Fiona Webster, PhD

Professor

Room 2356, FNB
519 661-2111 x81509
fiona.webster@uwo.ca

 



Education

  • PhD (University of Toronto)
  • MA (University of Toronto)
  • BA (University of Toronto)

Graduate Program Supervision

Research In Profile

Fiona Webster received her PhD (sociology) from the University of Toronto and has been an associate professor in 澳门六合彩开奖预测’s Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing since January 2019. She is also an academic fellow at the Centre for Critical Qualitative Health Research at the University of Toronto (UofT) and a cross-appointed associate professor in the Institute for Health Management and Evaluation (IHPME), and Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBHS), UofT. Professor Webster’s program of research is built upon a career-long interest in applying the tools, theories and insights of sociology to explore and improve the care of complex patients who suffer with chronic pain and other health conditions using largely ethnographic approaches. She has established herself as a nationally, and internationally respected scholar, conducting research at the intersection between health and culture and its impact on health equity, and social determinants of health. Her research effectively spans applied and social science/sociology outlets/scholarship, as evidenced by her many Tri-Council grants from both the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and her publication record in both leading sociology and clinical journals. She enjoys an international reputation as a leading methodologist, having deployed and written about key/innovative social science methods (i.e., institutional ethnography) within the fields of medicine and nursing.  

Featured Publications and Projects

Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals

  • Webster, F., Connoy, R., Rice, K., Sud, A., Pinto, A., Upshur R., & Dale, C.(2022). Journal of Pain, Volume 24, Issue 3, March 2023, Pages 437-448..
  • Webster F, Connoy L, Longo R, Ahuja D, Amtmann D, Anderson A, Ashton-James CE, Boyd H, Chambers CT, Cook KF, Cowan P, Crombez G, Feinstein AB, Fuqua A, Gilam G, Jordan I, Mackey SC, Martins E, Martire LM, O'Sullivan P, Richards DP, Turner JA, Veasley C, Würtzen H, Yang SY, You DS, Ziadni M, Darnall BD. Patient Responses to the Term Pain Catastrophizing: Thematic Analysis of Cross-sectional International Data. J Pain. 2022 Oct 11:S1526-5900(22)00418-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2022.10.001. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36241160.
  • Webster, F., Connoy, R., Rice, K., Sud, A., Pinto, A., Upshur R., & Dale, C.(2022). Chronic struggle: the situated experience of marginalization and chronic pain. Journal of Pain, August 2022.
  •  Sud, A., Grundy, Q., Buchman, D., Webster, F., & Upshur, R. (2022). Dispensing education: A critical discourse analysis of pharmaceutical industry promotion of Suboxone® during the opioid crisis. Medical Education, BMJ open 12 (7), e059561.
  • Shaw, J., Gagnon, M., Gladstone, B., Carson, A., Gastaldo, D., Webster, F., Eakin J. (2022) Advancing the Impact of Critical Qualitative Research on Policy, Practice, and Science. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069221076929
  • Webster, F., Connoy, L., Sud, A., Pinto, A., & Katz, J. (2020). Grappling with chronic pain and poverty during the COVID-19 pandemic. Canadian Journal of Pain, 4(1), 125-128.
  • Webster, F., Rice, K., & Sud, A. (2020). A critical content analysis of media reporting on opioids: The social construction of an epidemic. Social Science & Medicine, 244, Article 112642.
  • Dale, C., & Webster, F. (2020). Need caring, compassion or comfort? Sorry, I'm a doctor. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 192(25), E687.
  • Webster, F., Rice, K., Bhattacharyya, O., Katz, J., Dale, C., & Upshur, R. (2019). An ethnography of chronic pain management in primary care: The social organization of physicians’ work in the midst of the opioid crisis. PLOS One, 14(5), Article e0215148.

Visit for a comprehensive list of publications.

