Health & WellbeingMeet our experts
Dr Chris Deeming
Christopher Deeming is Chancellor's Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Social Policy. He is interested in the social determinants of health and well-being, particularly the subjective dimensions of self-rated health and well-being obtained using data from large-scale national and international social surveys. The focus is the distribution of health and well-being and the inequalities within and between societies. Socio-demographic characteristics influence population well-being in important ways and this has implications for social policy. I am also interested in the political economy of health and well-being and I focus on cross-national comparisons within different systems of welfare.
Professor Barbara Fawcett
Professor Barbara Fawcett pure profile
Barbara Fawcett is Professor of Social Work in the School of Social Work and Social Policy at the University of Strathclyde. She is also joint Head of School with Professor Trish Hafford-Letchfield. Previously she was Professor of Social Work and Head of the Department of Social Work and Social Care at the University of Birmingham. She was also Director of Internationalisation for the College of Social Sciences and for the School of Social Policy. Before joining the University of Birmingham in 2013, she was Professor of Social Work and Policy Studies at the University of Sydney Australia and the Head of School and Associate Dean (Research). Whilst at Sydney she was the co-director of the Social Policy Research Network. She is an International member of the Hong Kong Social Work Registration Board and the New Zealand Social Work Registration Board. Prior to moving to Australia in 2004, Barbara was head of the large interdisciplinary School of Applied Social Studies at the University of Bradford. At the University of Bradford, she also co-founded and led the Social Care Research and Evaluation Partnership. Barbara spent eight years in the field as a senior practitioner, manager, contract researcher and head of mental health services. Barbara has been an International member of the editorial boards of the journals Critical Social Policy, Child Care in Practice and the British Journal of Social Work. She has been an Executive Board Member of Barnardos, Australia and has worked extensively in the arena of health and social care. Her work has a strong International dimension and collaborations include Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. In terms of Health and Well-Being she has focused on the arena of mental health, gender issues, older people and disability.
Professor Trish Hafford-Letchfield
Professor Trish Hafford-Letchfield pure profile
Trish Hafford-Letchfield is Professor of Social Work and has over 18 years practice experience as a social worker and manager of social care services. Trish’s main research interests are in the experiences of people in later life from marginalised and minoritized groups and how to engage them in designing, developing and evaluating services particularly through the theories of informal and formal learning. She has particular expertise in LGBTQI+ ageing, Trans and Non Binary parenting through the lifecourse, problematic substance use in later life and suicide and ageing. Her research is mostly co-produced with people with lived experience. She is series editor for Policy Press, sex-and-intimacy-in-later-life.pdf (bristoluniversitypress.co.uk). Trish is research fellow at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa and member of the Research Committee for the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP, UK) and member of the International Society of Substance Use Professionals (ISSUP, UK).
Professor Bernard Harris
Professor Bernard Harris pure profile
Bernard Harris is Professor of Social Policy. His research is concerned with various aspects of the social history of health and welfare since circa 1700. He has worked on a wide range of topics within this field, including work on the history of height, morbidity and mortality; unemployment and poverty; the relationship between statutory and voluntary welfare provision; and the origins and development of the British welfare state.
Eva Kourova (pure profile)
Dr Kourova is a Teaching Associate in the School of Social Work and Social Policy at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Dr Kourova joined the university in 2021 and prior to this (2019- 2021) she worked as a Module Tutor and Teaching Assistant (PT) at the Glasgow Caledonian University in Social Sciences department. Here she gained Associate Fellowship in Higher Education Academy in 2020. In 2020 Dr Kourova also earned her title of Dr Phil for her dissertation thesis: “Biopolitics and the Transformative Powers of Life: The Case of Roma People in Glasgow.” This autoethnographic research used critical social theory to explore Roma community engagement and development, a field where Dr Kourova has had 15 years prior experience on various posts.
