The ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health's innovative methods platform supports the use of cutting-edge statistical methods and novel qualitative approaches in close partnership with communities and experts by experience to more effectively answer questions about the mechanisms and pathways that link society and mental health. 

The Centre's 'Primers and Provocations' programme will prime researchers on methods which are innovative or where training is not widely available as well as providing a space to provoke discussion on cross-cutting issues in methodology - theoretical, practical, ethical - which transcend diverse fields of research, engagement and community action. 

All sessions are one-hour long and are designed to provide a 'broad brush' overview of methods that are accessible for all. 

Programme Overview: 

2024

Wednesday 24th April, 3.30pm: Knowing our Own Minds: the role and value of experiential knowledge in mental health research
Alison Faulkner, Survivor Researcher

Monday 20th May, 3.30pm: Photovoice and Paired Description - an introductory workshop
Prakash Krishnan, Flickr Foundation Research Fellow and Access in the Making (AIM) Lab member

Wednesday 29th May, 4.00pm: Qualitative Longitudinal Research - Strengths and Challenges
Bren Neale, Emeritus Professor of Life Course and Family Research, University of Leeds

Wednesday 26th June, 4.00pm: Multilevel Models of Intersectional Inequities: Introducing MAIHDA and Reimagining Multilevel Methods
Clare Evans, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Oregon, USA

2023

Wednesday 8th March, 2.00pm: How human centered are our practices? Bessie Bulman, Research and Evaluation Project Officer, Thrive LDN

Wednesday 24th May, 2.00pm: Conversation Analysis as a method for health and social policy research. Dr Annie Irvine, Quantitative Postdoctoral Research Associate, King's College London & Dr Merran Toerien, Reader in Sociology, University of York. 

Tuesday 8th June, 2.00pm: Mediation Analysis from a life-course perspective. Bianca de Stavola, Professor of Medical Statistics, University College London

Wednesday 5th July, 3.00pm: Under-recognised emotional labour: the mental health impacts of co-produced research projects within university-community research partnerships. Louise Warwick-Booth, Reader in Sociology, Leeds-Beckett University. 

Thursday 5th October, 2.00pm: An Introduction to Social Network Analysis. Molly Copeland, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Michigan State University & Holly Crudgington, LISS-DTP PhD Student, King's College London 

Wednesday 6th December, 2.00pm: An Introduction to Realistic Evaluation. Iveta Tsenkova, PhD student, King's College London 

 

Recordings for past events are available on our Centre YouTube channel here