Virginia Braun

Last updated

Virginia Braun

NationalityNew Zealand
Alma mater Loughborough University
Scientific career
Fields thematic analysis and gender studies
Institutions University of Auckland
Thesis The vagina: an analysis  (2000)
Academic advisors Sue Wilkinson and Celia Kitzinger

Virginia Braun FRSNZ is a New Zealand psychology academic specialising in thematic analysis and gender studies. She is particularly known for her scholarship on the social construction of the vagina [1] and designer vagina cosmetic surgery, [2] body hair [3] and heterosexuality. [4] She is perhaps best known for her collaboration with British psychologist Victoria Clarke around thematic analysis and qualitative research methods. Together they have published numerous papers, chapters, commentaries and editorials on thematic analysis and qualitative research, and an award-winning and best selling qualitative textbook entitled Successful qualitative research. They have a thematic analysis website at The University of Auckland. More recently - with the Story Completion Research Group - they have published around the story completion method. [5]

Contents

Academic career

After undergraduate and masters studies in psychology at the University of Auckland, Braun received a Commonwealth Scholarship to Loughborough University with Celia Kitzinger and Sue Wilkinson as her advisors for her 2000 thesis, The vagina: an analysis. [6]

Braun returned to as a lecturer in psychology Auckland in 2001, rising to full professor in 2017. [7]

Her 2006 paper "Using thematic analysis in psychology" with Victoria Clarke in Qualitative Research in Psychology has more than 59,000 citations according to Google Scholar. It is also - according to Google Scholar - the most cited academic paper published in 2006.

Braun was editor of Feminism & Psychology between 2008 and 2013. She received a Distinguished Leadership Award from the American Psychological Association's Committee on Women in Psychology in 2013. [8]

In 2015/2016 Braun went public with her experiences seeking a tubal ligation. [9] [10]

In 2021, Braun was awarded the Marsden Medal by the New Zealand Association of Scientists, in recognition of "her global impact on the development of qualitative empirical methods and for the generosity of spirit she expresses through this work." [11] She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2022. [12]

Areas of expertise

Books

Selected journal articles and book chapters

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genital modification and mutilation</span> Permanent or temporary changes to human sex organs

Genital modifications are forms of body modifications applied to the human sexual organs, such as piercings, circumcision, or labiaplasty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qualitative research</span> Form of research

Qualitative research is a type of research that aims to gather and analyse non-numerical (descriptive) data in order to gain an understanding of individuals' social reality, including understanding their attitudes, beliefs, and motivation. This type of research typically involves in-depth interviews, focus groups, or observations in order to collect data that is rich in detail and context. Qualitative research is often used to explore complex phenomena or to gain insight into people's experiences and perspectives on a particular topic. It is particularly useful when researchers want to understand the meaning that people attach to their experiences or when they want to uncover the underlying reasons for people's behavior. Qualitative methods include ethnography, grounded theory, discourse analysis, and interpretative phenomenological analysis. Qualitative research methods have been used in sociology, anthropology, political science, psychology, communication studies, social work, folklore, educational research and software engineering research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conversation analysis</span> Approach to the study of social interaction

Conversation analysis (CA) is an approach to the study of social interaction that empirically investigates the mechanisms by which humans achieve mutual understanding. It focuses on both verbal and non-verbal conduct, especially in situations of everyday life. CA originated as a sociological method, but has since spread to other fields. CA began with a focus on casual conversation, but its methods were subsequently adapted to embrace more task- and institution-centered interactions, such as those occurring in doctors' offices, courts, law enforcement, helplines, educational settings, and the mass media, and focus on multimodal and nonverbal activity in interaction, including gaze, body movement and gesture. As a consequence, the term conversation analysis has become something of a misnomer, but it has continued as a term for a distinctive and successful approach to the analysis of interactions. CA and ethnomethodology are sometimes considered one field and referred to as EMCA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grounded theory</span> Qualitative research methodology

Grounded theory is a systematic methodology that has been largely applied to qualitative research conducted by social scientists. The methodology involves the construction of hypotheses and theories through the collecting and analysis of data. Grounded theory involves the application of inductive reasoning. The methodology contrasts with the hypothetico-deductive model used in traditional scientific research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Labiaplasty</span> Plastic surgery procedure for altering the labia minora

Labiaplasty is a plastic surgery procedure for altering the labia minora and the labia majora, the folds of skin surrounding the human vulva. There are two main categories of women seeking cosmetic genital surgery: those with congenital conditions such as intersex, and those with no underlying condition who experience physical discomfort or wish to alter the appearance of their genitals because they believe they do not fall within a normal range.

