Professor Ellen Stewart
- Professor of Public Policy and Health (Urban Studies & Social Policy)
- Associate (School of Health & Wellbeing)
Biography
Ellen Stewart is a social scientist working at the intersection of medical sociology and health policy. She joined the University of Glasgow as Professor of Public Policy & Health in 2024, having previously been co-Director of the Centre for Health Policy at the University of Strathclyde (2021-2024), Chancellor's Fellow in the Centre for Biomedicine, Self & Society at the University of Edinburgh (2016-2021), Postdoctoral Fellow in the University of Edinburgh Medical School, and a Research Assistant in the University of St Andrews Medical School.
She is Editor of the journal Sociology of Health & Illness, an active member of the Social Policy Association, and a member of the Wellcome Trust's Advisory Group for Early Career Awards.
Research interests
Ellen's research explores how health systems accommodate and negotiate different forms of ‘lay’ and ‘expert’ knowledge, including demands for public engagement and for evidence-based policy. In 2023 her latest book How Britain Loves the NHS: practices of care and contestation was published by Policy Press.
Current research
- Co-leading a workstream on Community Insights for the Policy Modelling for Health consortium
- Leading the contemporary work package of a Wellcome Trust Collaborative Award on charity in the NHS since 1948
- Collaborating with Strathclyde's Centre for Health Policy to run a series of witness seminars capturing key reforms in deveolved Scottish health policy
Grants
The Health-Justice Nexus: Crime and Justice as Social Determinants of Health in Scotland. Chief Scientist Office (2024-2028)
Policy Modelling for Health. UKRI (2024-2028)
Border Crossings: Charity and voluntarism in Britain's mixed economy of health care since 1948. Wellcome Trust (2020-2025)
System-science Informed Public Health and Economic Research for Non-communicable Disease Prevention (the SIPHER Consortium). UK Prevention Research Partnership (2019-2024)
Transforming Primary Care in Scotland and China to meet the needs of an ageing population - are health inequalities being tackled? ESRC (2020-2023)
Trends in Socio-Economic Determinants of Health Inequalities in Scotland. Health Foundation (2022-23)
"All the help we can get": contemporary public donations of money to Scotland's NHS. Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland (2018-19)
Critical approaches to Public and Patient Involvement in Health Research. University of Edinburgh- University of Sydney Collaboration Scheme (2018-19)
Hospitals must close? a four system comparison of policy for constructive conversations on controversial service changes. Health Foundation (2016-2018)
Closing hospitals: an evaluation of knowledge use and public involvement in disinvestment proposals. Chief Scientist Office (2014-2018)
Supervision
I welcome PhD enquiries related to my research interests as described above.
Completed PhD students
- Dr Katie Hirono (University of Edinburgh): Comparing community engagement in Health Impact Assessments and Citizens' Juries in the UK and Australia.
- Dr Gabrielle King (University of Edinburgh): Exploring how people with Motor Neurone Disease engage with biomedical research.
- Dr Taina Meriluoto (University of Jyväskylä): Expertise-by-experience in the Finnish social welfare sector.
Professional activities & recognition
Prizes, awards & distinctions
- 2018: Cambridge University Press Award for Excellence in Social Policy Scholarship (Social Policy Association)
Grant committees & research advisory boards
- 2021: Wellcome Trust, Medical Humanities Early Career Advisory Group
- 2021: Science Foundation Ireland, Pathway Scheme AHSS panel
- 2024: ESRC, Peer Review College
Professional & learned societies
- 2018 - 2024: Executive Committee member, Social Policy Association