I’m starting to think about which area I’d potentially like to do my project in.

I’m really interested in inequalities in health specifically and would really like to delve further into that area with my research.

For my undergraduate dissertation, I researched the impact of Covid-19 on well-being within the UK using secondary data from Understanding Society to determine whether 1) Covid-19 had significantly impacted overall well-being, and 2) how these impacts were stratified across groups of society (e.g. through gender, race/ethnicity, education level, region).

The experience of conducting this research, including the utilisation of quantitative methods such as spline regression analysis, intensified my commitment to understanding and addressing health inequalities. I am eager to continue developing my quantitative skills, particularly the data analysis training in Python I’m currently undertaking. I’d also be open to embracing a mixed methods approach, tailoring my methodology based on the nature of the research questions that emerge during the exploration of health inequalities.

Having a background in Geography adds a unique dimension to my perspective. I think the discipline provides a valuable lens through which to view inequalities. My theoretical framings for my dissertation were looking at the idea of spatial justice – the idea that injustice is manifest across space, and that inequality can be observed geographically (through measures of things like health and wealth). For example, you can observe levels of inequality within a city by observing it’s differences in life expectancy across different areas – those with lowest expectancy are likely a result of social exclusion. This approach not only allows for the identification of patterns and trends but also provides a contextual understanding of the social and environmental determinants contributing to health disparities.

I think this is a really interesting way to view the world & inequality, so I’d love to explore inequality further using these framings.

Initial Framework For Project / Lauren McDougall / Knowledge Integration and Project Planning: Data, Inequality and Society (2023-24) by is licensed under a