Overview
Background
Rebecca Olson is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Queensland, cutting-edge translational qualitative researcher, mentor and award-winning educator with expertise in the sociologies of health and emotions. As Director of SocioHealthLab, she leads an interdisciplinary collective of researchers, health professional educators and practitioners interested in doing health and healthcare differently: more socially aware, more relational, more inclusive and more just. As Director of Teaching and Learning in the School of Social Science, she prioritises collaborative, reflexive, creative and emotions-centred practices in higher education. With over 75 scholarly publications – as well as news media and creative video productions – Rebecca is a prolific contributor to public debate. With research interests spanning medicinal cannabis and health professions education to climate anxiety, Olson is internationally renowned for bringing sociological insight to complex challenges related to emotions, wellbeing, healthcare and caregiving.
Availability
- Associate Professor Rebecca Olson is:
- Not available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy, Australian National University
Research interests
-
Emotions, Methodology, Healthcare and Education
Emotions play a key role in how we experience and interact with the everyday world. Olson’s research intersects the sociology of emotions and the sociology of health & illness. Her work seeks to understand emotions and their importance to health and healthcare, with topics ranging from parents management of climate anxiety, to medicinal cannabis and wellbeing in advanced cancer contexts, Interprofessional practice, and higher education teaching and learning, including health professional education. Olson has a specific interest in innovative, participatory qualitative methodologies, such as video-reflexive ethnography and critical reflexive ethnography. This allows her to work collaboratively with health specialists and educators in ways that encourage greater insight into the minutiae of everyday healthcare and education practices. Recently, she has used these approaches to investigate: • Emotionally reflexive labour in palliative care and interprofessional practice • Socio-emotional aspects of cigarette smoking and lung cancer screening • Patient perspectives toward medicinal cannabis policy and it’s efficacy • Discourses of emotion and feedback in health professional education • Biopsychosocial approaches to physiotherapy and the work-readiness of graduate physiotherapists
Research impacts
With over a decade of experience as a teaching and research academic, Olson has a strong track record of higher degree research supervision, innovative teaching and learning scholarship and high impact research published in a range of top academic outlets such as Social Science & Medicine, Medical Education and Qualitative Health Research.
With competitive funding from NHMRC, ARC, Arthritis Australia, and Cancer Australia, Olson uses innovative sociological theory in the study of interprofessional and informal palliative care, biopsychosocial approaches in physiotherapy, medicinal cannabis treatment and policy, and emotions and reflexivity in higher education teaching and learning. Her research innovatively applies participatory methods such as video reflexive methodology, to enable collaborative, theory-informed research that invites health professionals – established and pre-licensure – to reflect upon and refine their practice.
Across all domains of her research, Olson advocates for the democratisation of research practices through participatory and reflexive approaches to knowledge production that promote social justice in healthcare.
Works
Search Professor Rebecca Olson’s works on UQ eSpace
Featured
2020
Journal Article
Emotionally reflexive labour in end-of-life communication
Olson, Rebecca E., Smith, Alexandra, Good, Phillip, Neate, Emily, Hughes, Cody and Hardy, Janet (2020). Emotionally reflexive labour in end-of-life communication. Social Science and Medicine, 291 112928, 1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.112928
Featured
2020
Journal Article
A post-paradigmatic approach to analysing emotions in social life
Olson, Rebecca E., Bellocchi, Alberto and Dadich, Ann (2020). A post-paradigmatic approach to analysing emotions in social life. Emotions and Society, 2 (2), 157-178. doi: 10.1332/263169020x15893854268688
Featured
2019
Journal Article
Gendered emotion management and teacher outcomes in secondary school teaching: A review
Olson, Rebecca E., McKenzie, Jordan, Mills, Kathy A., Patulny, Roger, Bellocchi, Alberto and Caristo, Fiona (2019). Gendered emotion management and teacher outcomes in secondary school teaching: A review. Teaching and Teacher Education, 80, 128-144. doi: 10.1016/j.tate.2019.01.010
Featured
2019
Book
Emotions in late modernity
Roger Patulny, Alberto Bellocchi, Rebecca E. Olson, Sukhmani Khorana, Jordan McKenzie and Michelle Peterie eds. (2019). Emotions in late modernity. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781351133319
Featured
2015
Book
Towards a sociology of cancer caregiving: time to feel
Olson, Rebecca E. (2015). Towards a sociology of cancer caregiving: time to feel. Surrey, United Kingdom: Ashgate.
