UPSIDE-Symposium
Uppsala Studies in Social Interaction and Discourse
Uppsala universitet
Dates: March 25–26, 2026
Welcome to the second UPSIDE symposium on March 25–26. This time we will focus on professional discourse.
Program
The symposium will be held at Campus Engelska Parken. Please use Mazemap if you have trouble finding the rooms. We will notify you by e-mail if there are last minute changes. We would appreciate if you would let us know if you are unable to attend the symposium.
Wednesday March 25
9:15–10:00 Introduction (Campus Engelska Parken 2-0076)
10:15–12:00 Seminar (Engelska Parken 2-0076)
Jeffrey Robinson, Full Professor in the Department of Communication, Portland State University and Affiliate Professor of Radiation Medicine at the Oregon Health and Science University.
Word Choice and the Patient Encounter
Words demonstrate competence, generate trust, and convey empathy. Small wording changes during patient-clinician encounters can affect visit interactions as well as visit outcomes. How clinicians word or frame questions or statements, and where these questions or statements are placed during patient encounters, are impactful. Informed by Conversation Analysis, this talk provides examples of how subtle changes in word choice affect the information patients provide to clinicians, patients’ uptake of information from clinicians, and patients’ adherence to recommended interventions.
12–13 lunch Restaurant Feiroz Engelska Parken (at self cost)
Data sessions 13:15–17:00 (Campus Engelska Parken 2-1024)
13:15–14:15 Anne Marie Dalby Landmark, Department of Education, University of South-Eastern Norway. Physicians' opening questions about acute chest pain in the emergency department
14:15–14:45 Coffee break
14:45–15:45 Anna Lindström, Department of Scandinavian languages, Uppsala University. Patient requests in primary care consultations for respiratory tract infection
15:45–16:00 Coffee break
16:00–17:00 Anja Rydén Gramner, Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning (IBL), Linköping University. Role model or cautionary tale - medical students' discussions about fictional doctors and their professionality
18:00 Dinner at restaurant Hodja (Sysslomansgatan 13) (at self cost)
Thursday March 26
10:15–12 Seminar (Campus Engelska Parken 2-0076)
Jeffrey Robinson, Full Professor in the Department of Communication, Portland State University and Affiliate Professor of Radiation Medicine at the Oregon Health and Science University.
Applying Conversation Analysis to Breast-Cancer Care: How Preference Organization Can Frustrate Treatment Decision Making
This talk applies the Conversation-Analytic concept of preference organization to the study of breast-cancer care. Data are 145, videotaped, treatment-decision-making visits between surgeons and women newly diagnosed with breast cancer (i.e., on average, within the last three business days). An earlier, grounded-theoretical, thematic analysis revealed that a common question asked by women is a version of: “When will surgery take place?” This talk argues that this question ‘prefers’ (i.e. pressures surgeons to respond with) quick timeframes (e.g., scheduling surgery to occur within 2 weeks) that, when provided, curtail a thorough discussion of treatment options and consequences. The clinical reality is that women do not need to rush to surgery, and a best-practice of care is for women to research and consider a range of issues prior to making a surgical decision, for example regarding radiation therapy, chemotherapy, plastic surgery, etc. In sum, a normative organization of interaction – preference organization – can frustrate treatment decision making.
12–13 lunch Restaurant Feiroz, Engelska Parken (at self cost)
Data sessions 13:15–16:30 (Campus Engelska Parken 2-0076)
13:15–14:15 Daniel Skog, Department of Scandinavian languages, Uppsala University. Title pending
14:15–14:30 Coffee break
14:30–15:30 Sieun Chon, Department of Social Work, Uppsala University. Orienting to intimate violence as a gendered phenomenon in welfare interactions.
15:30–15:45 Coffee break
15:45–16:30 Closing discussion
UPSIDE is a research network funded by the Centre for Integrated Research on Culture and Society (CIRCUS) at Uppsala University. Please e-mail Anna Lindström (anna.lindstrom@nordiska.uu.se) if you have questions about the symposium. Questions about UPSIDE can be addressed to Helen Melander Bowden (helen.melander@edu.uu.se).
Professor Jeffrey Robinson
Our invited speaker is Jeffrey Robinson, Full Professor in the Department of Communication, Portland State University and Affiliate Professor of Radiation Medicine at the Oregon Health and Science University.
Dr. Robinson specializes in two subfields within the discipline of Communication. First, he specializes in ‘language and social interaction,’ which examines the rules that guide interactants’ use and interpretation of language, and the role of talk-in-interaction in the construction and negotiation of social meanings, identities, and relationships. Second, he specializes in ‘health communication,’ which examines how and why face-to-face communication (e.g., doctor-patient communication) affects aspects of healthcare and health promotion, including individuals’ physical, emotional, mental, and/or spiritual health. In addition to two edited volumes (Handbook of Research Methods in Conversation Analysis, and Accountability in Social Interaction), Dr. Robinson has published over 90 journal articles and book chapters. Most recently, he completed a book on Turn Taking in Social Interaction (with Chase Raymond and Galina Bolden), to be published by Cambridge. His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Contact
Please e-mail Anna Lindström if you have questions about the symposium.
UPSIDE is a research network funded by the Centre for Integrated Research on Culture and Society (CIRCUS) at Uppsala University. Questions about UPSIDE can be addressed to Helen Melander Bowden.