Name: Graham MacDonald
Program: PhD
Supervisor: Dr. Laura Nimmon
Tell us a little bit about your lab!
I’ve been involved with many different labs as a doctoral trainee. Previously, I worked at Arthritis Research Canada with Dr. Linda Li. In the last few years I’ve been at the Centre for Health Education Scholarship (CHES) with Dr. Laura Nimmon, and worked on projects with many of the associated faculty at CHES. I’m also involved in a lab at UNBC studying patient engagement in health research networks. I’m moving on to a post-doctoral fellowship in November at the University of Toronto, studying patient engagement in drug regulation around opiates and chronic pain.
What project are you currently working on?
My doctoral work focuses on patient engagement in research. My discipline is medical sociology and I specialize in qualitative research. My project has been to explore how patients transform from clinical subjects to civic actors in patient engagement in research. A big part of this lies in understanding how patients form purpose-driven narratives in their rehabilitation that end up reaching beyond their own personal issues to encompass societal problems. My purpose in pursuing this work is to produce concepts that can help guide the building of institutions and infrastructure of patient engagement in research that supports meaningful reform and equitable involvement.
What do you like to do outside of academia?
I have a few hobbies outside of academia. I do a lot of hiking, rock climbing, and mountaineering in BC and Alberta. In my appreciation of the outdoors I’ve also gotten into landscape photography and painting. I’m also a musician — I used to be more active in my output but with PhD studies being as demanding as they are, the past few years I’ve been content as playing bass in a local band. I think cultivating good hobbies is important to staying sane in academia — but in that regard I’ve found it important to remember I don’t have to be an over-achiever everywhere I go. I’ve found the most nourishing hobbies to be things I have no expectation of being good at or gaining recognition from — I paint about as well as a moderately talented 8 year-old, but it brings me joy.
Congratulations Graham on being our featured Student of the Month for October!
Interested in seeing what else our Rehabilitation Sciences students and trainees are working on? Stay tuned for our next feature!