Dr Kourova joined the university as a mature worker with professional experience in staff and project management as well as experience in large, medium and small grants fundraising, experience that stems from her pre-academic employment experience. Her academic interests include biopolitics, migration, community empowerment and participation, social inclusion and justice, inclusive teaching, informal learning and widening of access to HE, and mentoring.
In her current post, Dr Kourova has succesfully undertaken module lead responsibilities for various modules within the Educaitona and Social Services BaHons course (Personal and Professional Development; Understanding How People Behave; Context, Policy and Joint Work; Dissertation). Dr Kourova has also successfully supervised students for udnergraduate dissertation.
Dr Gillian Macintyre
Dr Gillian Macintyre pure profile
Gillian MacIntyre is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work. Her research interests lie primarily in the field of adult social care and the bulk of her work involves people with learning disabilities as well as those with mental health problems. She has particular interests in the areas of citizenship, parenthood and transitions for people with learning disabilities and has completed a number of different research projects in these areas. She is also interested in the ways in which different kinds of support (both formal and informal) can enable older adults, people with mental health problems and those with learning disabilities to maintain their independence. Gillian is committed to the use of participatory and inclusive research methods and often works in partnership with people with lived experience. Her work has national and international significance and she has strong partnerships with a number of national and international organisations including the Scottish Commission for Learning Disabilities and Yale University.
Dr Emma Miller
Emma Miller is a Senior Research Associate. Emma has a background in social work practice, and interagency working. Since completing her PhD in 2004 she has worked between research, policy and practice on the theme of personal outcomes. Based on knowledge exchange and action research, this has focused on embedding an outcomes approach to practice, and has involved partnership between a wide range of national bodies and local organisations to re-orient culture, systems and practice accordingly. The primary purpose of this work is to support outcomes focused and person centred engagement at the frontline, with a secondary purpose to measure outcomes and use this information for service planning and improvements. In the past few years the work has drawn increasing interest from wider UK and international universities and agencies
Dr Sally Paul
Sally Paul is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Work and Social Policy, research consultant for CYCJ and the Centre for Health Policy, co-founder of BRIG, a stakeholder in the Good Life Good Death Good Grief Alliance and the Scottish Representative for the Association of Palliative Care Social Workers. She is actively engaged in a number of research projects and knowledge exchange activities with specific interests in: death, dying and bereavement; loss; public health approaches to palliative care (including compassionate communities); children and young people; participatory research methods; and practice development.
Neil Quinn
Neil Quinn is a Reader in Social Work and Social Policy, and Co-Director of the University's Centre for Health Policy. He has a specific interest in global public health and social welfare policy and has expertise in social work, health and human rights. His human rights work focuses on migration, mental health, homelessness and looked after children. He is leading a national research programme on the right to health for marginalised groups. He is engaged in a number of key national policy roles, including the Scottish National Action Plan (SNAP) human rights group on health and social care and in a range of high-profile international work as an advisor to the World Health Organisation on mental health rights, co-author of the UNCRC Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children Handbook. He leads a number of international collaborations, including with Yale University and New York University. He is committed to working in partnership with service users and communities and has 25 years’ experience in social work, community development and public health at a local, national and international level. He is on the steering group of People’s Health Movement Scotland and co-founder of the Declaration health and human rights arts festival.
.jpg "Katherine Smith")
Professor Kat Smith
Professor Kat Smith pure profile
Kat Smith is a Professor of Public Health Policy whose main interests include understanding who and what shape the policies impacting on people's health (especially in the UK), improving the use of evidence in policy (with a view to achieving better health outcomes), and analysing efforts to improve public health and reduce health inequalities (including via taxation). As Co-Editor of the journal Evidence & Policy, she spends a lot of time assessing the various ways in which research evidence (and the academics producing this evidence) work to shape policy and, conversely, how policy and politics shape the construction of evidence. More recently, Kat has been exploring the role that publics, and diverse forms of public engagement, play in this. Kat is currently leading a policy-focused workstream in the SIPHER Consortium which is using complex systems modelling to try to achieve a shift from health policy to healthy public policy.
