Dr Elisabeth Garratt

School of Education

Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Methods

Programme Director in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics

Photo of Dr Elisabeth Garratt
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elisabeth.garratt@sheffield.ac.uk

Full contact details

Dr Elisabeth Garratt
School of Education
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH
Profile
Understanding homelessness & food poverty - Meet Dr Elisabeth Garrett
Beth is an interdisciplinary social scientist, joining the Sheffield Methods Institute as a Lecturer in Quantitative Methods in September 2019. Before this, she was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Investigation, Nuffield College, Oxford. She completed her PhD in Social Statistics at the University of Manchester in 2015, exploring the role of income on mental health in 3-12 year-old British children and their parents. She also holds an MSc in Social Research Methods and Statistics (University of Manchester) and a BA in Psychology with Philosophy (University of Oxford).
 

From April 2023, Beth is serving as Principal Investigator on an ESRC-funded project entitled 'Navigating food insecurity and environmental sustainability on a low income: A case study of Sheffield mothers'. The project explores mothers' experiences of day-to-day food provisioning on a low income, incorporating novel considerations about the role played by environmental sustainability practices in everyday food provisioning. This feminist, qualitative research project involves 15 months of longitudinal fieldwork with 15 low-income families in Sheffield, combining in-depth interviews with ethnographic elements. More information about the project is available here.

Beth is also currently writing up findings from an earlier qualitative research project exploring people’s experiences of homelessness in the city of Oxford, where she also served as the Principal Investigator. This project used in-depth interviews and life history mapping to explore people’s housing and homelessness biographies over the lifecourse. Its particular focus is on the long-term causes of homelessness and people's trajectories through different experiences of homelessness over time.
 
Beth holds a PGCert in Teaching for Learning in Higher Education and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
 
 
Research interests
  • Homelessness
  • Housing exclusion
  • Food insecurity and food poverty
  • Emergency food
  • Mental health
  • Poverty
  • Welfare policy
  • Quantitative methods
  • Qualitative methods
Publications

Books

  • Heath AF, Garratt E, Kashyap R, Li Y & Richards L (2018) Social Progress in Britain. Oxford University Press. RIS download Bibtex download

Journal articles

Chapters

  • Garratt E, Flaherty J & Barronr A (2021) Life mapping In Barron A, Browne AL, Ehgartner U, Hall SM, Pottinger L & Ritson J (Ed.), Methods for Change: Impactful social science methodologies for 21st century problems (pp. 142-150). Manchester: Aspect & The University of Manchester.. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download

Book reviews

Reports

Teaching activities

In the 2025-26 academic year, I am teaching on the following modules:

  • EDC108 - Principles in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (module convenor). This module provides PPE students with an understanding of how the disciplines of politics, philosophy, and economics are interrelated, as well as articulate the reasons why PPE is such an exciting interdisciplinary field of study. The module covers key theories and approaches in politics, philosophy, and economics as well as introducing students to the foundational methods used in the study of PPE. This core module is taken by level 1 undergraduates studying Politics, Philosophy, and Economics.

  • EDC206 - Policy Analysis and Programme Evaluation. This module explores the methods of policy analysis and programme evaluation. It covers a range of methods, including (but not limited to) randomised-control trials, methods of causal inference, and qualitative techniques. This core module is taken by level 2 undergraduates studying Politics, Philosophy, and Economics.

  • EDC442 - Principles of Research Design (module convenor). This module addresses the foundations of social research: what needs to be established before a research project can be conducted. I am primarily responsible for the second half (spring semester) of this year-long module, which focuses on what actually happens during and after the process of conducting research. In doing so it covers topics including research ethics, sampling and recruitment, collaboration with other researchers, data analysis, and research dissemination. This core module is taken by students studying for an MA in Social Research.
     

PhD Supervision
Rhiannon Williams: Tackling homelessness in the UK: a data analytics approach (with Prof Gwilym Price and Dr Andy Bell). ESRC-funded Data Analytics and Society CDT, in partnership with Shelter, completed 2023

 
I am interested in supervising enthusiastic and motivated research students in the areas matching my research interests.