Whitaker Anna

Department of Social Sciences
Campus Sköndal

Position:	Vice Head/Academic Coordinator, Associate professor in Social Work
Telephone:	+46 (0)8-555 051 34
E-mail:	anna.whitaker(at)esh.se
Address:	Ersta Sköndal University College Department of Social Sciences Box 441 SE-128 06 Stockholm Sweden
Visiting address:	Herbert Widmans väg 12

Background

In 2004 Anna Whitaker completed and defended her dissertation – The Final Home. Family Ties, Ageing and Death in a Nursing Home – at the Department of Social Work, Stockholm University. She has been a member of the Research Department at Ersta Sköndal University College during the years of 1997-2002. After completing her Ph D studies, she has had various appointments as researcher at The National Institute for the Study of Ageing and Later Life (NISAL) at Linköping University. Since February 2007 she is working as a researcher with a postdoc-grant at Ersta Sköndal University College.

Main Areas of Research Interest

In 2004 Anna Whitaker completed and defended her dissertation – The Last Home. Family Ties, Ageing and Death in a Nursing Home – at the Department of Social Work, Stockholm University.

Anna Whitaker’s research includes social and existential issues on death and dying, end-of-life eldercare; informal care; family care and institution-based eldercare. Another area of interest concerns the Church of Sweden and its role in the end-of-life care and bereavement. Her interest in informal/family caregivers is being pursued at present through a study on Disability, Family and Ageing. Theoretically she is interested in the life course perspective and in sociological themes on time, space/place and body.

At the Department of Social Work, Anna Whitaker lectures mainly on issues concerning social and behavioural sciences, theories in social work and social gerontology, life course, and qualitative methods.

Current research projects

“Disbandment of home. The changing meaning of possessions in later life transitions” is a project that Anna Whitaker leads at the National Institute for the Study of Ageing and Later Life (NISAL), Linköping University. The overall aim is to study the changing meaning of personal possessions in later life transitions. These later life transitions are linked to the ageing process. The project is funded by The Swedish Research Council. 2010-2012.

”Disability, Family and Ageing” is a study conducted within the realm of a major project on Disability, Life-course and Ageing that Prof. Jeppsson Grassman leads at the National Institute for the Study of Ageing and Later Life (NISAL), Linköping University. 2006-2010

Selected publications

Jeppsson Grassman, E., Pessi, A.B., Whitaker, A. & Juntunen, E. (2010) Spiritual Care in the Last Phase of Life: A Comparison between the Church of Sweden and the Church of Finland. The Journal of Pastoral Care & Counselling, 64 (3), 3.1-10.

Whitaker, A. (2010) The body as existential midpoint - the aging and dying body of nursing home residents. Journal of Aging Studies, 24, 2, 96-104.

Jeppsson Grassman, E. & Whitaker, A. (2009) Divergent logics of Spiritual Care. End of Life and the Role of the Church of Sweden. Journal of Religion, Spirituality and Aging, 21, 4, 344-360.

Whitaker, A. (2009) Family involvement in the institutional eldercare context. Towards a new understanding. Journal of Aging Studies, 23(3), 158-167.

Jeppsson Grassman, E., Whitaker, A. & Taghizadeh Larsson, A. (2009) Family as failure. The role of informal helpgivers to disabled people in Sweden. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 11, 1, 35-49.

Whitaker, A. (2009) Åldrande, död och anhörigskap [Ageing, death and family ties]. Malmö: Gleerups.

Jeppsson Grassman, E. & Whitaker, A. (2007) End of Life and Dimensions of Civil Society. The Church of Sweden in a New Geography of Death. Mortality, 12, 3, 261-280.

Whitaker, A. (2007) Gamla och nya boendemiljöer för vård och omsorg av äldre – en översikt. [Old and New Care Environments for Older People – A Review]. Working Paper 2007:1. Linköping: Linköpings University.

Jeppsson Grassman, E & Whitaker, A. (2006) With or Without Faith: The Church of Sweden at a Time of Transition. OMEGA: Journal of Death and Dying, 53, 1-2, 153-172.

Whitaker, A. (2005). Kroppen under livets sista tid – de allra äldstas döende kroppar [The body during the final phases in life – the dying body of the oldest old]. In Jeppsson Grassman, E. & Hydén L-Ch. (eds), Kropp, livslopp och åldrande. Några samhällsvetenskapliga perspektiv [Body, Life Course and Ageing. Some Social Perspectives]. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Whitaker, A. (2004) Livets sista boning – anhörigskap, åldrande och död på sjukhem. [The last home – family ties, ageing and death in a nursing home] (doctoral thesis) Stockholm: Stockholm University, Department of Social Work.

Ersta Sköndal högskola

Campus Ersta

Stigbergsgatan 30, Box 11189, SE-100 61 Stockholm
Tel: +46 8 555 050 00, Fax: +46 8 550 050 60
E-post: info(at)esh.se

Campus Sköndal

Herbert Widmans väg 12, Box 441, SE-128 06 Sköndal
Tel: +46 8 555 050 00, Fax: +46 8 550 051 65
E-post: campusskondal(at)esh.se