Dr Edward Tolhurst

• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Advisory Group Member – European Sociological Association’s Research Network on Ageing in Europe
• Trustee - Age Connects West Midlands

• PhD in Health Studies, University of Staffordshire
• PgCert in Continental Philosophy, University of Staffordshire
• MA in Social Research, University of Warwick
• BA (Hons) Sociology and Social Policy, University of Liverpool

• Dementia and care
• Ageing, dignity, and safety

• British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants (2018) - £2,813 “How do women with dementia and their spousal partners experience the impact of the condition?”
• British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants (2023) - £5,433 “How can the personhood of dementia care workers be supported?”
• British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants (2026) - £8,047 (as co-applicant) “Dementia and Disability: Negotiating care and relationships”

• Course leader - Postgraduate awards in Medical Education
• Module leader (PG) - Master’s Dissertation; Project Based Change
• Module leader (UG) - Dementia Awareness; Introduction to Research Methods (ODP)

• I supervise doctoral students
• I review/examine PhD work, and Chair PhD vivas

Selected articles

Johnson, G., Runacres, J. & Tolhurst, E. (2026) Student perceptions of patient safety incident reporting while on placement. Journal of Paramedic Practice, 18(9).

Runacres, J., Tolhurst, E., Runacres, J.D. & Harvey, H. (2025) The Lived Experience of Chronic Physical Health Conditions: An evaluation of the conceptual resources of epistemic injustice. Social Theory and Health, 23(30).

Tolhurst, E. & Weicht, B. (2023) Navigating the Experience of Dementia: The experience of male spousal carers. Healthcare. 11, 2492.

Tolhurst, E., Weicht, B. & Runacres, J. (2023) Sustaining Relational Subjectivity: The perspectives of women with dementia. Sociology of Health and Illness, 45(3): 503-521.

Weicht, B. & Tolhurst, E. (2023) The Spousal Unit and Dementia: Investigating the relational basis of the couplehood concept. Healthcare, 11, 2191.

Tolhurst, E., Carey, M., Weicht, B. & Kingston, K. (2019) Is Living Well with Dementia a Credible Aspiration for Spousal Carers? Health Sociology Review, 28(1): 54-68.

Tolhurst, E. & Weicht, B. (2018) Unyielding Selflessness: Relational negotiations, dementia and care, Journal of Aging Studies, 47: 32-38.

Tolhurst, E., Weicht, B. & Kingston, P. (2017) Narrative Collisions, Sociocultural Pressures and Dementia: The relational basis of personhood reconsidered. Sociology of Health and Illness, 39(2): 212-226.

Tolhurst, E. & Weicht, B. (2017) Preserving Personhood: The strategies of men negotiating the experience of dementia. Journal of Aging Studies, 40: 29-35.

Tolhurst, E. (2016) The Burgeoning Interest in Young Onset Dementia: Redressing the balance or reinforcing ageism? International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 10(2): 9-29.

Tolhurst, E. (2012) Grounded Theory Method: Sociology's quest for exclusive items of inquiry. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 13(3), Art. 26.

Selected conference presentations

Transforming Care Conference, 7th Conference – Helsinki: ‘How can the personhood of dementia care workers be supported?’ (July 2025).

European Society of Health and Medical Sociology (ESHMS), 20th Biennial Conference –Antwerp, Belgium: ‘Supporting a partner with advanced dementia: the intersection of ageing, masculinity, and care’ (July 2024).

Sociology of Health and Medicine (ESA RN16) Conference – Prague: ‘Relational Narratives: The experience of women with dementia and their male spousal partners’ (May 2023).

ESA Research Network on Ageing in Europe, 6th PhD Workshop – Vienna: ‘Negotiating the PhD Process: What I wish I had known [Keynote]’ (July 2022).

ESA Research Network on Ageing in Europe, 4th Midterm Conference – Brno, Czech Republic: ‘Unyielding Selflessness: Strategic interaction and the negotiation of care relationships’ (September 2018).

13th European Sociological Association Conference – Athens: ‘Anti-reductionist sociology as a basis for dementia studies’ (September 2017).

23rd Nordic Congress of Gerontology – Tampere, Finland: ‘Stoical acceptance and active endeavour: the strategies of men negotiating the experience of dementia’ (June 2016).

ESA Research Network on Ageing in Europe, 2nd Midterm Conference – Klagenfurt, Austria: ‘The burgeoning focus on young onset dementia: redressing the balance or reflecting ageism?’ (September 2014).

European Society on Family Relations, 7th Annual Congress – Madrid: Invited Symposium (coordinator and presenter) ‘Dementia and the family: developing a textured relational framework’.

Qualitative Health Research, 19th Annual Conference - Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada: ‘Joint interviews and research into the experience of dementia’ (October 2013).