2025
Journal Article
Navigating uncertainty in low back pain care through an ethic of openness: Learnings from a post-critical analysis
Costa, Nathalia, Olson, Rebcca, Dillon, Miriam, Mescouto, Karime, Butler, Prudence, Forbes, Roma and Setchell, Jenny (2025). Navigating uncertainty in low back pain care through an ethic of openness: Learnings from a post-critical analysis. Health. doi: 10.1177/13634593241310383
2025
Journal Article
Political economies of distress in chronic low back pain care
Dillon, Miriam, Olson, Rebecca, Plage, Stefanie, Miciak, Maxi, Window, Peter, Stewart, Matthew, Kilner, Simon, Barthel, Natalie, Christoffersen, Anja and Setchell, Jenny (2025). Political economies of distress in chronic low back pain care. Emotion, Space and Society, 54 101069, 1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.emospa.2025.101069
2025
Journal Article
Non-clinical psychosocial mental health support programmes for people with diverse language and cultural backgrounds: A critical rapid review
Costa, Nathalia, Olson, Rebecca, Mescouto, Karime, Setchell, Jenny, Plage, Stefanie, Dune, Tinashe, Creese, Jennifer, Suleman, Sameera, Prasad-Ildes, Rita and Ng, Zheng Yen (2025). Non-clinical psychosocial mental health support programmes for people with diverse language and cultural backgrounds: A critical rapid review. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry e0252982. doi: 10.1007/s11013-024-09893-1
2025
Journal Article
(Un-)Protocoling post-qualitative childhood research: a novice researcher
Zheng, Zhaoxi, Olson, Rebecca E., Staton, Sally and Setchell, Jenny (2025). (Un-)Protocoling post-qualitative childhood research: a novice researcher. Children's Geographies, 23 (1), 1-19. doi: 10.1080/14733285.2025.2454576
2025
Journal Article
Improvising end-of-life with young children: death/s and its absolute
Zheng, Zhaoxi, Olson, Rebecca E. and Staton, Sally (2025). Improvising end-of-life with young children: death/s and its absolute. Mortality, 1-21. doi: 10.1080/13576275.2025.2451078
2025
Journal Article
I'm not ‘fake rural’: rural student negotiation of identity and place in medical school
Shepherd, Nicole, Wilson Gray, Romy, Hu, Wendy, Hyde, Sarah, Partanen, Riitta, Pena, Alexia, Walters, Lucie and Olson, Rebecca (2025). I'm not ‘fake rural’: rural student negotiation of identity and place in medical school. Sociologia Ruralis, 65 (1) e12473. doi: 10.1111/soru.12473
2025
Journal Article
Relational approaches to conceptualising, measuring and enacting wellbeing and care in palliative and end-of-life contexts
Maslen, Sarah, Olson, Rebecca E. and Collier, Aileen (2025). Relational approaches to conceptualising, measuring and enacting wellbeing and care in palliative and end-of-life contexts. Health Sociology Review, 1-7. doi: 10.1080/14461242.2025.2461335
2024
Book Chapter
Afflexivity in post-qualitative inquiry: prioritising affect and reflexivity in the evaluation of a health information website
Setchell, Jenny, Olson, Rebecca, Turpin, Merrill, Costa, Nathalia, Barlott, Tim, O'Halloran, Kate, Wigginton, Britta and Hodges, Paul (2024). Afflexivity in post-qualitative inquiry: prioritising affect and reflexivity in the evaluation of a health information website. Progressing Critical Posthuman Perspectives in Health Sociology. (pp. 105-120) edited by Kim McLeod and Simone Fullagar. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003498896-8
2024
Other Outputs
Justice in Health? Studying the role of legal support in a culturally responsive mental health service in Australia
Plage, Stefanie, Olson, Rebecca, Costa, Nathalia, Mescouto, Karime, Suleman, Sameera, Zulfiqar, Asma, Setchell, Jen and Prasad-ildes, Rita (2024). Justice in Health? Studying the role of legal support in a culturally responsive mental health service in Australia. LCC Working Paper Series. 2024-24. Institute for Social Science Research, The University of Queensland Australia. doi: 10.14264/6fb8ac3
2024
Book Chapter
Measuring wellbeing: a critical rapid review of scales used in advanced cancer contexts
Smith, Alexandra, Olson, Rebecca, Cuerton, Maddison, Khalil, Keesha Abdul, Good, Phillip and Hardy, Janet (2024). Measuring wellbeing: a critical rapid review of scales used in advanced cancer contexts. Researching contemporary wellness cultures. (pp. 63-79) edited by Naomi Smith, Clare Southerton and Marianne Clark. Leeds, United Kingdom: Emerald Publishing. doi: 10.1108/978-1-80455-584-220241005
2024
Journal Article
Valuing emotions and reflecting on group work: a ‘metalogic’ approach to teaching research methods in a university course
Olson, Rebecca E., Raymond, Stephanie and Smith, Alexandra (2024). Valuing emotions and reflecting on group work: a ‘metalogic’ approach to teaching research methods in a university course. Social Sciences and Humanities Open, 10 100991, 100991. doi: 10.1016/j.ssaho.2024.100991
2024
Journal Article
The good pain patient: a critical evaluation of patients' self-presentations in specialist pain clinics
Dudley, Morgan, Olson, Rebecca E., Mescouto, Karime and Setchell, Jenny (2024). The good pain patient: a critical evaluation of patients' self-presentations in specialist pain clinics. Health Sociology Review, 33 (3), 1-19. doi: 10.1080/14461242.2024.2350501
