Anna Lavis

Dr. Anna Lavis is a Lecturer in Medical Anthropology at the Social Studies in Medicine (SSiM) Team within the Institute of Applied Health Research at the University of Birmingham. She also holds an honorary Senior Lecturer position at the School of Archaeology and Anthropology of the Australian National University since November 2020. Her work bridges academic, policy, and clinical domains through qualitative and mixed-methods research.

• PhD, Medical Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London (2011)
• MRes, Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London (2006)
• MSc, Social Anthropology, University College London (2003)
• BA (MA), European and Middle Eastern Languages, University of Oxford (2002/2014)

Her research focuses on 21st-century mental health challenges, with expertise in ethnographic fieldwork across online, clinical, and community settings. Key conceptual themes include material culture of mental health, care ethics, social media epistemology, and affect/desire dynamics.

Recent publications highlight intersections between social media and mental health, vaccine hesitancy discourse analysis, and self-harm in dance education contexts. Six articles from 2025 and one 2024 conference paper illustrate her current emphasis on mixed-methods interventions and qualitative frameworks.

She supervises doctoral students at Birmingham and externally, guest lectures at UCL, and contributes to UK teaching/examination. Projects funded by ESRC, NIHR, MRC, Samaritans, and Wellcome Trust explore eating disorders, psychosis, and online harms legislation.