Qualitative SIG

Dr Rachel Stocker (she/her)

Role(s) within the University: Lecturer in the School of Biomedical, Nutritional and Sport Sciences (SBNS) and member of the Population Health Sciences Institute (PHSI).

Background

Rachel teaches on several modules in the School of Biomedical, Nutritional and Sport Sciences portfolio, in relation to health psychology, exercise psychology, behaviour change, and qualitative research methods. She also supervises several students at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Rachel has a health psychology background, with BPS accredited degrees of BSc Psychology with Criminology and MSc Health Psychology. She then completed her PhD at Durham University which used grounded theory methodology to explore the lived experience of giving and receiving a prognosis and referral to palliative care in heart failure.

Rachel’s particular research interests lie in chronic and/or life-limiting conditions (particularly type 1 diabetes), exercise psychology, ageing and the wellbeing of older adults especially in care homes, complex intervention development and evaluation, palliative and end of life care, and cancer care. She uses a variety of qualitative methodologies, either as a stand-alone method or as part of mixed-methods research. Rachel is also experienced in patient and public involvement (PPI) in research, including its evaluation.

Outside of working life, Rachel enjoys walking her labrador Oscar with her husband Phil, especially if the weather is good and a country pub appears at the end. She is a lover of technology both old and new, and hosting parties with friends.

Areas of interest:

  • Type 1 diabetes
  • Exercise interventions
  • Chronic and progressive conditions
  • Ageing
  • Intervention development and evaluation
  • Health services research
  • Palliative and end of life care
  • Cancer immunotherapies
  • Grounded Theory
  • Reflexive thematic analysis

Supervision and Teaching:

Rachel has experience supervising undergraduate, masters, and PhD students. She is willing to be approached regarding supervision of students at all levels working on qualitative and mixed methods projects. She has acted as an external examiner at doctoral level and is willing to be approached to examine as an internal or external.

Rachel is an experienced lecturer of all aspects of qualitative research methodology and methods, and has recently introduced qualitative methods teaching for undergraduate sport & exercise science students.

Looking to collaborate on:

Rachel has a PI role and would like to collaborate with others as co-investigators, especially in the areas stated above. Rachel is also happy to be approached about potential collaboration opportunities for research, including at the grant application stage.

NU Profile page: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/medical-sciences/people/profile/rachelstocker.html