Nursing Narratives: Racism & the Pandemic

About the project Nursing Narratives has taken a ground level approach to understand the experiences of Black and Asian healthcare staff in the pandemic. Through surveying and interviewing workers, it has found that racism is prevalent in the health and social care sector, and structural racism impacted healthcare workers. A mix of social science and […]

Far Apart UK: Looking Beyond Lockdown – How UK Arts Organisations Can Continue To Support Young People’s Wellbeing During COVID-19

About the project We know that young people’s participation in the arts has a positive impact their mental health and wellbeing. COVID-19 forced arts organisations to move their activities online, radically changing the ways in which they support young people. Using mixed methods, this study examined the impact of this shift to the digital on […]

Infodemic: Combatting COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories

About the project A direct response to the warning of the World Health Organisation at the start of the pandemic about the dangers of misinformation, this project studied how and why conspiracy theories spread in the online environment. Scraping conspiracy theory posts from the main social media platforms, digital methods were used to identify key […]

Grading Gowns: Redesigning One-size PPE to Fit and Protect Female Health Workers More Effectively

About the project This research analysed the design and procurement of PPE (personal protective equipment) for the comfort and safety of healthcare workers. It identified a number of key issues relating to gown fabrication, length, fastenings, and intended wear that impeded safe use by healthcare workers, particularly women and women from ethnic minorities. It investigated […]

Places and Communities

The challenges of the pandemic have often demanded local and place-based responses that can speak directly to the needs of particular communities.  Through Arts and Humanities research, we now know more about the way in which local cultural ecologies and infrastructures function, including how these have been impacted by the crisis. Studies have emphasised the […]

Guidance, Messaging and Behaviour Change

Arts and Humanities research during the pandemic has been vital in helping us understand how public health messages are received within different communities, how communication platforms affect interpretation and reach, and how effective messaging can combat misinformation and build public trust.  Researchers have investigated how rumours and conspiracy theories originate, how they spread and the […]

Governance: Ethics, Data and Procurement

During the pandemic, AHRC-funded research has examined questions relating to legal and ethical preparedness and responsiveness within health and social care and in government. Studies cover public sector procurement, COVID-19 related fraud, the use and management of data by the public sector, and vaccine development, uptake and delivery. They have identified a need for cross-departmental […]

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

The pandemic has highlighted systemic inequalities across society. An interest in exploring and addressing these has been explicit in or threaded through many of the AHRC-funded COVID-19 studies.  Researchers have explored how public health messaging might better reach different communities. They have also shone a spotlight on experiences of racism for people working in the […]

Cultural and Creative Industries

Arts and Humanities research during the pandemic has shown how the crisis is galvanising practitioners and stakeholders in the cultural sector to find new models for producing work and for reaching audiences. However, it has also exposed structural inequalities and exclusions for audiences and for the sector’s workforce.   Technological innovations, including hybrid modes of digital and […]

Stay Home Stories: Rethinking the Domestic During the COVID-19 Pandemic

About the project This research recognised the intrinsic domestic dimension of the personal, political and public health response to the pandemic. Researchers documented and analysed the ‘stay home stories’ of adults, young people and children living in diverse homes and households in the UK. They investigated the politics discourse and media coverage of home, as […]