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Sociology

Eeva Sointu
Assistant Professor

email Send E-mail office Office: Tyler Annex 106 phone Phone: 585-3870
Office hours: Th 3 - 5 p.m., and by appt.

Eeva is an assistant professor in medical sociology. She was born in Lapland in Northern Finland. Her studies took her to the United Kingdom, where she completed a B.A. in religious studies, an M.A. in "Religion, Culture and Society," and a Ph.D. in sociology. In 2006, Eeva ventured across the Atlantic to Northampton and Smith College where she teaches courses in medical sociology, Introduction of the Sociology of Selfhood and Identity, Qualitative Methods and a senior seminar on contemporary therapeutic cultures.

What constitutes well being and how social practices produce experiences of healing are the core themes in her research. She is particularly interested in health practices outside biomedicine. An important element of her work is charting and appreciating the mundane and the everyday. She is also interested in contemporary spiritualities.

Her recent publications include: "The Rise of an Ideal: Tracing Changing Discourses of Wellbeing," in The Sociological Review (2004 vol.52 no.2 pp.255–274); "Recognition and the Creation of Wellbeing," in Sociology (2006 vol.40 no.3 pp.493–510); "The Search for Wellbeing in Alternative and Complementary Health Practices," in Sociology of Health and Illness (2006 vol.28 no.3 pp.330–349); and "Healing Bodies, Feeling Bodies: Embodiment and Alternative and Complementary Health Practices," in Social Theory and Health (2006 Vol.4 no.3 pp.203–220).