At Harvard, Professor Rapport, who is also Professor of Qualitative Health Research at the Medical School’s Institute of Life Science, will learn new narrative approaches to data analysis with the eminent Professor Elliot Mishler, Professor of Social Psychology. She will examine the health consequences of being a Holocaust survivor and what that might reveal about how people suffer and deal with trauma.

Acknowledging the award Professor Rapport said, “It is a real honour to be accepted to work with Professor Mishler, who is recognised the world over as a leading light in narrative analysis techniques. I will be able to bring skills back to the UK that will not only enrich my work but others’ research and pass on skills through teaching and learning initiatives.”

While predominantly doing research, Professor Rapport will also teach students, clinical groups and research groups at Harvard University’s Cambridge Hospital.

The Harvard post was awarded because of Professor Rapport’s previous work on Holocaust survivors. She is the current winner of an Ethnographic Poetry Competition for her work on Holocaust survivor ethnographic testimony, sponsored by the US-based Society for Humanistic Anthropology as part of the American Anthropological Association, the biggest anthropology association in the world.

Frances Rapport (PhD) is Professor of Qualitative Health Research, before which she held the position of Reader in Qualitative Health Research at the School of Medicine, Swansea University. Professor Rapport heads up the Qualitative Research Unit (QUARU) at the Centre for Health Information, Research and Evaluation (CHIRAL), School of Medicine. She co-leads Qualitative Inquiry Cymru (QUIC), an all-Wales group of qualitative researchers and methodologists interested in developing the quality of research outputs underpinned by qualitative methodologies in Wales to enhance research capacity.

She also holds the position of Honorary Senior Research Fellow at De Montfort University, Leicester and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Professor Rapport organises and runs an annual Masterclass programme in ‘Advances in Qualitative Methods’, which provides a forum for internationally renowned guest speakers to present their work on qualitative research to wide, multi-disciplinary audiences of health and social care providers, academics, students and researchers.

She offers seminars in qualitative research to post-graduates at the School of Medicine and is involved in a number of research projects in the areas of: the use of health professional workspace and its impact on practice, professionalism and self identity, fertility and minority ethnic communities, innovations in gastroenterology service provision and organisation and the health beliefs of the mentally ill. 

Before taking up her current position, Professor Rapport was the first named  ‘Julian Tudor Hart Senior Research Fellow’ at the School of Medicine in Swansea. The Fellowship was awarded in 2003 to the sum of £200,000. 

For further information about Swansea University's School of Medicine, please visit the website.