Dr Ratcliffe joined King’s College as a Research Associate in February 2024. He is working on the EPSRC & NIHR funded ‘Deloneliness’ project led by Dr Wei Liu. The project aims to create a smart system to detect loneliness at home. As a researcher with a background in Public Health and Sociology, his role is to aid the project understand and conduct research related to loneliness.

Before joining King’s College, John worked at Sheffield Hallam University, initially in the Centre for Loneliness Studies, then on a Sport England project aiming to tackle physical activity inequalities. He also taught Research Methods for the Psychology department. During his time at the Centre for Loneliness Studies, he worked on the evaluation of ‘Ageing Better’ (a nationwide set of interventions to tackle loneliness in older people), a report on the state of loneliness for the Film and TV charity, and conducted research into using Virtual Reality to alleviate loneliness in older people.

John studied for his PhD in Health Sciences at the University of York. This consisted of a mixed methods investigation of the impact of gender on men's constructions and experiences of loneliness. Prior to this, he attained a Ba in Sociology and Ma in Social Research from the University of Sheffield, where he also worked part-time for Care-connect. In that role, he took part in research projects on loneliness for Age UK and the British Red Cross, and a project on fabricated or induced illness for the NHS. He worked in social care in Sheffield and Manchester for many years before returning to University to obtain his Master’s. 

Research interests

• Loneliness
• Social isolation
• Mental Health
• Men and Masculinities

Other Information

• ResearchGate
• Google Scholar