Dr Ruth Fitzgerald
Department of Anthropology, Gender and Sociology
Dr Ruth Fitzgerald is a medical anthropologist with a specialist interest in embodiment, ideologies of health, human reproduction and innovative medical technologies. She conducts fieldwork into these topics in Southern New Zealand and in Utah.
Ruth is currently working as PI on a three year Marsden funded project "Troubling Choice" which explores the everyday ethical thinking of folk who live at the intersections of reproductive, genetic and moral choices. This collaborative project also includes as CoPIs Assoc. Prof Mike Legge (Otago) and Assoc. Prof. Julie Park (Auckland). She is also completing a two year qualitative study which explores the moral reasoning behind termination of pregnancy decision-making for both women and men in Southern New Zealand.
Her recent publications include articles in Health, Sociology of Health and Illness, Medical Anthropology and New Genetics and Society.
Selected publications
- 2010, Marsden, Troubling Choice. Exploring and explaining techniques of moral reasoning for people living at the intersection of reproductive technologies, genetics, and disability, Feb 2011 – Feb 2014. (PI along with CoPIs Assoc. Prof. Julie Park, University of Auckland, and Assoc. Prof. Mike Legge, University of Otago).
- 2010, ORG, Exercising the Right to Choose? Southern Men, Moral Reasoning, Abortions and Care, Jan 2011- Jan 2012. (PI)
- 2009, ORG, Exercising the Right to Choose? Moral decision making by South Island women over pregnancy terminations, Jan 2010 – Jan 2011. (PI)
- 2009, Royal Society of New Zealand, Funding for face to face meeting for international collaborators on the research project, Filial Duty and the Virtuous Saint, July 2009- July 2010. (PI with Co PI Prof. Charles Nuckolls, BYU, Utah and Assoc. Prof. Mike Legge, University of Otago).