TBC

Throughout my academic and professional career, I have sought to use research to have a real-world
impact and tackle health and social inequalities. This includes: applying my quantitative and qualitative
research methods training to my masters' dissertation which resulted in improved pay conditions for all
hourly-paid workers at the university of study; teaching myself Python programming skills whilst working
on the Learning Disability Mortality Review programme to help achieve its key aim of reducing health and
social care inequalities for people with learning disabilities, and; voluntary work for People & Planet and
Bristol Refugee Rights which involved environmental and labour rights campaign research and the
provision of casework support respectively.
I am fascinated by the opportunity that biosocial research provides to explore the interplay between the
biological, medical, and social science fields. As a research topic, I am keen to explore the types of
biological health risks (biomarkers of current and future disease) that are associated with poor quality
access to public spaces, though the lens of public transportation. This would involve linking individuallevel
biomarker data from Understanding Society's UK Household Longitudinal study with area data from
governmental sources. I would situate this within wider debates regarding neighbourhood deprivation and
poor individual health outcomes.
A biosocial approach makes it possible to explore the relationship between health and social inequalities
and poor quality access to public transport. Moreover, this topic is important and of immediate concern
because public transport is intrinsically linked with the global COVID-19 and climate crises. On the one
hand, COVID-19 presents numerous challenges for the future of public transport. On the other, the
climate crisis requires us to provide greener modes of travel as individual action alone cannot prevent
climate catastrophe. Health and social inequalities are also exacerbated by poor quality access to public
transport. Furthermore, access to transport is of vital importance for lower-income workers. Given the
safety challenges posed by COVID-19 in the current provision of public transport and access to
transport's centrality to tackling health and social inequalities and the climate crisis, this underresearched
area is an essential topic of study.
My academic experience includes a First Class BA with Honours in History and Politics from the
University of Liverpool (2009). This included one of the highest marks for a dissertation in the politics
department. I also gained a merit for my Master of Research (MRes) from the University of Bath (2014) in
Global Political Economy: Transformations and Policy Analysis, which included quantitative research
methods training. For my MRes dissertation, I explored the 'precaritisation' of academic labour for
casualised workers. I uncovered an underpayment of all hourly-paid workers had been taking place for a
4-year period and helped to organise back-pay and secure a policy change on the payment moving
forward. I feel this experience of problem-solving and writing impactful research demonstrates I am a
suitable candidate for this PhD Studentship.
After finishing my Masters I worked for the think tank Spinwatch/Powerbase exploring the funding
streams of organisations seeking to influence how UK science policy decisions are made. Using
innovative methods I uncovered information that was actively obscured. This involved tracing funding
streams and exploring their relationship to campaigning decisions of charities seeking to influence
government policy around regulation of certain areas of science. I feel this experience of using innovative
methods to overcome challenges regarding access to data and delivering research outputs has prepared
me well to succeed on the Soc-B Studentship.