Rate My Professor Felicity Thomas

Professor Felicity Thomas serves as Professor of Culture and Health Inequalities and Director of Research and Impact in the Department of Health and Community Sciences at the University of Exeter Medical School. She earned a BA (Hons) in Anthropology and Geography from University College London and completed doctoral research examining the impacts of HIV and AIDS on rural livelihoods and social support networks in southern Africa. Before entering academia, she worked for several years in the international development sector. As an applied social scientist with an interdisciplinary background, Thomas utilizes narrative, ethnographic, and participatory research methods to investigate social, cultural, and political factors that perpetuate health inequalities in low-income communities and among migrant groups, as well as environment-related health inequities and the promotion of healthy schools. Her current research explores how moral narratives surrounding responsibility and welfare reform contribute to the medicalisation of distress in low-income UK communities. She has undertaken policy-relevant research for organizations such as UNAIDS, WHO, the Ministerio da Educacao in Brazil, and the Departments of Health, Education, and Communities in New South Wales, Australia.