Catherine CAVALIN

Bio :

Catherine Cavalin is a CNRS research sociologist at the Interdisciplinary Research Institute in Social Sciences (IRISSO). She was previously the SILICOSIS team’s sociologist and statistician, and is also an associate researcher at the Centre for Employment and Labour Studies (CNAM). For SILICOSIS, she is in charge of producing statistical results which highlight correlations between working conditions and diseases. She uses data from existing surveys and works on new tools to examine these matters for statistical as well as clinical purposes. This includes the development of a new questionnaire on health status (particularly systemic inflammatory diseases of unknown causes) and exposure to inorganic particles.

Following interdisciplinary studies in social sciences (aggregation in social sciences, postgraduate studies in contemporary history and health economics) and a dozen years teaching economic history, economics and sociology in preparatory studies in economics and business, she coordinated the statistical survey and the study Événements de vie et santé (Life Events and Health) in the Direction de la Recherche, des Études, de l’Évaluation et des Statistiques (DREES) in the French Ministry of Health. This study examines the relationship between violence suffered and health status, subject of a book that she coedited with François Beck et Florence Maillochon (Violences et santé en France : état des lieux, la documentation française, 2010).

From 2009 to 2012, she worked on the relationships between labour, employment and health at the Centre for Employment and Labour Studies. She developed a methodological approach and produced results on the measurement of the health status of the working-age population.

In all her research, she crosses multiple statistical sources to question the building of categories and to produce a qualitative interpretation of quantitative data. This approach gives a critical examination of survey methods much more than a formal status.

Read LIEPP's interview with Catherine Cavalin "Les violences sexistes après #MeToo"