PhD Health in Social Science
The PhD Health in Social Science provides the opportunity to carry out a substantial piece of research in an area that explores health and wellbeing through the lens of arts and humanities practice and knowledge.
Name | PhD Health in Social Science |
Start Date | September and January |
Mode of Study | 3 years full-time, 6 years part-time |
Programme Director | Marisa de Andrade |
Please check the postgraduate Degree Finder to see the specific entry requirements, start date and application deadlines.
The PhD programme offers the possibility to work with and be supervised by a range of academics across many areas of counselling and psychotherapy, who have international reputations and outstanding publications in their areas of expertise. Our programme is undertaken over three years full-time or six years part-time.
Every project is different, so supervision is geared to work to your needs in terms of working patterns and specific training requirements. Each student is supported by two supervisors who provide expert guidance to help you develop your thesis. Students are also encouraged to consult any other member of staff whose work or interests may be relevant to your own. All students are expected to undertake research training as specified by their supervisors, and as relevant to your topic.
Catalina Martin | Provisional Title: A qualitative study to explore young LGBTs’ experiences of homelessness and sexual work in Scotland. |
Emily Hennessy | Exploring the uptake of the HPV vaccine within the traveller community to inform public health and social policy |
Emily Yue | Migrant Suicide: An alternative analysis of suicide in Scotland |
Florencia Vergara Escobar | Following social bonds: Ethnographies of Chilean Relational Wellbeing and its possibilities in a wounded country |
Gosaye Fida | Evaluating the outcome lifestyle interventions to delay the onset of diabetes in high risk /Pre-diabetes population. |
Hannah Kimler | Identifying Psychosocial Quality of Life Indicators Amongst Adults with Fecal Incontinence |
Joana Esteves Craverio De Oliveira | ONE FOR THE JOURNEY: READING AS A SOOTHING EMBODIED EXPERIENCE IN THE FACE OF ECO-ANXIETY |
Jillian Manner | Importance of culture and context in the sustained implementation and effectiveness of complex workplace interventions, using Stand Up for Health as a case study |
Juliana Ramirez Muñoz | Human “inter-existence” as a way out of conflict: a creative and radical relational inquiry on human and nonhuman fractures that deepen social fragmentation. |
Katherine Pachkowski | Mental illness and exploitation: How stigma, isolation, and resource allocation create vulnerability to exploitation among the mentally ill, and a proposed role for healthcare. |
Ka Wu | Stress and Satisfaction: the possible influence of social media on the LGBT community |
Kai Chung Poon | Storytelling as a means for building up children’s positive characters: Using Chinese Classics for bibliotherapy |
Kunhyo Jee | A Comparative Study on the Elderly Policy between the UK, the USA, Sweden, Japan and South Korea: Focused on income security, medical security, housing security, and social services for Elderly |
Liam Gilchrist | How can Community Based Participatory Research be used as a framework for healthcare research with improved health outcomes in comparative public health contexts? |
Lucy Campbell | A study on the impact and effects of digitalisation on wellbeing for people experiencing unemployment during Covid 19 |
Lucie Wollenstein | Using Machine Learning to Model the Cost-Effectiveness of Housing First as an Intervention Tool for Homelessness in the UK and Beyond |
Louise Prendergast | HEAL THYSELF: Yoga Awakenings, Yogic Sleep and Creativity in the Treatment of Trauma. |
Nancy Brown | Defining and Evaluating Relationship-centered Care Directly from PwD |
Oluchi Dominica Mellor | Taming the Monster from within addressing racism in nursing and its impact on Black nurses' mental health |
Rose Vincent | Developing an inclusive model of volunteering to reduce social isolation for people living with young onset dementia |
Romy Goossens | Covid-19 and Health Policymaking: Comparing and Drawing Lessons from the National Responses of the UK, Sweden, and Taiwan to the Covid-19 Pandemic |
Ruth Gailey | Unseen worlds; using Magical Realism to explore the relationship between non-ordinary states of consciousness (N-OSC) and wellbeing in people on the autism spectrum. |
Thandiwe Mkandawire | Understanding Malawian cultural idioms of distress for psychosis for effective treatment. |
Valeria Lembo | The Art of Caring: An Ethnographic Study of Artistic Interventions for Dementia Care in Scotland |
Wako Golicha Wako | GroundsWell Studentship |
Yuen Wai Vennus Ho | ARTŠ-pirit : An arts-based autoethnographic inquiry into the spirituality of family caregivers in Hong Kong in the wake of loss |
Xinyi Yang | An ethical study of mental health evaluation as a mandatory test for Chinese College Students |
Zorana Alimpic | The Impact of COVID-19 on Youth in South Africa: Understanding and Addressing the Effects on Mental Well-Being and Human Rights |
Why choose this programme?
Doctoral study provides the opportunity to carry out a substantial piece of research guided by expert supervisors. You will gain high-level research skills and a range of transferable skills tailored to various career pathways. The principal grounds for awarding a PhD degree are that it is an original work making a significant contribution to knowledge in the student’s field of study, and containing material worthy of publication.
A vibrant and inclusive research environment
The University of Edinburgh is a world-leader in research and innovation and an international centre of academic excellence. Students on this programme will become part of an active and diverse research community in the School of Health in Social Science and will have access to the wide-range of learning environments and outstanding resources that the University has to offer. Our postgraduate researchers work in close proximity to each other, enabling them to pool their expertise and knowledge to tackle complex challenges and push the boundaries of discovery. Students will be encouraged to engage with a wide range of seminars, talks, and events, and often have the opportunity to present their own research at national and international conferences. Our student-led postgraduate research blog provides a snapshot of the activities and events our PGR students organise and are involved in.
Our staff in Health in Social Science embrace a range of academic disciplines and offer a focus on innovative and cross-disciplinary health and social care research. From these perspectives we examine the overlapping concerns of research, policy and practice in health and social care. We welcome projects utilising a range of research designs and have special interests in qualitative and collaborative research and innovative methods. We are keen to encourage research around the interface between social and cultural aspects of health, and the policy and practice contexts of healthcare delivery.
PhD by Distance
There is also an opportunity to undertake this programme through our PhD by Distance option. The PhD by Distance is available to suitably qualified applicants in the same areas as our on-campus programmes: Clinical and Health Psychology, Counselling and Psychotherapy, Health in Social Science and Nursing Studies.
The programme allows students who are unable to commit to basing themselves in Edinburgh full time to study for a PhD in a field of Health in Social Science from their home country or city - however this is not intended to be a fully online distance learning programme.
Students enrolled on this programme will be expected to come to Edinburgh at least once per year of study to meet with their supervisors. The length and timing of these visits are negotiable but students should expect to spend at least two weeks at the University of Edinburgh during each year of study.
Find out more about the PhD by Distance
The School of Health in Social Science offers several fully funded MScR and PhD studentships each year. A variety of scholarships are available, which vary from full scholarships covering tuition fees and a stipend to cover living expenses, to partial scholarships.
Find out more about our scholarships and funding opportunities
Beyond the programme
A PhD from the University of Edinburgh enhances the career prospects of anyone interested in an academic or professional career. Specialist research and successful completion of a PhD in the sphere of health and social science can be an advantage in many areas of health or social care, policy and practice, and opens up employment opportunities in a broad range of fields.
Students with prior professional qualifications enhance their careers with the addition of highly developed conceptual, analytical and research skills.