Professor Anna Lavis

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

In a range of collaborations across academia, policy, communities, and healthcare, Anna’s work has two core focuses:

1)  Social Media and Online Harms

Anna leads a programme of research into social media and health, with a particular focus on mental health. She directs the Social Media and Health Research Network, which is exploring what it would, could or should mean to 'live healthily' with social media now and in the future. Against this background, her research has explored why people may engage with online eating disorders, self-harm and suicide content, and has interrogated the meanings of ‘care’ and ‘crisis’ at the intersections of online and offline spaces.

She has also researched online misogyny and the ‘Manosphere,’ using online ethnography to explore the many pathways to and from this content and wider forms of radicalisation and violence.

Currently, Anna leads a project on what primary school children do and see online, which will track the impact of the forthcoming ban on the experiences of this younger age group.

Anna has advised a wide range of policymakers, and clinical and educational organisations, on the topic of online harms, as well as various tech platforms.

2)  Lived Experiences of Mental Distress

Anna’s second research focus lies in employing anthropological theory and method to develop approaches and solutions to the key 21st century challenge of mental distress.

Paying attention to the socio-cultural, political and environmental contexts that shape lived experiences, she has conducted extensive research into eating disorders, self-harm, suicidality and psychosis. Threaded through these empirical focuses are conceptual emphases on materiality, specifically the material culture of mental health, and concepts, ethics and practices of care.

Currently Anna leads the UKRI-MRF funded study, An Anthropological Approach to Eating Disorders: Developing an Innovative Socio-cultural Strategy for Research, Treatment and Prevention. This is a collaboration with colleagues at the University of Warwick, Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Partnership Trust, Forward Thinking Birmingham, and a range of people with lived experience and their communities across the Midlands and beyond.

Anna has particular expertise in ethnographic methods, having conducted sustained ethnographic fieldwork in online, clinical and community settings.

• MBChB
• Public Health MPH/PG Diploma/PG Certificate
• Master’s in Mental Health, Institute for Mental Health, UoB
• Doctoral Supervision

Anna is interested in supervising doctoral research in:

-Social media, health and society
-Lived experiences of mental ill-health and/or treatment interventions
-Ethnographic explorations of mental health
-Anorexia and/or other eating disorders, self-harm, suicidality, and psychosis

Recent/relevant projects

• 2025 - 2027: Eating Disorders Among Learning-Disabled People: a Participatory Research Study. UKRI-MRF; Co-I. (PI: Karin Eli, Warwick University)
• 2025 – 2026: Lived Experiences of Communicating about Diabetes and Disordered Eating: Innovating Diabetes Service Guidelines. Policy Support Fund, Warwick; Co-I (PI: Karin Eli, Warwick University)
• 2025 - 2026: Research and Stakeholder Engagements to Support Evidence-Based Policymaking on Online Harms. QR Policy Support Fund, UoB; PI
• 2024 - 2025: Tackling the Harms of Hypermasculine Online Content: Stakeholder Engagements to Support Evidence-Based Policymaking; QR Policy Support Fund, UoB; PI
• 2024 - 2026: A Qualitative exploration of the experiences of Young People and Carers in accessing treatment for ARFID and Feeding Disorders/Difficulties. Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital Charity Small Research Project Grant; Co-I
• 2024 – 2025: Developing a Programme to Address the Mental Health Needs of Pregnant and Postpartum Women with Congenital Heart Disease. Policy Support Fund, Warwick;  Co-I (PI: Karin Eli, Warwick University)
• 2024 – 2024: Mental Health among Pregnant/Postpartum Women with Congenital Heart Disease: a Participatory Research Project. Participatory Research Fund (Warwick University); Co-I
• 2023 - 2027: An Anthropological Approach to Eating Disorders: Developing an Innovative Socio-cultural Strategy for Research, Treatment and Prevention. UKRI-MRC; PI
• 2023 – 2026: Supporting Educational and Youth Organisations to Deliver Self-Harm and Suicide Prevention and Postvention: a mixed methods study and co-produced guidance. NIHR SPHR Public Mental Health Programme; Co-I
• 2023: Trust, Social Media, and Societal Health: Navigating Unsettling Dichotomies at the Intersections of Offline and Online Worlds. Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness, Workshop Funding; Co-I
• 2022 - 2026: ‘Legal but Harmful’? Research to Inform the UK Online Safety Bill and Analyse its Impact. QR Policy Support Fund, UoB; and philanthropic donation from the Barker Family Trust; PI
• 2022 - 2027: NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre. NIHR; Co-I
• 2022 - 2024: Co-Producing a Framework of Guiding Principles for Engaging Representative and Diverse Cohorts of Young People in Biological Research in Mental Health. UKRI-MRC; Co-I
• 2022 - 2023: Rapid Research in partnership with Schools to Ensure that the UK Online safety Bill Reflects Children and Young People’s Experiences. QR Enhancing Research and Knowledge Exchange Fund, UoB;  PI
• 2022 - 2025: Co-Producing a Framework for Peer- Support in Youth Suicide Prevention. 11 Foundation; Co-I
• 2022 - 2023: Eating Disorders and Body Image Content: Understanding What makes Content Harmful and for Whom. Philanthropic donation from the Barker Family Trust; PI
• 2022 – 2022: Improving Mental Health Care for Pregnant Women with Congenital Heart Disease. Policy Support Fund, Warwick; Co-I (PI: Karin Eli, Warwick University).
• 2022: ‘Living Healthily’ with Social Media: Forging Sociological Research Trajectories and Future Imaginaries. Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness, Workshop Funding; PI.
• 2021 – 2023: Self-Harm in Eating Disorders: A Mixed-Methods Study (SHINE). NIHR RfPB; PI.
• 2021 - 2022: Self-Harm and Suicide Content: Understanding What makes Content Harmful and for Whom. Samaritans; PI.

• Director, Social Media and Health Research Network, Twitter: @SM_and_health
• Series Editor, International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis (ISPS) Book Series, Routledge, 2016
• Trustee, the International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis (ISPS), UK
• Member, Meta’s Body Image and Eating Disorders Global Experts Advisory Board, 2022-
  Editorial Board Member, Anthropology in Action, 2019
• Member, Steering Committee of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Eating Disorders
• Co-Chair, UoB STEM Research Ethics Committee; member of the UoB Research Governance, Ethics and Integrity Committee, 2020
• Self-harm and Suicide Prevention Research Theme Co-Lead, IMH UoB, 2019
• Nominated for a University of Birmingham Founder’s Award for Impactful Research, 2024
• Winner of the University of Birmingham Research and Impact Award for ‘Excellence in Rigorous and Responsible Impact’, 2026