A one-day conference celebrating Professor Michael Bury's contributions to medical sociology, featuring talks from colleagues and students.

Michael Bury (1945-2025): Remembering and extending his contribution to the sociology of health and illness.

This one-day conference is being held to celebrate the contributions of Professor Mike Bury, who died in July 2025, to the sociology of health and illness. It is supported by funding from the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness (FSHI) and by Royal Holloway, University of London.

Mike Bury was one of the most influential medical sociologists of his generation, both nationally and internationally. After studying sociology at the University of Sussex and completing graduate work in mental health at the University of Bristol, he worked as a research sociologist at the University of Manchester in the late 1970s, studying the social aspects of chronic disease. It was this fieldwork, with people diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, that led to his landmark 1982 paper, “Chronic Illness as Biographical Disruption", introducing a concept that continues to shape how researchers and clinicians understand the experience of chronic illness.

Mike spent the majority of his academic career at Bedford College and then Royal Holloway, University of London, where he served as Course Director of the MSc in Medical Sociology and was later appointed Professor of Sociology, a post he held until his retirement in 2003. Generations of students who passed through the MSc went on to shape the field themselves, and many of today's leading voices in medical sociology credit Mike's teaching and supervision as formative for their own thinking. He also edited the journal Sociology of Health and Illness from 1994 to 2000. He contributed to national policy through roles on the Medical Research Council's Health Services and Public Health Board and NICE's Public Health Interventions Advisory Committee.

The day will include contributions from invited speakers who were taught by Mike on the MSc in Medical Sociology or collaborated with him on research, as well as presentations from researchers whose work continues to draw on and develop his ideas.

We are delighted to welcome an outstanding panel of speakers to the conference, bringing together leading voices in medical sociology, public health, and health policy:

Professor Judith Green (Exeter University), Professor Patricia Kingori (Oxford University), Professor Simon Williams (Warwick University), Professor Graham Scambler (University College London), Dr Sarah Hopkins (Cambridge University), Professor Mike Kelly (Cambridge University), Ms Heather Mah (Queen Mary University of London), Professor Anne Rogers (University of Southampton), Professor Paul Higgs (University College London), Dr Victoria Cluely (University of Nottingham) and Professor Louise Locock (University of Aberdeen).

Lunch will be provided for all attendees. Please provide dietary preferences and allergies when booking tickets.

Registration begins at 10:30 am for an 11 am start.

This conference is funded by the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness (FSHI).

Description supplied by the event organiser.