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of Victoria
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Department of Sociology

André Smith

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Associate professor

Sociology

Status:
Not available to supervise graduate students
Contact:
Office: COR A309 250-721-7583
Credentials:
PhD (McGill)
Area of expertise:
Aging

Dr. André Smith has research interests in the areas of aging, mental health, ethnicity and blood donation. His research program reflects a desire to understand the intersectionality of health and health-related behavior and their wider socio-cultural, institutional and familial dimensions.

Dr. Smith is affiliated with UVic’s Institute on Aging and Lifelong Health and has received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Alzheimer Society of Canada.

Dr. Smith has studied the diagnostic experiences of individuals with dementia and their family caregivers. In collaboration with Dr. Kobayashi, he has also examined how cultural values and immigration history mediate intergenerational understandings of dementia in Japanese Canadian families. As a member of the UBC’s ELDERS research team, he has been involved in research on the social determinants of oral health in elderly populations of Chinese and Punjabi origins.

Research

His current research program examines how institutions, regulatory environments, and organizational cultures influence health care practices with a focus on:

  • the experiences of family caregivers to relatives receiving drug treatment for Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia (with Dr. Neena Chappell and Dr. Karen Kobayashi)
  • the discourse of dementia drugs advertising
  • the social determinants of blood donation (with Dr. Ralph Matthews and Dr. Jay Fiddler)

His articles on aging, dementia, mental health,and blood donation appear in the Journal of Aging Studies, The Journal of Deviant Behaviour, Dementia and Canadian Review of Sociology.

Teaching

Dr. Smith teaches courses in qualitative research methods, mental health and self and identity. He is available to supervise graduate students in the following areas: aging, dementia, health and health regulation, mental health, qualitative research strategies, self and identity and interactionist sociology.

Dr. Smith is no longer accepting graduate students for supervision.

Interests

  • aging
  • dementia
  • health and illness
  • health policy
  • blood donation
  • mental Illness
  • qualitative methodologies
  • social inequality

Publications

Smith, A., Kampen, R., Erb, T., MacDonald, S., Sheets, D. (2022) "Choral singing and dementia: Exploring musicality as embodied and relational accomplishment." Journal of Aging Studies, 63: 1-8.

Gorenko, J.A., Smith, A.P., Hundza, S.R., Halliday, D.W.R., DeCarlo, C.A., Sheets, D.J., Stawski, R.S. and MacDonald, S.W.S. (2020). “A socially-engaged lifestyle moderates the association between gait velocity and cognitive impairment.” Aging and Mental Health, 10:1-9. 

Dodge, C. and Smith, A. (2019). “Successfully transitioning into a caregiving relationship: Well siblings’ experiences of caring for a brother or sister with schizophrenia.” Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health, 38(2):35-47.

Abrar, A., Fairbrother, N., Smith, A., Skoll, A., and Albert, A. (2019). “Anxiety among women experiencing medically complicated pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.” Birth, Jun 21:1–8.

Rodrigues, L.M., Smith, A., Sheets, D., & Hémond, J. (2018). “The meaning of a visual arts program for older adults in complex residential care.” Canadian Journal on Aging, 38(2):143-154.

Berard, A. & Smith, A. (2018). “Post your journey: Instagram as a support community for people with fibromyalgia.” Qualitative Health Research 29(2), 237-247.

Chappell, N., Dujela, C., Smith, A., (2015). "Caregiver well-being: Intersections of relationship and gender." Research on Aging, 37(6):623-645.

Chappell, N., Dujela, C., Smith, A. (2014). "Spouse/adult child differences in caregiving burden." Canadian Journal on Aging, 33 (04):462-472.

Chappell, N., Dujela, C., Smith, A. (2014). "Caregiver quality of life: intersections of relationship and gender." Research on Aging, September 12:1-23.