Current Grants and Research Projects

  • Co-investigator, SSHRC Insight Development grant, An institutional ethnography of chronic pain among women living with trauma, 2023-2025, $32,695.00, PI: Laura Connoy
  • Principal Investigator, Toward democratization of health: a sociological exploration of patient engagement in pain research. SSHRC Partnership grant.  2023-2027, $2.49 Million
  • Principal Investigator, COPE II: Chronic pain ethnography, CIHR funded 2020-2023, $238K.
  • Principal Investigator, Chronic pain, poverty, addiction and mental health in a time of pandemic, CIHR funded 2021-2023, $160K
  • Collaborator, Canadian Pain Network 2.0. PI: Norm Buckley. CIHR funded 2022-2024, $$938k
  • Co-investigator, Choosing the right model of care together: Shared decision making to improve equitable implementation of in-person vs virtual care for youth with chronic pain and their families. PI: Katie Birnie. CIHR Funded 2022-2023, $99K

Featured Graduate Student Projects

Youth Living with Bipolar Disorder: How they Understand and Experience Spirituality.

  • Solomon, Michelle (2020-present). PhD student, Nursing.

  • Longo, Riana (2022). MScN, Nursing.

  • Boulton, Margot (2022). MScN, Nursing.

The work of getting better: An institutional ethnography of an early psychosis intervention clinic.

  • Elaine Stasiulis (2022). PhD, Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, University of Toronto.

Analyzing biomedical discourses around infertility

  • Andrea Carson (2014-2019). PhD, University of Toronto, Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

Visit for a list of completed student theses and dissertations in the repository.

Postdoctoral Associates

  • Laura Connoy, PhD sociology
  • Leigha Comer, PhD sociology
  • Kara Turcotte, PhD psychology

Additional Information

Academic Appointments and Research Affiliations

  • Editorial Board member, Canadian Journal of Pain
  • Member, Program Committee, North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG)
  • Co-chair, Research Methods Group, NAPCRG
  • Cross-appointed, Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Toronto
  • Cross-appointed, Institute of Health Policy Management & Evaluation (IHPME), University of Toronto
  • Academic Fellow, Centre for Critical Qualitative Health Research (CQ), University of Toronto

Awards

Research Awards

  • 2023-2025 Faculty Scholar Award
  • 2023 CIHR-IMHA Inclusive Research Excellence Prizes - Team Award
  • 2014–2019 New Investigator Award, Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR). An institutional ethnography of chronic OA pain management in family medicine (COPE). 300,000 CAD.
  • 2014 Research Ambassadors Knowledge Translation Award, CIHR Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis (IMHA).
  • 2014 Excellence in Research, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto.
  • 2013 Excellence in Research in Professional Development, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto.

Curriculum Development and Teaching Awards

  • 2018 Eugenie Stuart Award for Excellence in Thesis Supervision, Institute for Health Policy Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto.
  • 2013 Helen P. Batty Faculty Development Award - Innovation in Program Development and Design, Centre for Faculty Development, Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, Ontario. (Wilson Centre Qualitative Research Atelier). Group award.

Presentation or Publication Awards
Best Scientific Paper

  • Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons, Best Scientific Paper award 2022. (Retrouvey H, Zhong T, Gagliardi AR, Baxter NN, Webster F. (2020). How Ineffective Interprofessional Collaboration Affects Delivery of Breast Reconstruction to Breast Cancer Patients: A Qualitative Study. Ann Surg Oncol. Jul;27(7).
  • Scientific Session Top Paper Award, Association of Women Surgeons, Washington D.C. October 2016. (Webster, F., Rice, K., Christian, J., Seemann, N., Baxter, N., Moulton, C. A., & Cil, T. (2016). The erasure of gender. American Journal of Surgery, 212(4), 559-565.)
  • Pearl Award: Top 5 best papers of the year 2015, awarded at the DFCM Annual Research Day, April 2016. (Webster, F., Rice, K., Dainty, K., Zwarenstein, M., Durant, S., & Kuper, A. (2015). Failure to cope: The hidden curriculum of emergency department wait times and the implications for clinical training. Academic Medicine, 90(1), 56-62.).

Professional Activities

  • Editorial Board member, Canadian Journal of Pain
  • Member, Program Committee, North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG)
  • Co-chair, Research Methods Group, NAPCRG