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Virginia Braun
FRSNZ
Virginia Braun FRSNZ
Nationality	New Zealand
Alma mater	Loughborough University
	Scientific career
Fields	thematic analysis and gender studies
Institutions	University of Auckland
Thesis	The vagina: an analysis (2000)
Academic advisors	Sue Wilkinson and Celia Kitzinger

Virginia Braun FRSNZ is a New Zealand psychology academic specialising in thematic analysis and gender studies. She is particularly known for her scholarship on the social construction of the vagina^[1] and designer vagina cosmetic surgery,^[2] body hair^[3] and heterosexuality.^[4] She is perhaps best known for her collaboration with British psychologist Victoria Clarke around thematic analysis and qualitative research methods. Together they have published numerous papers, chapters, commentaries and editorials on thematic analysis and qualitative research, and an award-winning and best selling qualitative textbook entitled Successful qualitative research. They have a thematic analysis website at The University of Auckland. More recently - with the Story Completion Research Group - they have published around the story completion method.^[5]

Academic career

After undergraduate and masters studies in psychology at the University of Auckland, Braun received a Commonwealth Scholarship to Loughborough University with Celia Kitzinger and Sue Wilkinson as her advisors for her 2000 thesis, The vagina: an analysis.^[6]

Braun returned to as a lecturer in psychology Auckland in 2001, rising to full professor in 2017.^[7]

Her 2006 paper "Using thematic analysis in psychology" with Victoria Clarke in Qualitative Research in Psychology has more than 59,000 citations according to Google Scholar. It is also - according to Google Scholar - the most cited academic paper published in 2006.

Braun was editor of Feminism & Psychology between 2008 and 2013. She received a Distinguished Leadership Award from the American Psychological Association's Committee on Women in Psychology in 2013.^[8]

In 2015/2016 Braun went public with her experiences seeking a tubal ligation.^[9]^[10]

In 2021, Braun was awarded the Marsden Medal by the New Zealand Association of Scientists, in recognition of "her global impact on the development of qualitative empirical methods and for the generosity of spirit she expresses through this work."^[11] She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2022.^[12]

Areas of expertise

Sex and sexuality
Sexual health
Gendered bodies
Genital cosmetic surgery
Body hair
Food
Feminist psychology
Critical psychology
Qualitative research
Thematic analysis

Books

Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke, Thematic Analysis: A Practical Guide.^[13] 2021.
Virginia Braun, Victoria Clarke and Debra Gray, Collecting qualitative data. A practical guide to textual, media and virtual techniques. Cambridge University Press. 2017. ISBN 9781107054974
Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke, Successful qualitative research: A practical guide for beginners. Sage. 2013. ISBN 9781847875822

Selected journal articles and book chapters

References

^ Braun, Virginia; Kitzinger, Celia (2001). "The perfectible vagina: Size matters". Culture, Health & Sexuality. 3 (3): 263–277. doi:10.1080/13691050152484704. S2CID 143982758.
^ Braun, Virginia (2010). "Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery: A Critical Review of Current Knowledge and Contemporary Debates". Journal of Women's Health. 19 (7): 1393–1407. doi:10.1089/jwh.2009.1728. PMID 20509791.
^ Terry, Gareth; Braun, Virginia (2016). ""I think gorilla-like back effusions of hair are rather a turn-off": 'Excessive hair' and male body hair (removal) discourse". Body Image. 17: 14–24. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2016.01.006. hdl:10292/12579. PMID 26907912.
^ Braun, Virginia; Gavey, Nicola (2003). "The fair deal'? Unpacking accounts of reciprocity in heterosex". Sexualities. 6 (2): 237–261. doi:10.1177/1363460703006002005. S2CID 144614304.
^ Clarke, Victoria; Braun, Virginia (2019). "Using Story Completion Methods in Qualitative Research". Qualitative Research in Psychology. 16 (1). doi:10.1080/14780887.2018.1536378. hdl:2292/49988.
^ Braun, Virginia (1 January 2000). The vagina: an analysis (thesis). Loughborough University.
^ "Inaugural lecture by Professor Virginia Braun: Telling tales of gendered bodies – The University of Auckland". Psych.auckland.ac.nz. 15 June 2017. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
^ "People". Sexual Politics Now. 28 January 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
^ "The Kiwi woman who campaigned to be sterilised". Now To Love. 17 May 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
^ "Motherhood not for every woman, professor says". Stuff.co.nz. 27 November 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
^ "2020 Award Recipients". scientists.org.nz. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
^ "View our fellows". Royal Society Te Apārangi. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
^ Braun, Virginia; Clarke, Victoria (2021). Thematic Analysis: A Practical Guide. Sage. ISBN 9781473953246.