My name is Edith Hill, and I am a third-year life writing PhD student in the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. My PhD investigates life narratives of health and wellness on social media platforms. Completing work on health and illness stories online during a global pandemic has been a difficult and highly rewarding journey.

I recently presented a paper titled “Combatting wellness misinformation on YouTube: The case study of Abbey Sharp” at a sociology symposium, A Better Body? Toward a Sociology of Wellness. My paper investigated the role of health professionals on YouTube in combatting wellness misinformation, specifically around diet and nutrition. I was grateful to receive a HDR presentation award for this paper. I feel extremely fortunate to have my contributions to research acknowledged by the convenors of the symposium, especially as I was presenting to researchers outside of my direct. As my thesis is highly interdisciplinary, I have made efforts to get involved in related disciplines to life writing, such as sociology, gender studies, and media studies.

I recommend that any students working in interdisciplinary spaces attempt to be active in their research communities. Twitter is an excellent place for networking and seeking out events and conferences to get involved in outside of our university. I also recommend joining any relevant national academic associations and email lists for upcoming events and publication opportunities. These have been invaluable resources to me for the past three years.

If you would like to watch my symposium presentation, you can do so here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1ftMyZZFA4 (1:06:54 – 1:26:21)

Link to the program: https://thetechnosocial.com/a-better-body