Alex Broom is Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the Practical Justice Initiative, Centre for Social Research in Health, The University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney). He is recognised as an international leader in the sociology of health and illness. His current focus is on developing critical analyses of the social dynamics of cancer and palliative care and the global challenge of antimicrobial resistance across contexts and cultures. Before joining UNSW he was an Australian Research Council Future Fellow at The University of Queensland from 2011-15.

He has published over 240 publications including 14 books, and his recent books include Dying: A Social Perspective on the End of Life (Routledge, 2015), Bodies and Suffering: Emotions and Relations of Care (Routledge 2017, with Ana Dragojlovic), and, Survivorship: A Sociology of Cancer in Everyday Life (Routledge, forthcoming).

He is Associate Editor, Qualitative Health Research.

Across all his projects Alex works regularly with a wide range of industry partners (e.g. hospitals, community organisations, professional organisations related to health and medicine) with a focus on improving people’s experiences of illness and the delivery of healthcare. His program of research melds the conceptual richness of sociology with the value of applied, translational health research. He specialises in qualitative research, but employs a wide range of research methods to gain a better understanding of complex and emerging social problems.

He is also a PLuS Alliance Fellow - a partnership between King’s College London, Arizona State University and UNSW - working across the areas of Global Health and Social Justice.