Dr Edward Tolhurst

Associate Professor

Health, Education, Policing and Sciences

I am a Senior Lecturer, and researcher in the field of dementia, ageing and care. My research focus is the experience of dementia and how this is shaped by relationships, social location, and sociocultural factors. I am based in the Postgraduate team and course leader for the MSc in Medical Education. I also lead the University’s Step Up to Master’s programme. In addition, I am a Research Ethics Coordinator within the School of Health, Science and Wellbeing, and accordingly member of the University’s Research Ethics Committee.

Professional memberships and activities

  • Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
  • Advisory Group Member – European Sociological Association’s Research Network on Ageing in Europe
  • Lay Member - Coventry and Warwick NHS Research Ethics Committee 

Academic qualifications

  • PhD in Health Studies, Staffordshire University
  • PgCert in Higher and Professional Education, Staffordshire University
  • MA in Social Research, University of Warwick
  • BA (Hons) Sociology and Social Policy, University of Liverpool
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Research interests

  • Dementia and care
  • Ageing, dignity, and safety

Grants

  • British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants (2018) - £2,813 “How do women with dementia and their spousal partners experience the impact of the condition?”
  • British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants (2023) - £5,433 “How can the personhood of dementia care workers be supported?”

Teaching

  • Course leader – Postgraduate awards in Medical Education
  • Leader – Step Up to Master’s Module
  • Leader – Master’s Dissertations
  • I teach on further modules at Postgraduate and Undergraduate levels, including Dementia Awareness, Research, Leadership, and Risk and Decision-Making.

Postgraduate supervision

  • I supervise doctoral students
  • I review/examine PhD work, and Chair PhD vivas

Publications

Articles

Tolhurst, E. & Weicht, B. (2023) Navigating the Experience of Dementia: The experience of male spousal carers. Healthcare. [forthcoming] 

Tolhurst, E. Weicht, B. & Runacres, J. (2023) Sustaining Relational Subjectivity: The perspectives of women with dementia. Sociology of Health and Illness, 45(3): 503-521. 

Weicht, B. & Tolhurst, E. (2023) The Spousal Unit and Dementia: Investigating the relational basis of the couplehood concept. Healthcare, 11, 2191. 

Wells, A. & Tolhurst, E. (2021) In-hours Acute Home Visits by Advanced Nurse Practitioners in Primary Care: a qualitative study. British Journal of Nursing, 30(13):788-792.

Hall, M. & Tolhurst, E. (2020) Supporting Self-Management of Type 2 Diabetes within a Primary Care Setting. Journal of Diabetes Nursing. 24(5).

Tolhurst, E., Carey, M., Weicht, B. & Kingston, K. (2019) Is Living Well with Dementia a Credible Aspiration for Spousal Carers? Health Sociology Review, 28(1): 54-68.

Tolhurst, E. & Weicht, B. (2018) Unyielding Selflessness: Relational negotiations, dementia and care, Journal of Aging Studies, 47: 32-38.

Tolhurst, E., Weicht, B. & Kingston, P. (2017) Narrative Collisions, Sociocultural Pressures and Dementia: The relational basis of personhood reconsidered. Sociology of Health and Illness, 39(2): 212-226.

Tolhurst, E. & Weicht, B. (2017) Preserving Personhood: The strategies of men negotiating the experience of dementia. Journal of Aging Studies, 40: 29-35.

Tolhurst, E. (2016) The Burgeoning Interest in Young Onset Dementia: Redressing the balance or reinforcing ageism? International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 10(2): 9-29.

Tolhurst, E., Bhattacharyya, S. & Kingston, P. (2014) Young Onset Dementia: the impact of emergent age-based factors upon personhood. Dementia, 13(2): 193-206.

Tolhurst, E. & Kingston, P. (2013) Understanding the Experience of Dementia: Utilising the theoretical insights of ‘status passage’. Social Theory & Health, 11(2): 175–193.

Tolhurst, E. (2012) Grounded Theory Method: Sociology's quest for exclusive items of inquiry. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 13(3), Art. 26.

Conference Presentations

Sociology of Health and Medicine (ESA RN16) Conference – Prague: ‘Relational Narratives: The experience of women with dementia and their male spousal partners’ (May 2023).

ESA Research Network on Ageing in Europe, 6th PhD Workshop – Vienna: ‘Negotiating the PhD Process: What I wish I had known [Keynote]’ (July 2022).

ESA Research Network on Ageing in Europe, 4th Midterm Conference – Brno, Czech Republic: ‘Unyielding Selflessness: Strategic interaction and the negotiation of care relationships’ (September 2018).

13th European Sociological Association Conference – Athens: ‘Anti-reductionist sociology as a basis for dementia studies’ (September 2017).

23rd Nordic Congress of Gerontology – Tampere, Finland: ‘Stoical acceptance and active endeavour: the strategies of men negotiating the experience of dementia’ (June 2016).

International Institute of Qualitative Methodology, 15th Qualitative Methods Conference - Glasgow: ‘Qualitative inquiry and the sociological imagination: narrative collisions, sociocultural pressures and dementia’ (May 2016).

10th UK Dementia Congress - Telford: ‘The experiential impacts of cognitive function tests upon men with dementia and their carers’ (November 2015).

ESA Research Network on Ageing in Europe, 2nd Midterm Conference – Klagenfurt, Austria: ‘The burgeoning focus on young onset dementia: redressing the balance or reflecting ageism?’ (September 2014).

European Society on Family Relations, 7th Annual Congress – Madrid: Invited Symposium (coordinator and presenter) ‘Dementia and the family: developing a textured relational framework’, with Benbow, S., Hellström, I. & Lovatt, M. (September 2014).

Qualitative Health Research, 19th Annual Conference - Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada: ‘Joint interviews and research into the experience of dementia’ (October 2013).

External profiles

in the UK for Quality Education

Sustainable Development Goal 4, Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2024

for Career Prospects

Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2023

for Facilities

Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2023

for Social Inclusion

The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023

of Research Impact is ‘Outstanding’ or ‘Very Considerable’

Research Excellence Framework 2021

of Research is “Internationally Excellent” or “World Leading”

Research Excellence Framework 2021

Four Star Rating

QS Star Ratings 2021