Gillian Fergie

Biography

Gillian Fergie is a Research Associate in the Improving Healthy Public Policy Programme at the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit. She currently works on a range of projects using qualitative and mixed methods to explore people’s engagement with contemporary health issues and debates. Gillian is interested in the use of participatory research methods and community-engaged research. Her recent work builds on her PhD, completed in January 2015, entitled “Understanding young adults’ online engagement and health experiences in the age of social media: exploring diabetes and common mental health disorders”, supervised by Dr Shona Hilton and Prof Kate Hunt. Before joining the Improving Healthy Public Policy Programme Gillian graduated with an MA (hons) in History in 2007 and an MSc in Social Science Research in 2011, both from the University of Glasgow. She worked as a research assistant from 2008-2010 on a project developing academic writing support for postgraduates at University College London, and maintains an interest in the practice of academic writing. Gillian has an interest in public engagement and public involvement in research. She is also a member of the College of Social Science Research Ethics Committee.

Research Interest

Research interests: e-health, social media, health inequalities, health literacy, public understandings of health, experiences of health and illness, young people.