Sheila Jeffreys is a former professor of political science at the University of Melbourne, born in England. A lesbian feminist scholar, she analyses the history and politics of human sexuality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vulva</span> External genital organs of the female mammal

The vulva consists of the external female sex organs. The vulva includes the mons pubis, labia majora, labia minora, clitoris, vestibular bulbs, vulval vestibule, urinary meatus, the vaginal opening, hymen, and Bartholin's and Skene's vestibular glands. The urinary meatus is also included as it opens into the vulval vestibule. Other features of the vulva include the pudendal cleft, sebaceous glands, the urogenital triangle, and pubic hair. The vulva includes the entrance to the vagina, which leads to the uterus, and provides a double layer of protection for this by the folds of the outer and inner labia. Pelvic floor muscles support the structures of the vulva. Other muscles of the urogenital triangle also give support.

Thematic analysis is one of the most common forms of analysis within qualitative research. It emphasizes identifying, analysing and interpreting patterns of meaning within qualitative data. Thematic analysis is often understood as a method or technique in contrast to most other qualitative analytic approaches - such as grounded theory, discourse analysis, narrative analysis and interpretative phenomenological analysis - which can be described as methodologies or theoretically informed frameworks for research. Thematic analysis is best thought of as an umbrella term for a variety of different approaches, rather than a singular method. Different versions of thematic analysis are underpinned by different philosophical and conceptual assumptions and are divergent in terms of procedure. Leading thematic analysis proponents, psychologists Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke distinguish between three main types of thematic analysis: coding reliability approaches, code book approaches and reflexive approaches. They describe their own widely used approach first outlined in 2006 in the journal Qualitative Research in Psychology as reflexive thematic analysis. Their 2006 paper has over 120,000 Google Scholar citations and according to Google Scholar is the most cited academic paper published in 2006. The popularity of this paper exemplifies the growing interest in thematic analysis as a distinct method.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Labia pride</span> A feminist movement

Labia pride is the promotion of a raised awareness of the appearance of female genitalia and the breaking of taboos surrounding the vulva, as carried out by feminist movements and advocacy groups. The name emphasizes the labia, as the trend towards cosmetic surgery on the female genitals has left many women insecure about the size and appearance of their labia. It is supported by several independent feminist groups and based on diverse channels of communication such as cyberfeminism, protest marches and advocating boycotts against physicians and clinics that make use of deceptive advertising.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosalind Gill</span>

Rosalind Clair Gill is a British sociologist and feminist cultural theorist. She is currently Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at City, University of London. Gill is author or editor of ten books, and numerous articles and chapters, and her work has been translated into Chinese, German, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish.

Ethnic plastic surgery, or ethnic modification, is plastic surgery intended to change an individual's appearance to look more or less like a particular race or ethnicity. Popular plastic surgery procedures which may have an ethnically-motivated component include rhinoplasty and blepharoplasty.

Susan "Sue" Speer C.Psychol, FHEA is a senior lecturer at the School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meredith Jones (author)</span> Australian cultural theorist (born 1965)

Meredith Rachael Jones is an Australian cultural theorist, currently employed at Brunel University London as Professor in Arts and Humanities, and as the director of its Institute of Communities and Society.

Victoria Clarke is a UK-based chartered psychologist and an Associate Professor in Qualitative and Critical Psychology at the University of the West England, Bristol. Her work focuses on qualitative psychology and critical psychology, and her background and training is in the fields of women studies, feminist psychology, LGBTQ psychology, and qualitative methods. She is particularly known for her ongoing collaboration with Professor Virginia Braun around qualitative methods. Braun and Clarke developed a widely cited approach to thematic analysis in 2006 and have published extensively around thematic analysis since then. They have also collaborated on an award-winning qualitative research textbook and more recently have published around the qualitative story completion method with the Story Completion Research Group.

