Patty Thille, PhD, MA, BSc (PT)

Research summary

I am a medical sociologist with a background in physical therapy, whose research fits mainly in the sub-field of critical physiotherapy. My research brings critical social scientific theories and qualitative methodologies to the study of issues in health services and health professions education, with a particular interest in disrupting discriminatory logics and practices in primary care and rehabilitation services. My research is increasingly participatory, working with communities affected by discrimination, and I am exploring arts-informed methods (narrative, participatory theatre).
 

Dr. Patty Thille is a research-intensive associate professor in the department of physical therapy at the College of Rehabilitation Sciences, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba.

Dr. Thille is a physiotherapist, sociologist, and feminist who seeks to strengthen our understandings and practices of care. She sees discrimination as the opposite of care and works to disrupt discriminatory logics through her research. Her research spans different ways discrimination shapes services, including knowledge foundations, physical infrastructure, and clinical decision-making. She is increasingly using community-engaged, arts-informed methods and intersectional approaches in her work.

Her research sits in the sub-field of critical physiotherapy, and is an active executive member of the international Critical Physiotherapy Network. She is the editor of a 2025 anthology of critical physiotherapy scholarship, titled Inviting movements in physiotherapy: An anthology of critical scholarship.

Background: After training and working as a clinician in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, she pursued further training in the social sciences. Her MA and PhD used a range of qualitative methods to help highlight how weight stigma is embedded in health care. Her graduate work was funded by SSHRC (MA), CIHR (PhD), and the Killam Trusts (PhD). Prior to joining the University of Manitoba, she held the Currie Fellowship (2015-2017) for post-doctoral work at the Wilson Centre, University of Toronto, followed by a brief fellowship at the Bloorview Research Institute, working most closely with Dr. Barbara Gibson.

Education

Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology, University of Calgary (2015)

Master of Arts in the Tri-University Women's Studies Programme, Halifax (2004)

Bachelor of Arts, University of Saskatchewan (2001)

Bachelor of Science in Physical Therapy, University of Saskatchewan (1998)

Awards

Terry G. Falconer Memorial Rh Institute Foundation Emerging Researcher Award (2025)

Outstanding Doctoral Student Award, Canadian Sociological Association for PhD (2015)

Governor General’s Gold Medal, Senate Medal of Distinction for MA (2004)