MacEntee, M.I., Wong, S.T, Smith, A., Beattie, B. Lynn, Brondani, M., Bryant, R., Graff, P. and Soheilipour, S. (2014) “Perceptions of oral health amongst older Punjabi-speaking South-Asian immigrants.” Canadian Journal on Aging, 33(2):1-12.

Smith, A., Matthews, R. & Fiddler, J. (2013) "Recruitment and retention of blood donors in four  Canadian cities: An analysis of the role of community and social networks." Transfusion, 53(S5):180S–184S.

Smith, A., MacEntee, M.I., Beattie, B.L., Brondani, M., Bryant, R., Graf, P., Hornby, K., Kobayashi, K. and Wong, S.T. (2013). "The influence of culture on the oral health-related beliefs and behaviours of elderly Chinese immigrants: a meta-synthesis of  the literature." Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 28:27–47.

Smith, A., and Anaïs, S. (2012). “Self-induced water intoxication in a psychiatric asylum: a  case study of diagnostic categorization and regulation.” The Journal of Deviant Behavior, 33(4):324-338. 

Smith, A., Fiddler, J., Walby, K. and Hier, S.P. (2011). “Blood donation and institutional trust: risk, policy rhetoric and the men who have sex with men lifetime deferral policy in Canada.” Canadian Review of Sociology, 48(4):369-389. 

Smith, A., Gair, J., McGee, P., Valdez, J. and Kirk, P. (2011). “Teaching empathy through role-play and fabric art: An innovative pedagogical approach for end-of-life health care providers.” The International Journal of the Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice, 10:1-16.

Fisher-Cloutier, D. Kobayashi, K. and Smith, A. (2011). “The subjective dimension of social isolation: a qualitative investigation of older adults’ experiences in small social support networks.” Journal of Aging Studies, 25(4): 407-414.

Smith, A., Kobayashi, K., Chappell, N. and Hoxsey, D. (2011). “The controversial promises of cholinesterase inhibitors for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias: a qualitative study of caregivers’ experiences.” Journal of Aging Studies, 25(4):397-406.

Hier, S.P., Lett, D., Walby, K. and Smith, A. (2011). "Beyond folk devil resistance: linking moral panic and moral regulation." Criminology and Criminal Justice, 11(3):261-278.

Smith, A., Matthews, R. and Fiddler, J. (2011). “Blood donation and community: exploring the influence of social capital.” The International Journal of Social Inquiry, 4(1), 45-63.   

O’Connor, D., Phinney, A., Smith, A., Small, J., Purves, B., Perry J.A, Drance, E., Donnelly, M., Chaudhury, H. and Beattie, B.L. (2007). “Personhood in dementia care: developing a research agenda for broadening the vision.”  Dementia: The International Journal of Social Research and Practice, 6(1):121-142.      

Smith, A. and Kobayashi, K.M. (2002) "Making sense of dementia in an intergenerational context: the case of a Japanese Canadian nisei (second generation)–headed family." Dementia: The International Journal of Social Research and Practice, 1(2):213-225.

Smith, A. and Beattie, B.L. (2001) "Disclosing a diagnosis of Alzheimer disease: patients and families’ experiences." Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences, 28(Suppl. 1):S67-S71.

Smith, A. (1996). "Cross-cultural inquiry into Alzheimer's disease: a critical review." Transcultural Psychiatry, 33(3), 247-276.

Smith, G.N., Honer, W.G., Kopala, L., MacEwan, G.W., Altman, S. and Smith, A. (1995). "Obstetric complications and severity of illness in schizophrenia." Schizophrenia Research 14(2):113-20.

Honer, W.G., Smith, G.N., MacEwan, G.W., Kopala, L., Altman, S., Yorkston, N., Ehmann, T.S., Smith, A. and Lang, M. (1994) "Diagnostic reassessment and treatment response in schizophrenia." Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 55(12):528-32.

Millson, R., Smith, A., Koczapski, A., Cook, M., Kragelj, T.L. and Glackman, W.B. (1993). "Self-induced water intoxication treated with psychotherapy." American Journal of Psychiatry, 150(5), 825-826.  

