Dr Kathryn McEwan

Lecturer

Department: Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing

Kathryn McEwan is a Lecturer in Community Wellbeing. Her research explores end-of-life care, death literacy, and support for caregivers, with a particular interest in how experiences of dying and bereavement are shaped by social class, service structures, and cultural narratives.

Her recent publications draw on realist evaluation, participatory action research, and grounded theory, and include findings from studies of home-based palliative and end-of-life care, as well as Parkinson’s specialist nursing. Her current and future work aims to better understand the experiences of those accessing (or excluded from) care services, alongside the reflections of those who are bereaved. She is currently contributing to the development of future funding applications to the AHRC and NIHR HSDR.

Kathryn teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, with a particular interest in compassionate and inclusive practice. She is committed to applied, collaborative research that improves real-world outcomes for people navigating complex care systems.

She also serves as a convenor for the British Sociological Association’s Early Career Forum, supporting community-building and knowledge-sharing among early-career sociologists.

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Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
‘For Want of a Nail’: developing a transparent approach to retroduction and early initial programme theory development in a realist evaluation of community end of life care services, McEwan, K., Girling, M., Bate, A., Atkinson, J., Clarke, A., Dalkin, S. 3 Jul 2024, In: International Journal of Social Research Methodology
Providing ‘professionalism with compassion’; how the time for caring communication can improve experiences at the end-of-life at home, findings from a realist evaluation, McEwan, K., Atkinson, J., Clarke, A., Bate, A., Jeffery, C., Dalkin, S. 21 Dec 2024, In: BMC Palliative Care
The impact and value of the Parkinson’s nurse specialist to people with Parkinson’s and their care partners: a grounded theory qualitative study, McEwan, K., Clarke, A., Dalkin, S., Hand, A. 28 Oct 2024, In: BMC Nursing
Drinking Carling Out of Stella Glasses: People and Place in the Missing Middle, McEwan, K. 20 Jan 2021, In: Frontiers in Sociology
Precarious class positions in Spam City: youth, place and class in the ‘missing middle’, McEwan, K. 21 Aug 2019, Youth, Place and Theories of Belonging, Abingdon, Taylor & Francis