Social Policy

  • Angus Ryan

    Social Policy, Social Policy Alumni

    PhD Researcher in Social Policy (ESRC+3)
    University of Bristol, School for Policy Studies

    Start date: October 2017

    Research topic: Corporate crime punishment

    Research suggests that social policy is inadequate in regulating health and safety offences, as a large amount of harm bypasses the criminal justice system. I believe the largest gap in policy is how these offences are dealt with. My research uses interviews and focus groups to build a case for alternative punishments for health and safety offences. I aim to answer the following questions:

    1) Are current sanctions effective for the control of safety crime?

    2) Are community sentence orders or equity fines better suited to punish and deter corporate offenders?

    To answer these questions I look at the regulation and punishment of health and safety nationally and internationally.

    Research supervisors: Ms Christina Pantazis, Dr Demi Patsios

    Email: ar15943@bristol.ac.uk

  • Becky White

    Social Policy

    PhD Researcher in Social Policy (ESRC 1+3)
    University of Bristol, School for Policy Studies

    Start date: October 2020

    Research topic: Victim as Participant: Exploring the relationship between victim participation, legally represented within the court space, and retributive justice outcomes at the International Criminal Court

    My research will examine the impact on retributive justice outcomes of victim participation, through legal representation by the Office for Public Counsel for Victims (OPCV), at the International Criminal Court. Restorative justice appears to be the focus of research in this area to date, however I would like to move beyond emotional or moral justifications for victim participation and explore the function served by the OPCV to both notions of justice and truth within the court space.

    Research supervisors: Professor Christina Pantazis, Dr Natasha Mulvihill

    Professional memberships/Positions held:

    SWDTP Student Rep

    Email: becky.white@bristol.ac.uk

    LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/becky-white-644bb853

  • Daniel Lombard

    Social Policy

    PhD Researcher in Social Policy (ESRC +3)
    University of Bristol, School for Policy Studies

    Start date: October 2017

    Research topic: “Using discourse analysis to explore personalisation in long-term care”

    My project is about how older/disabled people communicate with care professionals, in the context of how personalisation is delivered in long-term care. Using an innovative methodological approach, discourse analysis, which has been pioneered at the Norah Fry Centre for Disability Studies, I aim to study the language used in interactions between professionals and clients. I am particularly interested in how the latter group express their needs and preferences regarding the way they are supported.

    I hope the findings will both further academic understanding in this area of social science and have a positive impact on the lives of older/disabled people and their families through practical application in the care sector.

    Research supervisors: Professor Liz Lloyd, Professor Val Williams

    Email: d.lombard@bristol.ac.uk

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellombard/

  • David Lawes

    Social Policy

    PhD Researcher in Social Policy (ESRC 1+3)
    University of Bristol, School for Policy Studies

    Start date: September 2015

    Research topic: Housing Policy

    Housing policy and intergenerational fairness.

    Research supervisors: Dr Alex Marsh, Dr Miza Izuhara

    Professional memberships/Positions held:

    CFA Institute

    Email: dl15466@mybristol.ac.uk

  • Emily Rickard

    Social Policy

    PhD Researcher in Social Policy (ESRC+3)
    University of Bath, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

    Start date: September 2018

    Research topic: Knowledge brokers or third-party influencers: The role of Think-Tanks in relation to Pharmaceutical and Food and Beverage policy

    Research supervisors: Anna Gilmore, Piotr Ozieranski, Dr Jordan Tchilingirian

    Email: e.j.rickard@bath.ac.uk

  • Giulia Ferranti

    Social Policy

    Social Policy +3
    University of Bristol, School for Policy Studies

    Start date: September 2021

    Research topic: Zemiology, Migration and Criminal Justice

    Despite representing a mere 13% of the Italian population, immigrants make up 32,5% of its prison population. I will be examining the reasons behind this overrepresentation, a subject that has received scant academic attention hitherto. An overwhelming focus on immigration detention has, in fact, left the criminal prosecution of migrants largely overlooked. Using participatory methodologies, I therefore aim to develop an appropriate information base, providing a multiperspectival and intersectional account of the relationship between migration, individuality, and criminal justice, and assessing the potential contribution of the criminal justice process in such overrepresentation and the production and entrenchment of social harm.

    Research supervisors: Victoria Canning, Natasha Carver

    Email: cb21397@bristol.ac.uk

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/giulia-ferranti-7891821b3/

  • Kate Bowen-Viner

    Social Policy

    PhD Researcher in Social Policy (ESRC +3)
    University of Bristol, School for Policy Studies

    Start date: October 2020

    Research topic: Menstruation Messages and Young People

    Existing research indicates that menstruation stigma is widespread and problematic for young people of all genders.

