Dr Annie Irvine

Annie began her career in qualitative research in 2001, as a research assistant in the Department of Linguistics at the University of York. She then spent three years at the National Foundation for Educational Research, before moving to the Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU) in 2005. During her 12 years at SPRU, Annie’s research centred around the topics of health, disability and social security benefits, developing a particular interest in mental health and employment. More recently, she returned to linguistics, conducting a Conversation Analysis study of interactions between patients and practitioners in telephone-delivered psychological therapy sessions in the NHS IAPT programme. In 2020, Annie joined the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health at King’s, developing a programme of qualitative research on precarious employment, conditional welfare benefits and mental health.

Annie holds an MSc in Social Research Methods from the Open University, and was awarded a ‘PhD by publication’ in 2015, based on methodological and substantive research conducted during her time at SPRU. The majority of her career has been in applied, policy-focused contract research and she has extensive experience in the practical aspects of designing and carrying out interview-based qualitative studies. She has published methodological work on telephone interviewing, and maintains an interest in linguistics, language use and social interaction.

Annie is a member of the ESRC Peer Review College and recently joined the Editorial Board of the journal Qualitative Research.