Thought Leadership Group

Michael Corman is an Associate Professor in the School of Culture, Media, and Society at the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV). Prior to coming to UFV, he held teaching/research positions in Canada, Qatar, and the United Kingdom; travelling around the world and was able to teach sociology in a diversity of contexts.

Teaching and research interests include a variety of topics that intersect with the sociological study of health, illness, and society. Michael is a passionate educator; his goal as a sociology professor is to act as a facilitator in getting students to think sociologically about the world around them. In doing so, he aims to help students think critically about society and the people in it, and to recognize opportunities for meaningful and justice-oriented change.

He has taught a variety of courses, including: Introduction to Sociology, Sociology of Health and Illness, Sociology of Aging, Sociology of the Family, Media and Society, Digital Society, Qualitative Research, Deviant Group Behaviour, Mass Communications, Research Methods, and Contemporary Sociological Theory.

Since 2012, Michael have participated in a variety of research projects totaling over $1,200,000 CDN. His research has appeared in Perspectives on Medical Education, Social Theory & Health, Symbolic Interaction, The Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Qualitative Health Research, the International Journal of Educational Research, Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, and the International Journal of Social Sciences. Also, he recently published a book through the University of Toronto Press entitled, Paramedics on and off the streets: Emergency medical services in the age of technological governance.

Book manuscript

Corman, M. K. (2017). Paramedics On and Off the Streets: Emergency Medical Services in the Age of Technological Governance. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 

Peer-reviewed articles

Patel A, Corman M, de Oliveira C, et al. (2024). Computer-Based Training for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Substance Use Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial Including Quantitative and Qualitative Health and Economic Outcomes: Formation informatisée pour la thérapie cognitivo-comportementale pour les troubles liés à l’usage de substances : un essai randomisé contrôlé y compris les résultats quantitatifs et qualitatifs en matière de santé et d’économie. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 2024;0(0). doi:10.1177/07067437241255100

Kearney, G. P, Gormley, G. J., Johnson, J. L., Hart, N. D., & Corman, M. K. (2024). “We lie about what we do. We lie to our students about what they’re going to do”: Unstandardizing standardized ways of knowing in health professions education. Social Science & Medicine – Qualitative Research in Health, 5.  Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2023.100368. Published as part of a special issue – The Sociology of Health Professions Education. 

Kearney, G. P., Corman, M. K., Johnston, J. L., Hart, N. D., & Gormley, G. J. (2023). Towards accountability-centred practices: governance in OSCEs subordinating patient and practitioner clinical experience. Advances in health sciences education: Theory and Practice, 10.1007/s10459-023-10238-7

Quilty L, C., Wardell J, D., Garner, G., Elison-Davis, S., Davies, G., Klekovkina, E., Corman, M., Alfonsi, J., Crawford, A., de Oliverira, C., Weekes, J. (2022). Peer support and online cognitive behavioural therapy for substance use concerns: Protocol for a randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open 2022(12:e064360). DOI: 10.1136/ bmjopen-2022-064360   

Seim, J., Corman, M., & McCann, L. (2022). Producing paramedicine: Case studies in the medical labor process. Social Science & Medicine, 309. https://doi-org.proxy.ufv.ca:2443/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115231

Kearney, G., Corman, M., Johnston, J., Hart, N., & Gormley, G. (2019). Why Institutional Ethnography? Why Now? Institutional Ethnography in Health Professions Education. Perspectives on Medical Education, 8(1), 17-24. DOI: 10.1007/s40037-019-0499-0

Kearney, G., Corman, M., Gormley, G., Hart, N., Johnston, J., & Dorothy Smith. (2018). Institutional Ethnography: A Sociology of Discovery – In Conversation with Dorothy Smith. Social Theory & Health, 16(3), 292-306. DOI: 10.1057.s41285-018-0077-2

Kearney, G., Johnston, J., Hart, N., Corman, M., & Gormley, G. (2018). Protocol: Exploring the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) Using Institutional Ethnography. International Journal of Educational Research, 88, 42-47.

Corman, M. K. (2018). Titrating the rig: How paramedics work in and on their ambulance. Qualitative Health Research, 28(1), 47-59. doi.org/10.1177/1049732317739266 

Corman, M. K. (2018). Driving to work: The front seat work of paramedics to and from the scene. Symbolic Interaction, 41(3), 291-310. DOI: 10.1002/symb.335 

Corman, M. K. (2016). Street medicine: Assessment work strategies of paramedics on the front lines of emergency health services. The Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 46(5), 600-623 DOI: 10.1177/0891241615625462

Corman, M. K. (2013). How mothers talk about placement of their child with autism outside the home. Qualitative Health Research, 23(10), 1320-1332. DOI: 10.1177/1049732313505225 

Chapters in peer-reviewed books 

Corman, M. K. (2021). “Using Composites to Craft Institutional Ethnographic Accounts.” Pp. 465-482 in The Palgrave Handbook of Institutional Ethnography, edited by P. Luken & S. Vaughan S. Palgrave Macmillan, Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54222-1_24

Corman, M.K., & Barron, G. (2017). “Institutional ethnography and actor-network theory – In dialogue.” Pp. 47-68 in Perspectives On and From Institutional Ethnography (Studies in Qualitative Methodology, Volume 15), edited by J. Reid & L. Russell. Bingley, United Kingdom: Emerald Group Publishing.

Corman, M. K., & Melon, K. (2014). “What counts? Managing professionals on the front lines of emergency services.” Pp. 148-176 in Under New Public Management: Institutional Ethnographies of Changing Front-line Work, edited by A. Griffith & D. E. Smith. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Frank, A., Corman, M. K., Lawton, P., & Gish, J. (2010). “Healer/patient interaction: New mediations in clinical relationships.” Pp. 34-52 in Handbook on Qualitative Health Research, edited by I. L. Bourgeault, R. DeVries & R. Dingwall. Thousands Oak, CA: Sage.

Commissioned Reports and Other Publications

Corman, M. (2023). Lights and Sirens: The Critical Condition of EMS in Alberta. Parkland, Institute, The University of Alberta. Available at: https://www.parklandinstitute.ca/lights_and_sirens. (Peer Reviewed).

Davidson, G., Irvine, R., Corman, M., Kee, F., Kelly, B., Leavey, G., & McNamee, C. (2017). Measuring the Quality of Life of People with Disabilities and their Families: Scoping Study Final Report.