Breast cancer research has demonstrated an association between lifestyle and genetics, yet more than half of the cases cannot be explained by these risk factors. In her master’s thesis, sociology student Jane McArthur explored the tendency of newspaper reports to focus on the lifestyle causes of breast cancer, while omitting any substantive discourse of occupation-related factors.

A student fellow at the Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation and Rhetoric, she will discuss broadening her analysis in a free public lecture entitled “Exploring discursive and rhetorical barriers to the recognition of occupationally related breast cancers,” Wednesday, January 28, at 4 p.m. in room 209, Essex Hall.