Melbourne Early Career Researcher Grants

Project Title: A qualitative study of school-based cervical cancer vaccination programs

Chief Investigator: Dr Kellie Burns

Funded by: 2009 Early Career Researcher Grant Scheme

Project Summary: In 2007-2008 the Australian government funded a new vaccination program called Gardasil®, which protects against four strands of the human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted viral infection linked to 99% of cervical cancer cases in Australia. Secondary schools have become one of the key organisational and administrative sites for the program, with all girls aged 12-18 being voluntarily vaccinated at school. Conducting an intensive case study of two metropolitan government secondary schools, this research project investigates the impact school-based vaccination programs have had on the types of knowledge young people are receiving about HPV, cervical cancer, but also about sexual and reproductive health more broadly. Through a feminist lens, the project locates the vaccination program within a broader social history that defines girls’ and women’s bodies as risky and in need of management and erases boys and men from pedagogies of sexual health and reproduction.