Dr Judy Siu is an anthropologist with a strong research interest in health care. Having received trainings in anthropology from her undergraduate and Research Master’s degrees, and then in public health from her PhD studies, she is keen on using qualitative research approach in the studies of various health topics. She had started her journey of medical anthropology in her Research Master’s studies by participating in different qigong and tai chi classes as a participant-observer, investigating as an insider, how chronically ill patients use complementary and alternative medicine to get over their illness. She further developed her professional training in medical anthropology in her research doctoral studies. By investigating how the SARS epidemic in 2003 was socially and culturally constructed in Hong Kong in her PhD thesis, Dr Siu expanded her research interest further to other contemporary health topics in human society, such as health behaviours and illness-associated stigmas in relation to infectious diseases.

Dr Siu has solid experience and track records in social-cultural and anthropological studies of medicine and health issues. Her publications are seen in various international peer-reviewed journals and books. She has extensive research experience in the qualitative studies of different health issues in Hong Kong, such as the meanings and the use of complementary and alternative medicine as overcoming and resistant strategies for chronically ill patients, the interrelationship between social experience and health behaviours in infectious disease outbreaks, the illness experience of chronically ill patients and their caregivers, illness-associated stigmas, doctor-patient communication in relation to social structure and gender hierarchy, the interrelationship between people’s perceptions on vaccines and vaccination behaviours, the perception and adoption of related preventive health behaviours, treatment seeking behaviours, and the interrelationship between health inequality and social inequality.

Dr Siu has obtained competitive external research grants in the role of principal investigator from the General Research Fund, Research Grants Council, Hong Kong, and from the Quality Education Fund of the Education Bureau of Hong Kong. She also serves as co-investigator in some grants from the Health and Medical Research Fund of the Food and Health Bureau, partnering with other health social scientists and public health practitioners in researching contemporary health topics.

• PhD, School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Australia
• MPhil, Department of Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
• BSSc with honours, Department of Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Interdisciplinary Centre for Qualitative Research