Contact information
Research groups
Anna Dowrick
Senior Researcher
My research explores how social injustice can be seen and acted on through understanding experiences of health and illness. I use qualitative methods to explore how healthcare interventions can address inequality, with a view to informing and improving the design of public services. I am an interdisciplinary social scientist, spanning the fields of medical sociology, medical anthropology and science and technology studies.
I work within the Cancer Group exploring how to deliver on the promise of new tests and technologies of cancer detection. I collaborate with the University of Bristol, exploring how to develop long-lasting connections between primary care teams and domestic violence & abuse support services in order to identify and help more people affected by abuse.
I have been involved in a range of projects exploring impacts of pandemic. These include: the unfair burden of the pandemic on minorities; differences in experiences of Covid stigma across countries; how Long Covid has affected families; how vaccines have affected people living with Long Covid; and how the pandemic changed the healthcare response to domestic violence and abuse.
Other projects I have worked on include use of food voucher interventions to support people experiencing food poverty and exploring the rapid growth of high-street and DIY ‘injectable’ cosmetic practices.
As a methodologist I am interested in anti-racist research approaches, cross-country qualitative comparative analysis, and how to minimise and address the rising impact of 'imposter' research participants.
I have received grant funding from the National Institute of Health Research, the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness, the Medical Research Council and Economic and Social Research Council.
I am a tutor on the Oxford Qualitative Research Methods courses, and an Honorary Research Fellow at Queen Mary University of London, where I undertook my PhD between 2015-18. I am also a Board member and Editor at the scholar-led open access monograph publisher Mattering Press.
Recent publications
-
Speculating About Futures with Covid Reinfection in the UK: The Body as a Site of Educated Guesswork
Journal article
Dowrick A. et al, (2025), Medical Anthropology: Cross Cultural Studies in Health and Illness
-
Feasibility of a reconfigured domestic violence and abuse training and support intervention responding to affected women, men, children and young people through primary care
Journal article
Szilassy E. et al, (2024), BMC Primary Care, 25
-
How should we do racially just research? Learning from a qualitative study on COVID-19 pandemic experiences in the UK
Journal article
Rai T. et al, (2024), Journal of Critical Public Health, 1
-
A manifesto for improving cancer detection: four key considerations when implementing innovations across the interface of primary and secondary care
Journal article
Dowrick A. et al, (2024), The Lancet Oncology
-
General practice wide adaptations to support patients affected by DVA during the COVID-19 pandemic: a rapid qualitative study
Journal article
Dixon S. et al, (2023), BMC Primary Care, 24