2024
Journal Article
Affecting the future: a multi-method qualitative text and discourse analysis of emotions in Australian news reporting on climate change and climate anxiety
Olson, Rebecca E., Smith, Alexandra, McKenzie, Jordan, Patulny, Roger and Bellocchi, Alberto (2024). Affecting the future: a multi-method qualitative text and discourse analysis of emotions in Australian news reporting on climate change and climate anxiety. Journal of Sociology. doi: 10.1177/14407833241248774
2024
Journal Article
Unravelling epistemic injustice in medical education: the case of the underperforming learner
Luong, Victoria, Ajjawi, Rola, Burm, Sarah, Olson, Rebecca and MacLeod, Anna (2024). Unravelling epistemic injustice in medical education: the case of the underperforming learner. Medical Education, 58 (11), 1286-1295. doi: 10.1111/medu.15410
2024
Journal Article
Editorial: Sociologies of health and emotions
Cottingham, Marci, Olson, Rebecca E. and Bendelow, Gillian (2024). Editorial: Sociologies of health and emotions. Frontiers in Sociology, 9 1388509, 1-2. doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2024.1388509
Funding
Current funding
Supervision
Availability
- Associate Professor Rebecca Olson is:
- Not available for supervision
Supervision history
Current supervision
-
Doctor Philosophy
Discursive Renderings of Medicinal Cannabis Patients: Policy, Practice, Priorities
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Jenny Munro, Professor Phillip Good
-
Doctor Philosophy
Beyond pathology: (re)conceptualising distress in physiotherapy and chronic low back pain care
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Stefanie Plage
-
Doctor Philosophy
Examination of constructions of health information exchange, as a specific action of person-centred care, occurring for and between professionals and patients.
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Christy Noble
-
Doctor Philosophy
Understanding obstetric violence in Australia: prevalence, experiences and maternity carers perspectives
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Nigel Lee
-
Doctor Philosophy
Online Dating Experiences of Cancer Survivors
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Mair Underwood, Dr Stefanie Plage
-
Doctor Philosophy
Online Dating Experiences of Cancer Survivors
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Mair Underwood, Dr Stefanie Plage
-
Doctor Philosophy
Understanding children's constructions and experiences of death, dying and loss
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Sally Staton
-
Doctor Philosophy
Towards a Critical Post-humanist Symphony of Children-Deaths
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Sally Staton
-
Doctor Philosophy
Exploring how physiotherapists navigate distress in low back pain care
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Stefanie Plage
-
Doctor Philosophy
Towards a Critical Post-humanist Symphony of Children-Deaths
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Sally Staton
-
Doctor Philosophy
Online Dating Experiences of Cancer Survivors
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Mair Underwood, Dr Stefanie Plage
-
Doctor Philosophy
Acceptance of digital mental health interventions: Sociodemographic aspects of user engagement with digital psychological interventions
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Paul Henman
-
Doctor Philosophy
Evidence based use of oral medicinal cannabinoids in the palliative management of patients with advanced cancer
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Phillip Good
-
Doctor Philosophy
Acceptance of digital mental health interventions: Sociodemographic aspects of user engagement with digital psychological interventions
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Paul Henman
-
Doctor Philosophy
Collaborative clinical practice in healthcare
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Nadine Foster, Dr Lisa Anemaat
Completed supervision
-
2023
Doctor Philosophy
Melanotanning: A Sociological investigation of user experiences of the injectable tanning peptide (melanotan) in the context of identity, health and risk.
Principal Advisor
-
2020
Doctor Philosophy
Navigating a diagnosis, navigating an identity: Adults diagnosed Asperger's Disorder/Autism Spectrum Disorder Level 1
Principal Advisor
-
2019
Doctor Philosophy
A study of the meanings of spirituality in the context of depression
Principal Advisor
-
2023
Doctor Philosophy
Enhancing low back pain care: Thinking and practising critically beyond the biopsychosocial model
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Paul Hodges
-
2019
Doctor Philosophy
Gendered views on parole: Exploring how emotion and emotion management help to explain gender differences in the Australian public's views on parole
Associate Advisor
-
2017
Doctor Philosophy
Psychosis and Self-Transformation: Addressing Relationship Negotiation with the Unruly Self
Associate Advisor
Media
Enquiries
Contact Associate Professor Rebecca Olson directly for media enquiries about:
- allied health training
- cancer
- carers
- interprofessional education
- social support
- sociology
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