Myles Leslie

After completing his PhD in Criminology at the University of Toronto, Myles took up a post-doctoral research and writing position at the University of Leicester's medical sciences department. Shifting his ethnographic and analytic focus from death investigation to clinical practice is a both a welcome change and a continuation of his previous work.  On the one hand he is no longer dealing solely with death and healthcare that has been unsuccessful, although this too is a part of clinical work and decision making.  On the other, he is maintaining his focus on the way managerial priorities are shaping professional practice and the course of health and safety discussions.  He remains committed to better understanding, and so improving how the necessary search for efficiency, effectiveness, and risk reduction can be combined with the equally necessary search for just, respectful, thorough healthcare.

Experience as a Trudeau Scholar

My Foundation scholarship was all about freedom of access.  Financially, the award freed me from the cycle of funding applications, allowing me to focus on original research rather than attending yet another seminar on how to write the perfect grant application.  Intellectually and socially my time with the Foundation was marked by tremendous access to the often disquieting perspectives of others in the graduate school trenches, and Canada's community of policy makers and implementers.  My travel allowance took me to conferences that profoundly altered and contributed to my thinking.  My time with the Foundation took me beyond cosy ideas of interdisciplinarity into a world of conflict, compromise on the road to finding the best possible, most just way forward.  This scholarship saw me freely associating with a range of people and ideas I would never have encountered or begun to understand.