Arrived

In the last post I wrote that I had arrived back in the UK. This post is about truly arriving.

My purpose in coming to the UK was to speak at the Second International Conference on Weight Stigma in Canterbury.

This is not the first time I’ve presented research at an International Conference, in fact I’ve previously spoken at conferences in Canada, the US, Australia, Japan, Finland, and Italy. What is different this time is that I am presenting research where I am the principal investigator, not someone else.

For me this is the real reward for the journey I undertook, beginning in 2011, to get my doctorate. Doctoral research requires the researcher investigate a unique area of study, one that no one else in the world has undertaken. As I narrowed my study area to weight stigma in health care it was my supervisor, Darlene McNaughton, who having published in this area, challenged me to go further. She suggested I look specifically at whether weight is seen to be a risk factor for diabetes and if so to investigate the implications. 

Her brilliance was confirmed at the conference (and earlier)! Although people from all over Europe, the US, Australia and New Zealand spoke about finding weight stigma in their research no one else was looking into the implications of weight bias in health care, specifically in the treatment of Type 2 Diabetes.
So I am an ‘expert’ in this area, so to speak, I have a niche. But now I need to get writing to publish my findings so no one beats me to it! 

So much for sightseeing!