SSM ECRs featuring… Amy Stevenson

SSM ECRs featuring… Amy Stevenson!

Amy Stevenson is a PhD student at the University of Glasgow.

Amy Stevenson University of Glasgow PhD Student SSM member since: 2023 SSM participation: Glasgow Local Officer on the ECR subcommittee Topics of interest: Places, gender, systems science

What inspired you to pursue a career in epidemiology and population health?

Growing up in a working class Glaswegian family descended from Irish immigrants, I have never been a stranger to the reality of health inequalities. A desire to better-understand and tackle the causes of these inequalities is what motivates me to pursue a career in public health now, although I ended up here somewhat accidentally – my background is actually in economics and politics!

What excites you about working in research now?
There seems to be a growing consensus that we need to bring together expertise and ideas from different disciplines and sectors to solve shared problems. Climate change is a great example of this. We need to move fast to address this crisis, but as public health researchers we also need to ask, what are the potential impacts on health and wellbeing inequalities from climate change mitigation and adaptation policies? How can we move towards a safe space for both the planet and human health? These are not questions we can answer in isolation from other disciplines, and I think the growing awareness around this reality is really exciting. It means that we’re less likely to become siloed in our work and will always be learning more about different fields and methods, whilst remaining focused on impact.

What area of epidemiology/population health are you interested in?
Place-based approaches to tackling health inequalities.

Can you tell us a bit about a project you’re working on now?
I’m currently working on my PhD which is funded by the GALLANT research programme. I’m exploring the gendered health and wellbeing inequality impacts of 20-minute neighbourhood policies, supported by a wonderfully interdisciplinary supervisory team from across Social and Public Health Sciences, Urban Studies, and Geographical and Earth Sciences, at the University of Glasgow.

What do you hope this will lead to?
I hope my research can contribute to an improved understanding of whether and how eco-urbanist models may help to reduce gendered health and wellbeing inequalities. 

Bonus question from ECR sub-committee: What are you most excited for at the SSM 2024 conference and ECR day?

There is so much to look forward to, it’s hard to choose! 

As one of the Local Officers on the SSM ECR sub-committee, I’ve been involved in organising the ECR day this year, which is a full day of activities just for ECRs which takes place the day before the main ASM begins. We have a line-up of fantastic speakers and panel members – I can’t wait to learn from them all! It’s also going to be a great day for ECRs to get together, discuss common challenges and opportunities associated with working in inter-and transdisciplinary research spaces, and learn from people with experience of navigating successful careers in this area.  

For the conference, I’m probably most excited for the debate on the Health Disparities Research Industrial Complex. Dr Ezell’s paper asked some really important questions and I think it’s great that SSM are providing a platform on which we can seriously engage with these as a community.

To keep up to date with Amy’s work, you can get in touch via email.

SSM ECR features is a blog series that celebrates early career researchers. Each month we meet a member we admire, learn more about their work and find out what and who inspires them. To find out more visit socsocmed.org.uk/blog or email ecr.ssm@gmail.com.