved in studies of the health visiting service in Scotland. One of these concerned Pakistani and Chinese mothers in Scotland and their experiences of parenthood and the health visiting service.

I am the module coordinator for Research Design and Planning; Research Design and Planning by Distance learning; Sexual and Reproductive Health. I also coordinate the study skills programme.

I welcome applications from those interested in pursuing a PhD on social aspects of loss in childbearing (infertility; induced and spontaneuous abortions, stillbirths; maternal mortality), health provider-client interaction or from those who would like to examine health issues from the perspective of discursive psychology.

Recent publications

Journal papers

Kok, B. de, Hussein, J. & Jeffery, P. (2010). Introduction: Loss in childbearing in resource-poor settings. Social Science and Medicine, 71(10), 1703-1710.

Kok, B. de (2010). Interpersonal issues in expressing lay knowledge: A discursive psychology approach. Journal of Health Psychology, 15, 1190 - 1200.

Kok, B. de. (2009). ‘Automatically you become a polygamist’: ‘Culture’ and ‘norms’ as resources for normalisation and managing accountability in talk about infertility. Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, 13: 197-217.

Kok, B. de & Widdicombe, S. (2008) ‘I really tried’: Management of normative issues in accounts of responses to infertility. Social Science and Medicine, 67, 1083–1093.

Kok, B. de (2008). The role of context in conversation analysis: Reviving an interest  in  ethno-methods. Journal of Pragmatics,  40(5), 886-903.

Kok, B. de. ‘Automatically you become a polygamist’: ‘Culture’ and ‘norms’ as resources for normalisation and managing accountability in talk about infertility. Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine. (in press)

Books and Book Chapters

Kok, B. de. (in press). Discursive Psychology and its potential to make a difference. In C. Horrocks and Johnstone (eds). Advances in Health Psychology: Critical Approaches. Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan.

Kok, B. de (2005). Christianity and African Traditional Religion in Malawi: Two realities of a different  kind. Oxford : African Books Collective (ISBN 99908-76- 17-7)

Reports

Kok, B. de (2008). Talking about infertility in Malawi: A starting point for developing
interventions in order to alleviate the problem of infertility. (pdf 107KB).

Kok, B. de (2008). Infertility in Malawi: Exploring its impact and social consequences. Edinburgh: CRFR. Available at: http://www.crfr.ac.uk/reports/rb41.pdf

Hogg, R., Kok, B., de, Hanley, J.,  Haycock-Steward, E., Macpherson, C. & Netto, G. (2006). An  analysis of experiences of Pakistani and Chinese mothers of parenthood and of the health visiting services. Report for the Chief Scientist Office (Scottish Executive).

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