    My research involves understanding the messages young people receive about menstruation from different sources, including: advertisements, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and families. The project will explore how young people position themselves, and menstruation, in relation to dominant menstruation discourses.

    Findings from this research will provide insights into stigmatising menstruation discourses and how young people respond to them. I hope findings will help education policy-makers and practitioners to structure and deliver menstruation education in RSE.

    Research supervisors: Professor Debbie Watson, Dr Jon Symonds

    Professional memberships/Positions held:

    Student Representative, School for Policy Studies Research Ethics Committee

    Email: kate.bowen-viner@bristol.ac.uk

    LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/kate-bowen-viner-60a4a0140

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/KateBV

  • Kayleigh Charlton

    Social Policy

    PhD Researcher in Social Policy ESRC (+3)
    University of Bath, Department of Social and Policy Studies

    Start date: October 2020

    Research topic: Creating ‘healthy’ prisons for women: incorporating gender-sensitive thinking into penal design, policy and planning.

    My project is concerned with the experiences and treatment of those incarcerated within women’s prisons across Scotland, Ireland, England & Wales. A history of poor mental health is one of the most common shared experience in prison (Angiolini, 2012). Despite this, mental health within prisons remains the most seemingly intractable issues. This research aims to examine whether ‘gender sensitive’ thinking should feed into penal design and policy, a gender responsive approach is one that aims to reflect – through design and services – the realities of women’s lives, addressing various social and cultural factors and the pathways that lead them to criminality.

    Research supervisors: Professor Yvonne Jewkes (Bath), Dr. Frances Amery (Bath)

    Email: kaec21@bath.ac.uk

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayleigh-charlton-88a41b140/

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/charlton_k

  • Michelle James

    Social Policy

    PhD Researcher in Social Policy (ESRC +3)
    University of Bath, Department of Social and Policy Studies

    Start date: October 2020

    Research topic: Can Community-based Social Protection Interventions Improve the Wellbeing of Asylum Seekers and Refugees in the United Kingdom?

    My PhD will investigate the wellbeing of asylum seekers and refugees in the South West of England/Wales and, specifically, how taking part/reciprocity/volunteering in semi-formal and informal social protection interventions impacts their wellbeing positively and negatively. I also plan to investigate the politics and power structures associated with volunteering as an asylum seeker or refugee. My PhD will test a new research method in this field, using peer interviewers to collect data and the Qualitative Impact Protocol (QuIP) evaluation tool to organise and analyse the findings.

    Research supervisors: Professor Rachel Forester-Jones, Professor James Copestake

    Email: mj773@bath.ac.uk

    LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-james-9704438b

  • Polly Baynes

    Social Policy

    ESRC 1+3
    University of Bristol, School for Policy Studies

    Start date: September 2022

    Research topic: Women's work? Social work practice in protecting children from male violence from 1889 to 2010

    My research will be based on case files over a 120 year period, exploring change and continuity in social work responses to male violence, attribution of agency in and responsibility for protecting children and the influence of first and second wave feminism. I want to reflect on social work encounters as gendered spaces in which female workers traditionally laid claim to expertise on the basis of maternalism and in which working class women continue to work a ‘third shift’, managing the risks and opportunities of child protection interventions. What can contemporary social workers learn from the history of their profession? How can history become a resource in work with women who have social workers involved in their lives?

    Research supervisors: Aisha Gill, Josie McLellan

    Email: polly.baynes.2022@bristol.ac.uk

  • Sam Hooker

    Social Policy, Student Rep

    PhD Researcher in Social Policy (ESRC 1+3)
    University of Bath, Centre for Death and Society

    Start date: October 2020

    Research topic: How feasible is caring for the deceased at home in the UK, and to what extent does this help bereaved families?

    My research will explore the benefits and challenges of caring for a deceased person’s body at home, and the extent to which this helps (or hinders) bereaved individuals, families and communities in coming to terms with the death and their grief experience.

    Research supervisors: Dr Kate Woodthorpe, Dr John Troyer

    Professional memberships/Positions held:

    SWDTP Student Rep

    Email: smh83@bath.ac.uk

    LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-hooker-231065101

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/samantha_may9

  • Sarah Brown

    Social Policy

    PhD Researcher in Social Policy (ESRC +3)
    University of Bath, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

    Start date: September 2018

    Research topic: Creativity and wellbeing in developing countries: beyond the separation of ‘making’ and ‘thinking’

    Research supervisors: Professor Sarah White, Dr Cassandra Phoenix

    Email: seb64@bath.ac.uk