Associate Professor Bruce Cohen

Experience, background and philosophy

Bruce studied sociology in the north of England in the 1990s, and worked as a post-doctorate researcher at both the Humboldt University in Berlin and the University of South Australia in Adelaide in the early 2000s, before becoming a full-time academic in Sociology at Waipapa Taumata Rau / University of Auckland in 2008. With thirty five years social research experience, he has undertaken empirical work on topics such as mental health user meanings of illness, community-based youth music projects, police perceptions of drug users, alternatives to psychiatric hospitalisation, migrant labor markets, female perceptions of crime and safety, and the criminalisation of ‘legal highs’. Bruce's research now focuses primarily on medicalisation, the DSM, and critical theories of psychiatry, mental illness and professional power. He has published over 50 academic books, articles, and chapters to date.