Dr Maggie Kirkman, BA (Hons) Melb, PhD La Trobe
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Background
Maggie Kirkman joined the Key Centre in 2000 and completed her National Health and Medical Research Council Post-doctoral Fellowship on psychosocial aspects of donor-assisted conception in 2004.
Her PhD explored women’s experiences of infertility, using a novel application of narrative theory. As a result of her research in infertility and assisted reproduction, Maggie was made a governor of ACCESS Australia National Infertility Network. She is a consultant to the Victorian Infertility Treatment Authority (ITA), and has contributed to the recent deliberations of the Victorian Law Reform Commission on legislation about assisted reproduction and adoption. Maggie is a chief investigator (with Professor Doreen Rosenthal and Louise Johnson of the ITA) on a new project for devising ways of helping parents tell their adolescent children that they were donor-conceived, funded by the Department of Human Services.
Other areas in which Maggie has conducted research include siblings of disabled children; GPs and their HIV-positive patients; young mothers; parent-adolescent communication about sexuality; and adolescent sexuality and condom usage.
In addition to her projects on donor assisted conception, Maggie is Research Director of the ARC funded study Understanding women’s experiences of unplanned pregnancy and abortion, a collaborative project with the Royal Women’s Hospital.
Maggie convenes and teaches the Research Methodology course at KCWHS as well as contributing lectures in other subjects; she also supervises PhD and Master’s Degree students.
Maggie is a registered psychologist and a member of the Australian Psychological Society.
Research Interests
- Narrative theory and method
- Psychosocial aspects of reproductive health, assisted reproductive technology (including donor-assisted conception), and reproductive genomics
- Motherhood/non-motherhood; parenthood/non-parenthood
- Sexuality
- Women with HIV/AIDS
- Families and disability
- Life-course development
Publications
Peer reviewed papers
Kirkman M, & Fisher, J. (In press). Editors’ introduction to the special issue. Women’s Studies International Forum, 31(4)
Kirkman M. (In press.). Being a ‘real’ mum: Motherhood through donated eggs and embryos. Women’s Studies International Forum, 31(4).
Lee, A.S.M., & Kirkman M. (2008). Disciplinary Discourses: Rates of caesarean section explained by medicine, midwifery, and feminism. Health Care for Women International. 29(5), 448-467
Kirkman, M., Rosenthal, D., & Johnson, L. (2007). Adolescents’ views on communicating about donor-assisted conception (abstract). Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 47 (Suppl. 1), A17.
Kirkman M, Rosenthal, D., & Johnson, L. (2007). Families working it out: Adolescents’ views on communicating about donor-assisted conception. Human Reproduction, 22(8): 2318-2324.
Kirkman M, Rosenthal, D.A., & Feldman, S.S. (2005). Being open with your mouth shut: The meaning of ‘openness’ in family communication about sexuality. Sex Education, 5 (1), 49-66.
Kirkman M. (2004). Genetic connection and relationships in narratives of donor-assisted conception. Australian Journal for Emerging Technologies and Society, 2 (1): www.swin.edu.au/ajets.
Kirkman M. (2004). Saviours and satyrs: Ambivalence in narrative meanings of sperm provision. Culture, Health and Sexuality, 6 (4), 319-336.
Kirkman M. (2003). Egg and embryo donation and the meaning of motherhood. Women and Health, 38 (2) , 1-18.
Kirkman M. (2003). Parents’ contributions to the narrative identity of offspring of donor-assisted conception. Social Science & Medicine, 57 (11), 2229-2242.
Kirkman M. (2003). Infertile women and the narrative work of mourning: Barriers to the revision of autobiographical narratives of motherhood. Narrative Inquiry, 13 (1), 243-262.
Books
Kirkman, M., Rosenthal, D., & Johnson, L. (2007). Telling it Your Way: A Guide for Parents of Donor-Conceived Adolescents. Melbourne: Infertility Treatment Authority.
Jones, H. G., & Kirkman M. (Eds). (2005). Sperm wars: The rights and wrongs of reproduction. ABC Books, Sydney.)
Book Chapters
Kirkman M. (2005). Going home and forgetting about it: Donor insemination and the secrecy debate. In H.G. Jones & M. Kirkman (Eds). Sperm wars: The rights and wrongs of reproduction (pp. 153-169) . ABC Books, Sydney.
Jones, H. G. & Kirkman M. (2005). Introduction: Genesis and generation. In Jones, H. G., & Kirkman M. (Eds). Sperm wars: The rights and wrongs of reproduction (pp. 1-5) . ABC Books, Sydney.
‘Shandon’ with Kirkman M. (2005). I’ll never be the same again. In Jones, H. G., & KIRKMAN, M. (Eds). Sperm wars: The rights and wrongs of reproduction (pp. 177-180). ABC Books, Sydney.
Editorial/Opinion articles
Kirkman M. (2005). Public health and the challenge of genomics. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 29 (2), 163-165.
Jones, H.G., & Kirkman M. (2005). Embedded in the sperm wars. On Line Opinion, Australia’s e-journal of social and political debate: http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3493 (posted 26.5.05). (Invited contribution.)
Conference proceedings
Kirkman M. (2005). Psychological perspective . Proceedings of the symposium Reprogenetics: Whose rules apply? (pp. 9-11). Convened by the Infertility Treatment Authority, Melbourne, 27 October 2004. (Invited contribution.) Available at http://www.ita.org.au/_documents/news/ReprogeneticsPaper.pdf.
Reports
Infertility Treatment Authority (2006). Parents disclosing donor conception to their children: What does the literature tell us? A literature review commissioned by the Infertility Treatment Authority, Victoria, drafted by Simone Loughnane, revised and updated by Maggie Kirkman. http://www.ita.org.au/www/257/1001127/displayarticle/1001229%2ehtml
Infertility Treatment Authority (2006). Telling donor-conceived people about their conception. A report commissioned by the Infertility Treatment Authority, Victoria, based on an investigation conducted by Helen Szoke; data analysis by Maggie Kirkman; report written by Maggie Kirkman. http://www.ita.org.au/www/257/1001127/displayarticle/1001229%2ehtml
Book reviews
Kirkman, M. (2006). [Review of the book by Stephen E. Levick (2004), Clone being: Exploring the psychological and social dimensions.] Sociology of Health & Illness, 28(7), 989-999 .
Edited journals
Kirkman, M., and Fisher, J. (In press 2008). Women and technologies of reproduction. Special issue of Women’s Studies International Forum, 31(4).