Media Release
April 2 2008
Top prize for suicide research
UniSA’s
postdoctoral research associate in health sciences,
Dr Katrina Jaworski has been awarded the
Ian Davey
Research Thesis Prize for the most outstanding 2007 PhD thesis, The
gender of suicide.
Completed at the
School of
Communication, Dr Jaworski’s thesis looks at how gender plays an
important part in the way that society understands suicide.
“Research shows that suicide is seen as a universally male and masculine activity. Because women
tend to
choose less violent suicide methods than men, like drug overdoses, women’s
experiences often are not treated with the same level of seriousness,” Dr Jaworski said.
“Women are viewed as attempters, while men are seen as completers, based
on mortality rates, which show that more men than women are successful
at committing suicide. Where women don’t survive, what is interesting is
that their intentions are often still questioned,” she said.
Dr Jaworski says that just because a suicide attempt is non-violent, we
should not assume that a person doesn’t mean to commit suicide or that a
person’s struggle is not serious enough for us to pay attention to it.
“By ranking them as such, we might compound the voicelessness
experienced by those who struggle and miss an important message,” Dr
Jaworski said.
“To help prevent suicide, we need to think about what ideas and
assumptions inform our practices to ensure that we don’t make things
worse for those who struggle with suicide, or those who are left to deal
with its aftermath,” Dr Jaworski said.
The prize, established by former Pro Vice Chancellor Research, Emeritus
Professor Ian Davey, is awarded for a thesis that is passed without
significant changes, is accepted or likely to be accepted for
publication and is likely to have a significant impact on communities
beyond the University.
Dr Jaworski’s thesis was supervised by Director Research in the School
of Communication,
Dr Vicki Crowley, and passed without any changes.
Dr Jaworski paid tribute to Dr Crowley, who encouraged her work to be
interdisciplinary, to be rigorous and to use different theoretical tools
in conducting her research.
The Ian Davey Research Thesis Prize will be presented to Dr Jaworski at
UniSA’s graduation ceremony to be held in the Adelaide Festival Centre
on Thursday April 3 at 10.30 am.
Media contact
- Geraldine Hinter office (08) 8302 0963 mobile 0417 861832 email geraldine.hinter@unisa.edu.au