Teaching Team
This breadth unit draws from the disciplines of complementary medicine, sociology and law in order to introduce you to the place of complementary medicine in health care today. Staff representing each of these disciplines have worked together to develop this unit, and we are excited to be able to engage with you to critically debate the issues which come with the adoption of complementary medicine by so many Australians.
Dr. Sue Evans (Unit Coordinator)
Dr. Sue Evans (Unit Coordinator) (large)
I began my career in complementary medicine by studying herbal medicine in the UK in the late 1970s, and my career since then has spanned clinical practice, teaching and research. I was in clinical practice as a herbalist and naturopath for 25 years, and taught herbal medicine in Melbourne (Southern School of Natural Therapies) Lismore NSW (Southern Cross University)
Now based back in Melbourne, I teach into complementary medicine at UTas. My research interests cover the interface between herbal meedicine and history, philosophy, public health and international development. My PhD was a sociocultural account of Western herbal medicine in Australia.
Dr Emily Hansen is a senior lecturer in sociology from the School of Social Science at the University of Tasmania. She is fascinated by health related practices (such as breastfeeding, vaccination or smoking), the processes of medical practice (such as diagnosis), and how medical and lay people negotiate competing discourses and sources of information about health when explaining and managing illness or making decisions.
She is a Chief Investigator on an NHMRC partnership project that follows young children’s pathways through health and education services in Tasmania. In addition to XBR120 Emily also teaches an undergraduate sociology unit called’ Sociology of Health and Illness HGA 339. In addition to university teaching Emily has developed and taught seminars and workshops on qualitative research methods at a national and local level.
Dr Jane Nielsen is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Law at the University of Tasmania. She currently teaches Torts, a second year Law unit and Competition Law, a final year Law elective. She also supervises a number of PhD students in topics related to her research focus.
As a member of the Centre for Law and Genetics, Jane has a strong research interest in the legal and regulatory aspects of health technologies, particularly in the intellectual property, competition law and consumer law areas. She is a Chief Investigator on two ARC Discovery projects, both of which commenced in 2018. The first project will investigate genomic data sharing practices in research and clinical practice, while the second will evaluate the regulation of innovative health technologies and provide recommendations for regulatory reform.
Distinguished Professor Dianne Nicol
Distinguished Professor Dianne Nicol
Dianne Nicol is a professor of law at the University of Tasmania and director of the Centre for Law and Genetics, which is housed in the Law Faculty. She also has a PhD in cell biology. The broad theme of the Centre for Law and Genetics’ research is the regulation and governance of biotechnology, human genetics and genomics and stem cell technology.
Dianne currently leads two major projects on the regulation of genomic data sharing and health innovation. Over many years she has taught a variety of subjects focusing on law and technology and law and health and has supervised a number of postgraduate students in these areas.
In my current role as Educational Technologist I develop resources to enable academic teaching staff to deliver rich learning experiences with a variety of technologies.
