Staff profile

Eleanor is a final-year PhD student at Durham Law School. She obtained her LLB from the University of Exeter, where she specialised in Medical Law and Ethics, Family Law, and Gender, Sexuality and Law. She went on to complete an MRes in Socio-Legal Research at the University of Exeter with Distinction. As part of her MRes, Eleanor received training in empirical research methods and conducted a mixed-methods study exploring medical students’ views on intersex healthcare and its legal regulation. Her research interests continue to centre on the intersections of health, law, and gender.

Current Research

Eleanor's PhD research, titled “An Investigation into the Medical Management of Intersex Infants: Towards Meaningful Law Reform in the UK,” is funded by Durham Law School and supervised by Dr Camilla Pickles (Medical Law and Ethics), Professor Emma Cave (Children in Healthcare), and Dr Emma Milne (Research Methods). The project is based on qualitative interviews with clinicians working across relevant fields of medicine and investigates the ideological and institutional factors that underpin the continued practice of cosmetic interventions on intersex infants. Eleanor is currently finalising the write-up of her findings, which will inform evidence-based recommendations for effective legal reform in the UK.

Research Groups

• Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences
• Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse

Research Interests

• Intersex and trans rights in healthcare
• Bodily diversity in law and medicine
• Medical ethics 
• Disability studies
• Socio-legal research
• Qualitative methodologies