Charbonneau, J. and Smith, A. (eds.) (2016). Giving Blood: The Institutional Making of Altruism. Abingdon, Oxfordshire, UK: Routledge.

Charbonneau, J. and Smith, A. (2016). “Blood donation and the range of historical and institutional trajectories.” In J. Charbonneau and A. Smith (eds.), Giving Blood: The Institutional Making of Altruism. Abingdon, Oxfordshire, UK: Routledge.

Smith, A. and Charbonneau, J. (2016). “Blood donation in the social world: toward a critical, contextualized paradigm of understanding.” In J. Charbonneau and A. Smith (eds.), Giving Blood: The Institutional Making of Altruism. Abingdon, Oxfordshire, UK: Routledge.

Smith, A. (2016). “The marketing of blood donation: organizational discourse, practice and symbolic tension in a blood donation clinic.” In J. Charbonneau and A. Smith (eds.). Giving Blood: The Institutional Making of Altruism. Abingdon, Oxfordshire, UK: Routledge.

Smith, A., Gair, J., McGee, P., Valdez, J. and Kirk, P. (2014). “Teaching empathy through role-play and fabric art: an innovative pedagogical approach for end-of-life health care providers.” In Cheryl McLean (ed.), Creative Arts in Humane Medicine (pp. 1-23). Toronto, Ont.: Brush Education. 

Smith, A., Matthews, R.,and Fiddler, J. (2012). “Capital social, appartenance communautaire et don de sang: une étude qualitative dans deux villes affichant un taux élevé de donneurs.” In J. Charbonneau et N. Tran, en coll. avec A. Fantauzzi (eds.), Le don de sang dans le monde : une réflexion sur l’altruisme, la solidarité et  l’étranger (pp. 95-109). Rennes: Presses de l’EHESS.

Walby, K. and Smith, A. (2012). “Sex and sexuality under surveillance: lenses and binary  frames.” In P. Johnson. and D. Dalton (eds.), Policing Sex (pp. 54-66). London:  Routledge.

Lett, D., Hier, S., Walby, K. and Smith, A. (2011). “Panic, regulation, and the moralization of British law and order politics.” In S. Hier (ed.), Moral Panic and the Politics of Anxiety (pp. 155-170). London: Routledge.

Smith, A. (2009). “Decision-making as social practice: exploring the relevance of Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and symbolic capital.” In D. O’Connor and B. Purves (eds.), Decision-making, Personhood and Dementia (pp.37-46). Jessica Kingsley Press.

Smith, A. and Fiddler, J. (2008). “Making the gift of life safer: The Canadian tainted blood scandal and its regulatory consequences.” In Bolaria, S. B. and H. Dickinson (eds.), Health, Illness and Health Care in Canada. Fourth Edition (pp. 491-505). Scarborough, Ont.: Nelson Thomson Learning.

McGowan, B.J. and Smith, A. (2010). “She’s fast for her age! Older women and running culture.” The Arbutus Review, 1:1-14.

Whitney, A. and Smith, A. (2010). “Exploring death and dying through discourse.” The Arbutus Review, 1:60-80.

Smith, A. (2008). "Dementia.” Encyclopedia of Social Problems. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Smith, A. (2012). “Review of Bartlett, R. and O’Connor, D. (2010), Broadening the Dementia Debate." Canadian Journal on Aging, 31(2):255-56.

Smith, A. (2009). “Review of Gubrium, J.F. and Holstein, J.A. (2009), Analyzing Narrative Reality.” Canadian Journal on Sociology , 34(4):1148-49.

Kirmayer, L., Gill, K., Fletcher, C., Ternar, Y., Boothroy, C., Consuelo, Q., Smith, A., Ferrara, N. and Hayton, B. (1994)  Emerging trends in research on mental health among Aboriginal Peoples. A report prepared for the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Immigrant and Refugee Mental Health Work Group, Institute of Community and Family Psychiatry, Jewish Hospital, Montreal, QC.