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Staff Profile

Dr Kate Gibson

Lecturer in Social Science

  • Telephone: 0191 208 8287
  • Address: Population Health Sciences Institute
    Newcastle University
    Campus for Ageing and Vitality
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE4 5PL
Background

Kate is a lecturer in social science in the Population Health Sciences Institute. Her core discipline is sociology and she is broadly interested social inequalities. She utilises a range of approaches and methods to explore people's everyday experiences of care, ageing, health and wellbeing. She has a particular interest in ethnographic methods and using Bourdieusian social theory as lens to explore the relationship between care, ageing and inequalities. 


Kate uses a range of qualitative methods. These include ethnography, photo/object elicitation, life history interviews, 'Go-alongs' and focus groups. Kate is involved in a range of applied health research, working with interdisciplinary teams. She has researched on the topics of ageing in place, classed food dispositions, social and health inequalities, and social prescribing. Her current and long-term interests are in the health and wellbeing of older people, in particular, those who are affected by dementia, care, ageing in place, and addressing health and social inequalities.


Qualifications

PhD Sociology, 2018, Feeding the Middle Classes: taste, classed identity and domestic food practices.

MA Sociology and Social Research, 2014

BSc Hons Sociology, 1998

Research

Intersecting social relations of care: An ethnographic and interview study with South Asian people ageing in place with dementia, NIHR Three School’s Dementia Research programme. May 2024-July 2026 £375,095, Principal Investigator 

This study utilises qualitative and ethnographic methods to explore how dementia care is experienced and accessed in South Asian communities in Newcastle, Nottingham, and Birmingham. Using the lens of intersectionality, the study will focus on the ways in which dementia care experiences of South Asian people living at home with dementia are crosscut by factors such as class, gender, and age.


Ageing in Place with dementia: contextual scoping of under-served communities in the North East of England, NIHR Three School’s Dementia Career Development Award. 2023-2024 £26,525, Principal Investigator

This award is to undertake community consultation and engagement activities with key stakeholders linked to underserved groups in the North East and to pursue opportunities for dementia-related research.


Homes for Living (qualitative evaluation), UKRI Innovate UK. 2022-2024, £187,727. Co-Investigator (Principal Investigator, Dr Andrew Kingston, Newcastle University)

This qualitative evaluation of EON’s Homes for Living programme, is exploring the implementation of technological, social, and self-help innovations provided by EON for older people.


Ageing in Place successfully: exploring factors which facilitate and hinder independent living with age, Legal and General Group PLC, 2021-2025, £769,644 (Principal Investigator, Professor Louise Robinson, Newcastle University)

This study is part of an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral research programme hosted by the Advanced Care Research Centre at Edinburgh University aiming to advance our understanding of population ageing. Based on longitudinal research, the study explores how people in later life negotiate formal and informal health and social care provision within, and outside, of their home. 


SPRING_NE Impact of a community based social prescribing intervention on people with Type 2 Diabetes in an ethnically diverse area of high socio-economic deprivation', NIHR Public Health Research Grant, 2018-2021, £570,000. (Principal Investigator, Professor Suzanne Moffatt, Newcastle University)

As part of a multi-methods evaluation of a social prescribing intervention delivered to people living in an ethnically diverse area of Newcastle with high indicators of deprivation. Kate undertook a 20-month ethnography, exploring how the intervention embedded with local contexts, the lived experiences of service users and the social relations shaping their engagement.


Feeding the Middle Classes: Taste, classed identity and domestic food practices, ESRC Doctoral Scholarship.,2014-2017, £62,000

Focusing on middle-class domestic food practices, Kate engaged in a critical dialogue with Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, capital, practice, and field to trace how middle-class food dispositions are embodied and intergenerationally reproduced across the life course. Based on research with 27 participants, the thesis presents findings generated from semi-structured interviews, food biographies, photo elicitation, and domestic ‘go-alongs’.


Understanding Everyday Participation: Articulating Cultural Values, AHRC Connected Communities Large Grant, 2012-2018, £1.5 million. (Principal Investigator, Professor Andrew Miles, Manchester University)

A multi-methods study aiming to understand community formation and capacity through local practices of participation, Kate conducted longitudinal qualitative research with residents in Gateshead. Interviews explored everyday activities, cultural tastes, participation, and understandings in the context of life histories, relationships, and identities.

Publications