Qualitative SIG

Dr Siân Russell (she/her)

Research Associate based at the Population Health Sciences Institute (PHSI). and working within the National Institute for Health and Care Research Blood and Transplant Research Unit in Organ Donation and Transplantation (NIHR BTRU in ODT).

Siân completed her first degree in Social Anthropology at The University of Edinburgh in 2006 and, the following year obtained a MSc in Social Research Methods at the same institution before undertaking a PhD at The University of Dundee. Her thesis explored the long-term experiences of living with physical and cognitive impairments acquired by stroke. A Bourdieusian theoretical lens was applied to the analysis of interview data.

Since then, Siân has developed her qualitative skills working on exploratory and applied projects covering diverse topics including sexual health and relationships in areas of high socioeconomic deprivation, self-management intervention development, intervention evaluation, and experiences of working in long-term care.

Within the Population Health Sciences Institute (PHSI), Siân is part of the Ageing and Geroscience and the Public Health and Health Inequalities research themes. In 2022 Siân joined the National Institute for Health and Care Research Blood and Transplant Research Unit in Organ Donation and Transplantation (NIHR BTRU in ODT), a collaboration between Newcastle and Cambridge universities. Working within the Applied Health Research and Inequalities in Transplantation research theme Siân contributes to qualitative projects and project components and supports Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) activities.

Outside of academic research Siân’s passions revolve around outdoor pursuits be that hiking, walking and sometimes running in the hills, camping in remote places, scrambling and rock climbing. When on annual leave she is usually somewhere in the Scottish Highlands, the Southern Uplands, Northumberland, or the Lake District; up a hill, in a tent, paddling in a loch, or stoking a fire in a bothy.

Areas of interest:

  • Ageing and long-term care
  • Chronic conditions
  • Inequalities
  • Practice Theory
  • Embodiment
  • Intervention development and evaluation
  • Qualitative Evidence Synthesis (QES)
  • Creative and novel qualitative data collection methods

Supervision and Teaching:

Siân has experience supervising undergraduate and master’s students. She is willing to be approached regarding supervision of students at all levels working on qualitative and mixed methods projects or for requests to join PhD review panels.

She has taught on topics such as developing topic guides, sampling and recruitment, data collection via interviews and focus groups, data analysis, and applying theory in qualitative research and regularly contributes to the teaching and marking of the qualitative component of NU’s Master’s in Public Health degree. She has also co-organised and taught informal qualitative methods workshops for colleagues within PHSI.

Looking to collaborate on:

Collaboration is typically where the research magic happens. Siân is keen to contribute to or lead on small – large funding bids, engagement events, and developing teaching and training workshops and seminars.

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