<i>Femalia</i> 1993 book

Femalia is a book of 32 full-color photographs of human vulvas, edited by Joani Blank and first published by Down There Press in 1993. A reprint edition was published by Last Gasp in 2011. The photographs were taken by Tee Corinne, Michael Perry, Jill Posener, and Michael A. Rosen. The photographs are presented without commentary, except for Blank's brief introduction to the volume as a whole. Blank wanted to present accurate images of the subject, in contrast to pornographic or medical ones.

The husband stitch or husband's stitch, also known as the daddy stitch, husband's knot and vaginal tuck, is a surgical procedure in which one or more additional sutures than necessary are used to repair a woman's perineum after it has been torn or cut during childbirth. The claimed purpose is to tighten the opening of the vagina and thereby enhance the pleasure of her male sex partner during penetrative intercourse.

Nicola Gavey is a New Zealand psychology academic. She is currently a full professor at the University of Auckland.

The orgasm gap, or pleasure gap, is a social phenomenon referring to the general disparity between heterosexual men and women in terms of sexual satisfaction—more specifically, the unequal frequency in achievement of orgasm during sexual encounters. Currently, across every demographic that has been studied, women report the lowest frequency of reaching orgasm during sexual encounters with men. Researchers speculate there are multiple factors that may contribute to the orgasm gap. Orgasm gap researcher Laurie Mintz argues that the primary reason for this form of gender inequality is due to "our cultural ignorance of the clitoris" and that it is commonplace to "mislabel women's genitals by the one part that gives men, but not women, reliable orgasms."

Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology is a seminal psychology paper on thematic analysis by Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke published in 2006 in Qualitative Research in Psychology. The paper has over 70,000 Google Scholar citations and according to Google Scholar is the most cited academic paper published in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kerry Gibson</span> South African-New Zealand psychologist

Kerry Lynn Gibson is a South African-New Zealand clinical psychologist and academic, specialising in youth mental health. She is currently the Deputy Head of School (Academic) for the School of Psychology at the University of Auckland. Gibson was the president of the New Zealand Psychological Society, from 2014 until 2016.

References

  1. Braun, Virginia; Kitzinger, Celia (2001). "The perfectible vagina: Size matters". Culture, Health & Sexuality. 3 (3): 263–277. doi:10.1080/13691050152484704. S2CID   143982758.
  2. Braun, Virginia (2010). "Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery: A Critical Review of Current Knowledge and Contemporary Debates". Journal of Women's Health. 19 (7): 1393–1407. doi:10.1089/jwh.2009.1728. PMID   20509791.
  3. Terry, Gareth; Braun, Virginia (2016). ""I think gorilla-like back effusions of hair are rather a turn-off": 'Excessive hair' and male body hair (removal) discourse". Body Image. 17: 14–24. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2016.01.006. hdl: 10292/12579 . PMID   26907912.
  4. Braun, Virginia; Gavey, Nicola (2003). "The fair deal'? Unpacking accounts of reciprocity in heterosex". Sexualities. 6 (2): 237–261. doi:10.1177/1363460703006002005. S2CID   144614304.
  5. Clarke, Victoria; Braun, Virginia (2019). "Using Story Completion Methods in Qualitative Research". Qualitative Research in Psychology. 16 (1). doi: 10.1080/14780887.2018.1536378 .
  6. Braun, Virginia (1 January 2000). The vagina: an analysis (thesis). Loughborough University.
  7. "Inaugural lecture by Professor Virginia Braun: Telling tales of gendered bodies – The University of Auckland". Psych.auckland.ac.nz. 15 June 2017. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  8. "People". Sexual Politics Now. 28 January 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  9. "The Kiwi woman who campaigned to be sterilised". Now To Love. 17 May 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  10. "Motherhood not for every woman, professor says". Stuff.co.nz. 27 November 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  11. "2020 Award Recipients". scientists.org.nz. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
  12. "View our fellows". Royal Society Te Apārangi. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
  13. Braun, Virginia; Clarke, Victoria (2021). Thematic Analysis: A Practical Guide. Sage. ISBN   9781473953246.