Ellen Stewart (pure profile)
I am a social scientist working at the intersection of medical sociology, health policy and public administration. My research explores how health systems accommodate and negotiate different forms of ‘lay’ and ‘expert’ knowledge, including demands for public engagement and for evidence-based policy. In July 2023 my latest book How Britain Loves the NHS: practices of care and contestation will be published by Policy Press.
I am one of four grantholders on a Wellcome Trust Collaborative Award exploring charity and voluntarism in the UK NHS. I lead a work package focusing on the contemporary role of NHS Charities in fundraising and supplementing statutory spend on healthcare.
I am currently a co-Investigator on the UKPRP Consortium SIPHER, which aims to coproduce useful modelling tools with policymakers in Sheffield City Council, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and the Scottish Government. I lead public engagement for the consortium, working in partnership with local third sector organisations to deliver three Community Panels.
In past projects I've explored everyday practices of public involvement in the local NHS, new governance arrangements for Scottish Health Boards, how health policymakers use research evidence, and hospital closures as an example of contentious healthcare transformation. My research has been funded by the ESRC, MRC, Wellcome Trust, Chief Scientist Office Scotland and the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland.
I am an elected member of the Social Policy Association's Executive Committee (2018-2024) and serve on the Wellcome Trust's Early Career Advisory Group for Medical Humanities (2021-2024).
PhD researchers within the Cluster
Alistair Brown (pure profile)
Alistair Brown is a PhD student in the SIPHER Consortium. He is undertaking qualitative research investigating policy approaches to health inequalities, with particular focus on inclusive economic policy, and policy at city, regional and devolved national levels. Alistair previously obtained a Master's in Public Health at the University of Edinburgh.
Elita Chamdimba (pure profile)
Elita Chamdimba is a Sociologist / Social Work/ Gender expert who since 2018, has been a Research Fellow at the University of Malawi’s Centre for Social Research (CSR). Elita is currently in the 2nd year of her PhD in Social Work at University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. She’s also the founder and former director (2014 - 2022) of Little Big Prints, a youth organization in Zomba (southern Malawi) equipping and supporting young women in rural secondary schools. For her PhD thesis Elita is focusing on the lived experiences of young people with albinism in Malawi and their sense of belonging and social connectedness. Elita’s areas of expertise are rural development, girls’ education, gender and youth, and intra-household power dynamics.
Diane Delaney (pure profile)
I am a year 2 PhD student researching the role and value of parents in their contribution to supporting and promoting their children's health, wellbeing and development in collaboration with practitioners. Focusing on children aged 3-5yrs old, my project involves interviewing parents and front line practitioners working with children and families in this age category to gather data on experiences and views on the role and value of parents.
My background is in health (nursing) and social care (social work) with 23 years experience in a variety of settings within Scotland.
I am also campaigner and volunteer for a child and parent rights group since 2018, offering support and advice to parents in using their legal rights. I am an active member in both my child's parent council and the locality community council.
Khutso Dunbar (pure profile)
I'm a Public Health and Social Policy doctoral researcher investigating the intersection of mental health and poverty within marginalized communities. The specific focus of my research is on the role of community based organisations and activist led initiatives in mitigating the inequalities faced by minority women impacted by poverty and/or adverse mental health in Scotland. My overarching research interests are in how gender and race inform mental health outcomes, socio-economic status and lived experience in general as well as evaluating policy as a site for social justice.
Marijke Synhaeve (pure profile)
Marijke Synhaeve is a doctoral researcher whose PhD focuses on how and why research on youth violence prevention achieves (or fails to achieve) influence in policy settings. The PhD consists of a comparative case study of Scotland and the Netherlands. If the intended impacts are achieved, even partially, then this research will help contribute to addressing youth violence in ways that improve the lives of (often vulnerable) young people. Marijke Synhaeve conducts this PhD study part-time. Besides doing the PhD, she is elected as city councillor, board member and works as a senior/managing consultant advising all governmental levels in the Netherlands.