Dr Laura Hamilton is a Senior Research Fellow in Food and Social Policy. She is a member of the 'Food, Eating and Inequalities' (FEI) research team in the Centre for Research in Public Health and Community Care (CRIPACC). Her research often involves working in collaboration with local government, schools and third-sector organisations (community groups, charities, NGOs).

Laura uses an interdisciplinary and mixed-methods approach in her research, including the use of secondary data, which broadly focuses on food, inequality and social policy. She is particularly interested in families, young people's food practices, state welfare benefits and 'whole school approaches' for improving school food provision.

Her doctoral research at UCL was linked to the multi-national ERC funded ‘Families and Food in Hard Times’ study. Her thesis focused on the role of family income and other factors (e.g. sex, age, socioeconomic) in understanding young people’s (aged 11-16 years) food and eating practices using a mixed-methods approach, including secondary quantitative analysis of the NDNS, qualitative interviews and visual methods (available here).

Recent Research Projects:

• Adapt-Ed: Whole school intervention to improve food provision in special schools (NIHR Report | Policy Brief)
• The Buckinghamshire 'School Food Partnership' Programme (Final Report)
• Dietary Inequalities and Families with 'No Recourse to Public Funds' (Final Report)

Dr Laura Hamilton is available to supervise postgraduate and doctoral students in the following (or related) areas:

• Food and Eating
• School Food Provision
• Food Poverty and Insecurity
• Dietary and Health Inequalities
• Poverty, Income and State Welfare
• Quantitative or Mixed-Methods Approaches